Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 26

Brazil Congress’ Sneak Grab at Self-Amnesty Shows the Deep Corruption of Its New Ruling Faction

In a move that shocked even the most longtime, jadedobservers of corrupt Brasília plotting, the leaders of the House of Deputies late last night attempted to sneak into their votingschedule a sleazy bill that would grant themselves amnesty from having violated campaign finance laws. This happened with Brazil’sinstalled president, Michel Temer, out of the country speaking this morning atthe U.N. (where he remarkably praised impeachment as a “model” against corruption as he was surrounded by hi...

WashPost Makes History: First Paper to Call for Prosecution of Its Own Source (After Accepting Pulitzer)

Three of thefour media outlets thatreceived and published large numbers of secret NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden —The Guardian,the New York Times, and The Intercept–– have called for the U.S. government to allow the NSA whistleblowerto return to the U.S. with no charges. That’s the normalcourse for a news organization, which owes its sources duties of protection, and which — by virtue of accepting the source’s materials and then publishing them — implicitly declares the source’s inf...

Rio’s Far-Right Candidate in Photos With Accused Police Pedophile, Threatens to Sue Anyone Sharing Them

Brazilian Congressman Jair Bolsonaro is his country’s Donald Trump, with two important differences: 1) he’s an even more extreme hate-monger than his American counterpart; and 2) he has numerous sons who are carbon copies of himand have used their dynastic advantages to get elected to their own political offices throughout the country. As a result, the Bolsonaro family now spearheads a radical, nationwide, proto-fascist, alarmingly growing movement in Brazilgrounded in evangelical fervor, übe...

Hillary Clinton: Boycotting North Carolina Is Noble and Just; Boycotting Israel Is Bigoted and Hateful

Hillary Clinton, in a June 2, 2015, letter to billionaire donor and Israel supporter Haim Saban:

“I am writing to express my alarm over the boycott, divestment, and sanction [BDS] movement. … I know you agree that we need to make countering BDS a priority. … I am seeking your advice on how we can work together — across party lines and with a diverse array of voices — to reverse this trend with information and advocacy, and fight back against further attempts to isolate and delegitimize Israel...

Facebook Is Collaborating With the Israeli Government to Determine What Should Be Censored

Last week, a majorcensorship controversy eruptedwhen Facebookbegan deleting all posts containing the iconic photograph of theVietnamese “Napalm Girl” on theground that it violated the company’s ban on “child nudity.” Facebookeven deleted a post from the prime minister of Norway, who posted the photographin protest of the censorship. As outrage spread, Facebook ultimately reversed itself — acknowledging “the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time...

Barbara Lee’s Lone Vote on Sept. 14, 2001, Was as Prescient as It Was Brave and Heroic

Almost immediately after the 9/11 attack, while bodies were still buried in the rubble, George W. Bushdemanded from Congress the legal authorization to use military force against those responsible for the attack, which everyone understood would start with an invasion of Afghanistan. The resulting resolution that was immediately cooked upwas both vague and broad, providing that “the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or pers...

What’s Behind Barack Obama’s Ongoing Accommodation of Vladimir Putin?

When a major party cynically espousesaset of beliefsas a tactic for winning an election, those beliefs get entrenched in popular discourse and often endure well past the election, with very significant consequences. The most significant such rhetorical templatein the 2016 election — other than the new Democratic claimthat big-money donations do not corrupt the political process — is that Russia is a Grave Enemy of the U.S.;anyone who advocates better relations or less tension with Moscow is a...

The Unrelenting Pundit-Led Effort to Delegitimize All Negative Reporting About Hillary Clinton

In hisNew York Timescolumn yesterday, Paul Krugman did something thathe made clear he regarded as quitebrave: He defended the Democratic Party presidential nominee and likely next U.S. president from journalistic investigations. Complaining about media bias, Krugman claimed that journalists are driven by “the presumption that anything Hillary Clinton does must be corrupt, most spectacularly illustrated by the increasingly bizarre coverage of the Clinton Foundation.” While generously acknowled...

Congressional Democrats Call on FBI to Investigate Their Political Adversaries’ Kremlin Ties

Leading House Democrats on Tuesdaysent a letter to FBI Director James Comey, which they promptly published, asking the agency to investigate whether the Trump campaign and the Russian government have entered into a joint plot “to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.” Although the House Democrats say they do not know whether such a conspiracy with Moscow exists, they saythat “serious questions have been raised” — specifically about whether Trump supporters worked in tandem with Kreml...

Video: Dilma Rousseff’s Impeachment Trial Nears an End, Endangering Brazilian Democracy

During the Olympics, Brazil’s “interim president,” Michel Temer,fearing boos, broke protocol by demanding that his name not be announced when he appeared at the opening ceremony (he was widely booed anyway) and then hid entirely by skipping the closing ceremony. By stark contrast, the nation’s actually elected president, Dilma Rousseff, chose to go to the Senate today to confronther accusers, as the gang of corrupt operatives and criminals constituting the Brazilian Senate moves to the end of...