Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 39

“Karollyne”: The Dog-Rescuing Homeless Encampment in Rio de Janeiro’s Forest

This article, which accompanies Heloisa Passos’ film Karollyne, is the second of a two-part series. The first partis a companion to the film Birdie.

ROUGHLY SEVEN MINUTES AWAY from my house by car, down a mountain road in the middle of the forest of Rio de Janeiro, sitsan encampment in which several homeless people live. Because it’s behind a wall, one can’t see the encampment from the street. But what onedoes see when drivingby, almost always, is a phalanx of dogs in various states of play,...

How Dogs Forge a Bond with Rio’s Homeless That Is Life-Saving for Both

This article, which accompanies Heloisa Passos’ film “Birdie” for Field of Vision, is the first of a two-part series. The second part, accompanying the film “Karollyne,” will be published soon.

AS IS TRUE OFSO MANY CITIESin the western world, there are thousands of homeless people living on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, the second-largest city in Brazil. They include families, children, solitary men and women, the old and the young. Many have been homeless for years with little prospect of an...

Why Is the U.S. Refusing an Independent Investigation If Its Hospital Airstrike Was an “Accident”?

In Geneva this morning, Doctors Without Borders (MSF)demandeda formal, independent investigation into the U.S. airstrike on its hospital in Kunduz. The group’s international president, Dr. Joanne Liu (pictured above, center), specified that the inquiry should be convened pursuant to war crime-investigating procedures established bythe Geneva Conventions and conducted by The International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission.“Even war has rules,” Liu said. “This was just not an attack on our h...

Why Is the U.S. Refusing An Independent Investigation If Its Hospital Airstrike Was An “Accident”?

In Geneva this morning, Doctors Without Borders (MSF)demandeda formal, independent investigation into the U.S. airstrike on its hospital in Kunduz. The group’s international president, Dr. Joanne Liu (pictured above, center), specified that the inquiry should be convened pursuant to war-crime-investigating procedures established bythe Geneva Conventions and conducted by The International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission.“Even war has rules,” Liu said. “This was just not an attack on our h...

The Radically Changing Story of the U.S. Airstrike on Afghan Hospital: From Mistake to Justification

(updated below)

When news first broke of the U.S. airstrike on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, the response from the U.S. military was predictable and familiar. It was all just a big, terrible mistake, its official statement suggested: an airstrike it carried out in Kunduz “may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.” Oops: our bad. Fog of war, errant bombs, and all that.

This obfuscation tactic is the standard one the U.S. and Israel both...

CNN and the NYT Are Deliberately Obscuring Who Perpetrated the Afghan Hospital Attack

Much of the world spent the last 48 hours expressing revulsion at the U.S. airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. It was quite clear early on that the perpetrator of the attack was the U.S., and many media outlets and other organizations around the world have been stating this without anydifficulties.

“U.S. Airstrike Kills 19 at Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan,” states the straightforward Wall Street Journal headline, under which appears this equally clear lede: “A U....

One Day After Warning Russia of Civilian Casualties, the U.S. Bombs a Hospital in Afghanistan

(updated below – Update II – Update III – Update IV – Update V)

Yesterday afternoon, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power marched to Twitter toproclaim: “we call on Russiato immediately cease attacks on Syrian oppo[sition and]civilians.” Along with that decree, she posted a statement from the U.S. and several of its closest authoritarian allies – includingSaudi Arabia, Qatar and the UK – warning Russia that civilian casualties “will only fuel more extremism and radicalization....

U.S. Bombs Somehow Keep Falling in the Places Where Obama “Ended Two Wars”

“We’ve ended two wars.” — Barack Obama, July 21, 2015, at a DSCC fundraiser held at a “private residence”

“Now that we have ended two wars responsibly, and brought home hundreds of American troops, we salute this new generation of veterans.” — National Security Adviser Susan Rice, May 20, 2015

“His presidency makes a potentially great story: the first African-American in the White House, who helped the country recover from recession and ended two wars.” — Dominic Tierney, The Atlantic, Januar...

The Greatest Threat to Campus Free Speech is Coming From Dianne Feinstein and her Military-Contractor Husband

There is no shortage of American pundits who love to denounce “PC”speech codeswhichrestrict and punish the expression of certainideas on college campuses. What these self-styled campus-free-speech crusaderstypically – and quite tellingly – fail to mention is that the most potent such campaigns are oftendevoted to outlawing or otherwise punishing criticisms of Israel. The firing by the University of Illinois of Professor Stephen Salatia for his “uncivil”denunciations of the Israeli war on Gaza...

U.S. State Department “Welcomes” News That Saudi Arabia Will Head U.N. Human Rights Panel

Last week’sannouncement that Saudi Arabia — easily one of the world’s most brutally repressive regimes — was chosen to head a U.N. Human Rights Council panel provoked indignation around the world. That reaction was triggered for obvious reasons.Not only has Saudi Arabia executedmore than 100 people already this year, mostly by beheading (a rate of 1 executionevery two days), and not only is it serially flogging dissidents, but it is reaching new levels of tyrannical depravity as it is about t...