Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 41

Hillary Clinton on the Sanctity of Protecting Classified Information

It turns out thatat least two of the emails whichtraversed Hillary Clinton’s personal email account and server were “top secret,” according to theinspector general for the Intelligence Community as reported by McClatchy. To describe that as reckless is an understatement given that, as AP notes, “There is no evidence she used encryption to shield the emails or her personal server from foreign intelligence services or other potentially prying eyes.” The FBI has now taken possession of that serv...

Democrats Continue to Delude Themselves About Obama’s Failed Guantánamo Vow

As everyone knows, “closing Guantánamo” was a centerpiece of the 2008 Obamacampaign. In the Senate and then in the presidential campaign, Obama repeatedly and eloquently railed against the core, defining evil of Guantánamo: indefinite detention.

On the Senate floor, Obama passionately intoned in 2006: “As a parent, I can also imagine the terror I would feel if one of my family members were rounded up in the middle of the night and sent to Guantánamo without even getting one chance to ask why...

A Quiz for the West’s Great Free Speech Advocates and Supporters of Anjem Choudary’s Arrest

(updated below)

As we all know ever since the inspiringparade in Paris following the Charlie Hebdo attack, “free speech” is a cherished and sacred right in the west even for the most provocative and controversial views (of course, if “free speech” does not allow expression ofthe most provocative and controversial views, then, by definition, it does not exist). But yesterday in the UK, the British-born Muslim extremistAnjem Choudary, who has a long history of spouting noxious views,was arreste...

To Defend Iran Deal, Obama Boasts That He’s Bombed Seven Countries

President Obama yesterday spoke in defense of the Iran deal at American University, launching anunusually blunt and aggressive attack on deal opponents. Obama’sblistering criticisms aimed at the Israeli government and its neocon supporters were accurate and unflinching, including the obvious fact that what they really crave is regime change and war. Aboutopposition to the deal from the Israeli government, he said: “It would be an abrogation of my constitutional duty to act against my best jud...

To Defend Iran Deal, Obama Boasts that He’s Bombed Seven Countries

President Obama yesterday spoke in defense of the Iran Deal at American University, launching anunusually blunt and aggressive attack on deal opponents. Obama’sblistering criticisms aimed at the Israeli government and its neocon supporters were accurate and unflinching, including the obvious fact that what they really crave is regime change and war. Aboutopposition to the deal from the Israeli government, he said: “it would be an abrogation of my constitutional duty to act against my best jud...

U.S. Government Celebrates Its Arming of the Egyptian Regime With a YouTube Video

The Egyptian regime run by thedespotic General Abdelfattah al-Sisi is one of the world’s most brutal and repressive.Last year,Human Rights Watch documented thatthat Egyptian “security forces have carried out mass arrests and torture that harken back to the darkest days of former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule.” Just two months ago, the group warned that the abuses have “escalated,” and that Sisi, “governing by decree in the absence of an elected parliament, ha[s] provided near total impunity...

Listen to WSJ’s Bret Stephens Secretly Plot With “Pro-Israel” Evangelical Group Against Iran Deal

The fanatical Israel-devoted group Christians United for Israel, which “the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States with over two million members,” yesterday held an off-the-record call to formulate strategies for defeating the pending nuclear deal with Iran. The star of the show wastheWall Street Journal’s longtimeforeign affairs columnist and deputy editorial page editor Bret Stephens, who spoke for roughly 30 minutes. Arecording of thiscall was provided toThe Inter...

Dylann Roof Is Not a “Terrorist” — But Animal Rights Activists Who Free Minks From Slaughter Are

The FBI on Friday announced the arrests in Oakland of two animal rights activists, Joseph Buddenberg and Nicole Kissane, and accused thepairof engaging in “domestic terrorism.” This comes less than a month after the FBI director said he does not considerCharleston Church murderer Dylann Roof a“terrorist.” The activists’ alleged crimes: “They released thousands of minks from farms around the country and vandalized various properties.” That’s it. Now they’re being prosecuted and explicitly vili...

A Crucial Realization About Journalism is Learned by Being its Subject

In the early 1990s, my fatherhad an outlook-altering experience. A life-long South Florida accountant for individuals and small businesses, he had no involvement in politics and harbored a basic patriotic trust for American institutions, including its media — the type of uncritical faithwe’re taught to have and easily adopt if we’re not paying close attention. But then one of his accounting clients, a manager of a Native American casino, ended up in a public business dispute with the tribe th...

NBC News Releases the Long-Awaited Trailer for its Summer Horror Film About ISIS

Duringa discussion yesterday in Aspen with even-more-sycophantic-than-usual CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, FBI Director James Comey somberly warned that ISIS now officially poses a bigger threat to the“U.S. homeland” than the one posed by formertitle-holderAl Qaeda — because, of course, the Latest Threat must always be the Greatest Threat. Comey also saidthat the previousbigger-than-Al-Qaeda contender, “The Khorasan Group,” has been “diminished” by “the work done by our great military”— because the...