Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 42

The Spirit of Judy Miller is Alive and Well at the NYT, and It Does Great Damage

One of the very few Iraq War advocatesto pay any price at all was former New York Times reporter Judy Miller, the classicscapegoat. But what was her defining sin? She granted anonymity to government officials and then uncritically laundered their dubious claims in theNew York Times. As the paper’s own editors put it in their 2004 mea culpaabout the role they played in selling the war: “We have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cas...

Max Read’s Moralizing Justification for Gawker’s Vile Article

(updated below)

Last night, Gawker published one of the sleaziest and most repugnant articles seen in quite some time from an outlet of its size and stature. The story had no purpose other than to reveal thatthe male, married-to-a-woman Chief Financial Officer of a magazinecompany – basically an executive accountant – hired a male escort. When the escort discovered the real-life identity of his prospective client – he’sthe brother of a former top Obama official–he began blackmailing the CFOby...

The Chattanooga Shootings: Can Attacking Military Sites of a Nation at War be “Terrorism”?

(updated below)

A gunman yesterdayattacked two military sites in Chattanooga, Tennessee, killing four U.S Marines. Before anything was known about the suspect other thanhis name — Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez — it was instantly and widely declared by the U.S. media to be “terrorism.” An FBIofficial announced at a press briefing: “We will treat this as a terrorism investigation until it can be determined it was not.”

That “terrorism” in U.S. political and media discourse means littlebeyond “vio...

Announcing a Matching Fund Donation to Chelsea Manning’s Legal Defense

I’m both thrilled and proud about our announcement todayof a $60,000 donation in matching funds to Chelsea Manning’s legal defense. First Look Media, publisher of The Intercept, is donating $50,000 of that amount through its Press Freedom Litigation fund, with the other$10,000 donated byme. Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) — the group co-founded by Daniel Ellsberg, Laura Poitras, John Cusack, me and others, whose board of directors now includes Edward Snowden — will oversee and manage th...

Announcing Our Matching Fund Donation to Chelsea Manning’s Legal Defense

I’m both thrilled and proud about our announcement todayof a $60,000 donation in matching funds to Chelsea Manning’s legal defense. First Look Media, publisher of The Intercept, is donating $50,000 of that amount through its Press Freedom Litigation fund, with the other$10,000 donated byme. Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) — the group co-founded by Daniel Ellsberg, Laura Poitras, John Cusack, me and others, whose board of directors now includes Edward Snowden — will oversee and manage th...

Iranians’ View of the Nuclear Deal: Optimistic, With Significant Caveats

U.S. media coverage of the Iran deal is, as usual, overwhelmingly focused on American and Israeli voices, with the hard-linerfanaticsin each country issuing apocalyptic decrees, insisting that the deal is far too lenient on Iranand provides it with far too many benefits. Though largely excluded from U.S. media discussions, there is also substantial debate among Iranians about the virtues of the deal, with most viewing it positivelydue to the economic benefits it is expected to provide, but wi...

On the One-Year Anniversary of Israel’s Attack on Gaza: An Interview with Max Blumenthal

One year ago today, Israelinvaded, bombed and shelled Gaza, and continued to do that for the next seven weeks. According to the U.N., at least 2,104 Gazans were killed — 1,462 of whom (69 percent) were civilians, including 495 children. A total of 6 Israeli civilians, and 66 soldiers, were killed. The shockingly high civilian death rate in Gaza included the now-iconic imagery of four young boys from the same family being killed by Israeli warshipswhile they played on a beach in front of a hot...

TRANSCRIPT: An Interview with Max Blumenthal on the One Year Anniversary of Israel’s Attack on Gaza

This is the full transcript of ourinterview with Max Blumenthal. To listen to the audio, click here.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

GREENWALD: This is Glenn Greenwald with The Intercept, and my guest today is Max Blumenthal, who, among other things, is the author of a brand new book entitled The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza. Hey Max, thanks so much for taking the time to chat.

BLUMENTHAL: Great to be on with you, Glenn.

GREENWALD: Yeah, you too. So, the reason I wante...

Tony Blair and the Self-Exalting Mindset of the West: in Two Paragraphs

Tony Blair today took a little time off from serving the world’s despots in order to exploit the10thanniversary of the July 7 London train bombing. He did so by casting blame on “radicalIslam” for the world’s violence while exempting himself, pronouncing:

This is a global problem … we’re not going to allow anyone to excuse themselves by saying that the slaughter of totally innocent people is somehow a response to any decision by any government.

The propositionBlair just decreed invalid— “the...

Today’s Civilian Victims in Yemen Will be Ignored Because U.S. and its Allies Are Responsible

In Fayoush, Yemen this morning, just outside of Aden, “a massive airstrike” hit a marketplace and killed at least 45 civilians, woundinganother 50. Officials told the AP that “bodies were strewn about following the strike.” The bombing was carried out by what is typically referred to as a “Saudi-led coalition”; it is rarely mentioned in Western media reports that the U.S. is providing very substantial supportto this “Saudi-led” war in Yemen, now in its fifth month, which has repeatedly, reckl...