Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 57

The journalistic practices of the Washington Post and Walter Pincus | Glenn Greenwald

Fifteen hours after acknowledging that an innuendo-filled article is factually false, the Post still has not corrected it

(updated below - Update II)

On Monday night - roughly 36 hours ago from this moment - the Washington Post published an article by its long-time reporter Walter Pincus. The article concocted a frenzied and inane conspiracy theory: that it was WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, working in secret with myself and Laura Poitras, who masterminded the Snowden leaks ahead of time and dir...

Edward Snowden: US surveillance 'not something I'm willing to live under'

In second part of Glenn Greenwald interview, NSA whistleblower insists he is a patriot who regards the US as fundamentally good

Edward Snowden predicted more than a month ago while still in hiding in Hong Kong that the US government would seek to demonise him, telling the Guardian that he would be accused of aiding America's enemies.

In the second instalment of an interview carried out before he revealed himself as the NSA whistleblower, Snowden insisted that he was a patriot and that he regard...

The Snowden video sequel and Brazil fallout | Glenn Greenwald

The worldwide debate over US surveillance which the NSA whistleblower was eager to provoke is clearly emerging

Whistleblowers are typically rendered incommunicado, either because they're in hiding, or advised by their lawyers to stay silent, or imprisoned. As a result, the public hears only about them, but never from them, which makes their demonization virtually inevitable. With that fact in mind, we published - almost a month ago - a 10-minute video interview with Edward Snowden to enable pe...

Edward Snowden: 'The US government will say I aided our enemies' – video interview

In the second part of an exclusive interview with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden contemplates the reaction from the US government to his revelations of top secret documents regarding its spying operations on domestic and foreign internet traffic, email and phone use

Glenn GreenwaldLaura Poitras

The NSA's mass and indiscriminate spying on Brazilians | Glenn Greenwald

As it does in many non-adversarial countries, the surveillance agency is bulk collecting the communications of millions of citizens of Brazil

I've written an article on NSA surveillance for the front page of the Sunday edition of O Globo, the large Brazilian newspaper based in Rio de Janeiro. The article is headlined (translated) "US spied on millions of emails and calls of Brazilians", and I co-wrote it with Globo reporters Roberto Kaz and Jose Casado. The rough translation of the article int...

James Clapper, EU play-acting, and political priorities | Glenn Greenwald

Fixations on denouncing Edward Snowden distract, by design, from the serious transgressions of those who are far more powerful

The NSA revelations continue to expose far more than just the ongoing operations of that sprawling and unaccountable spying agency. Let's examine what we have learned this week about the US political and media class and then certain EU leaders.

The first NSA story to be reported was our June 6 article which exposed the bulk, indiscriminate collection by the US Governmen...

Speaking on NSA stories, Snowden and journalism | Glenn Greenwald

Discussing the implications of the last four week's of articles, revelations and debates

Last night, I gave my first speech on the NSA stories, Edward Snowden and related issues of journalism, delivered to the Socialism 2013 Conference in Chicago. Because it was my first speech since the episode began, it was the first time I was able to pause a moment and reflect on everything that has taken place and what the ramifications are. I was originally scheduled to speak live but was unable to trave...

NSA collected Americans' email records in bulk for two years under Obama

• Secret program launched by Bush continued 'until 2011'
• Fisa court renewed collection order every 90 days
• Current NSA programs still mine US internet metadata

The Obama administration for more than two years permitted the National Security Agency to continue collecting vast amounts of records detailing the email and internet usage of Americans, according to secret documents obtained by the Guardian.

The documents indicate that under the program, launched in 2001, a federal judge sitting on t...

How the NSA is still harvesting your online data

Files show vast scale of current NSA metadata programs, with one stream alone celebrating 'one trillion records processed'

A review of top-secret NSA documents suggests that the surveillance agency still collects and sifts through large quantities of Americans' online data – despite the Obama administration's insistence that the program that began under Bush ended in 2011.

Shawn Turner, the Obama administration's director of communications for National Intelligence, told the Guardian that "the...

The personal side of taking on the NSA: emerging smears | Glenn Greenwald

Distractions about my past and personal life have emerged – an inevitable side effect for those who challenge the US government

When I made the choice to report aggressively on top-secret NSA programs, I knew that I would inevitably be the target of all sorts of personal attacks and smears. You don't challenge the most powerful state on earth and expect to do so without being attacked. As a superb Guardian editorial noted today: "Those who leak official information will often be denounced, pro...