Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 60

Drone attacks continue, the FBI killed an unarmed witness, and Obama aides cash in | Glenn Greenwald

A video informally titled "the care and feeding of a young imperial bureaucrat" viscerally conveys the rot that is Washington

(updated below)

The combination of extensive travel and being quite consumed with a story I'm working on has prevented me from writing for the last couple of days. As the comment section to the prior column has apparently closed, I'm noting here a few very brief items. Regular posting should resume tomorrow.

(1) A mere six days after President Obama's much heralded terror...

Obama's new FBI chief approved Bush's NSA warrantless wiretapping scheme | Glenn Greenwald

James Comey becomes just the latest symbol of the Obama legacy: normalizing what was very recently viewed as radical

(updated below - Update II - Update III)

One of the biggest scandals of the Bush administration (which is really saying something) began on December 16, 2005. That was when the New York Times' James Risen and Eric Lichtblau were finally allowed to reveal what they had learned more than a year earlier: namely, that President Bush, in 2002, had ordered the National Security Agency...

Will journalists take any steps to defend against attacks on press freedom? | Glenn Greenwald

Media outlets have awakened to the serious threats posed to journalism, but show little sign of doing anything about it

(updated below - Update II)

Media outlets and journalists have finally awakened to the serious threat posed by the Obama administration to press freedoms, whistle blowing and transparency. Apparently, what was necessary for them to be prodded out of their slumber was watching have their emails secretly seized and be accused of serious felo...

Obama's terrorism speech: seeing what you want to see | Glenn Greenwald

Some eager-to-believe progressives heralded the speech as a momentous change, but Obama's actions are often quite different than his rhetoric

The hallmark of a skilled politician is the ability to speak to a group of people holding widely disparate views, and have all of them walk away believing they heard what they wanted to hear. Other than Bill Clinton, I've personally never seen a politician even in the same league as Barack Obama when it comes to that ability. His most consequential speec...

Andrew Sullivan, terrorism, and the art of distortion | Glenn Greenwald

Challenging the conventional western narrative on terrorism produces unique amounts of rage and bile. It's worth examining why

(updated below)

Everyone who participates in political debates sometimes has their arguments publicly misrepresented. Like many writers, if I noted and refuted every case where that happened to me, I would have time for nothing else. But sometimes the distortions are so fundamental and obvious - as well as pernicious - that they are worth examining. I had intended to wr...

Was the London killing of a British soldier 'terrorism'? | Glenn Greenwald

What definition of the term includes this horrific act of violence but excludes the acts of the US, the UK and its allies?

(updated below)

Two men yesterday engaged in a horrific act of violence on the streets of London by using what appeared to be a meat cleaver to hack to death a British soldier. In the wake of claims that the assailants shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the killing, and a video showing one of the assailants citing Islam as well as a desire to avenge and stop continuous UK violen...

Was the London machete killing of a British soldier 'terrorism'? | Glenn Greenwald

What definition of the term includes this horrific act of violence but excludes the acts of the US, the UK and its allies?

Two men yesterday engaged in a horrific act of violence on the streets of London by using a machete to hack to death a British soldier. In the wake of claims that the assailants shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the killing, and a video showing one of the assailants citing Islam as well as a desire to avenge and stop continuous UK violence against Muslims, media outlets (inclu...

Al Jazeera deletes its own controversial Op-Ed, then refuses to comment | Glenn Greenwald

The bizarre behavior by the media giant reflects brewing tensions as it seeks to enter the US television market

(updated below)

Last Tuesday, Al Jazeera English published a lengthy Op-Ed by Columbia professor and Middle East scholar Joseph Massad entitled "The Last of the Semites". Massad's argument was obviously controversial: he highlighted the shared goal between the early Zionist movement and Europe's anti-Jewish bigots (namely, the removal of Jews from the continent), detailed the cooperat...

Obama DOJ formally accuses journalist in leak case of committing crimes | Glenn Greenwald

Yet another serious escalation of the Obama administration's attacks on press freedoms emerges

(updated below - Update II - Update III)

It is now well known that the Obama justice department has prosecuted more government leakers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined - in fact, double the number of all such prior prosecutions. But as last week's controversy over the DOJ's pursuit of the phone records of AP reporters illustrated, this obsessive fixation in defense...

Washington gets explicit: its 'war on terror' is permanent | Glenn Greenwald

Senior Obama officials tell the US Senate: the 'war', in limitless form, will continue for 'at least' another decade - or two

Last October, senior Obama officials anonymously their newly minted "disposition matrix", a complex computer system that will be used to determine how a terrorist suspect will be "disposed of": indefinite detention, prosecution in a real court, assassination-by-CIA-drones, etc. Their rationale for why this was needed now, a full 12 years...