Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 62

Bradley Manning is off limits at SF Gay Pride parade, but corporate sleaze is embraced | Glenn Greenwald

A seemingly trivial controversy reveals quite a bit about pervasive political values

News reports that Bradley Manning, widely known to be gay, had been selected to be one of the Grand Marshals of the annual San Francisco gay pride parade, named by the LGBT Pride Celebration Committee. When the , the president of the Board of SF Pride, Lisa L Williams, quickly capitulated, issuing a cowardly, imperious statement that has to be read to be...

Bill Moyers interview on Boston Marathon bombing | Glenn Greenwald

Talking to the PBS host about civil liberties, terrorism, US foreign policy and the dangers of secrecy

(updated below)

Time constraints are preventing me from writing much today, but the full 25-minute interview I did with Bill Moyers, to air beginning this evening on PBS, is now available on the recorder below. We discuss the Boston Marathon bombing, terrorism and civil liberties, the dangers of secrecy, US foreign policy and general issues relating to US political and media culture:

UPDATE

Cour...

The same motive for anti-US 'terrorism' is cited over and over | Glenn Greenwald

Ignoring the role played by US actions is dangerously self-flattering and self-delusional

(updated below - Update II - Update III)

News reports purporting to describe what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told US interrogators should, for several reasons, be taken with a huge grain of salt. The sources for this information are anonymous, they work for the US government, the statements were obtained with no lawyer present and no Miranda warnings given, and Tsarnaev is "grievously wounded", presumably quite med...

Why is Boston 'terrorism' but not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson and Columbine | Glenn Greenwald

Can an act of violence be called 'terrorism' if the motive is unknown?

(updated below - Update II)

Two very disparate commentators, Ali Abunimah and Alan Dershowitz, both raised serious questions over the weekend about a claim that has been made over and over about the bombing of the Boston Marathon: namely, that this was an act of terrorism. Dershowitz was on BBC Radio on Saturday and, citing the lack of knowledge about motive, said (at the 3:15 mark): "It's not even clear under the federal te...

What rights should Dzhokhar Tsarnaev get and why does it matter? | Glenn Greenwald

The Obama DOJ says it intends to question the Boston bombing suspect "extensively" without first Mirandizing him

Shortly before Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, an American citizen, was apprehended last night, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham advocated on Twitter that the Boston Marathon bombing suspect be denied what most Americans think of as basic rights. "If captured," Graham wrote, I hope [the] Administration will at least consider holding the Boston suspect as [an] enemy combatant for intelligence gathering pu...

US torture 'indisputable', CNN's humiliation, and Iran sanctions | Glenn Greenwald

Two separate bipartisan reports with surprising pronouncements, and a cable news debacle, highlight similar themes

(updated below - Update II)

Today is a travel day for me, so I'll use this opportunity to note some brief though significant items:

(1) It's hardly news that the US instituted and for years maintained a systematic torture regime, but the success of the Obama administration in blocking all judicial proceedings has meant there has been no official decree that this is so. A comprehensi...

The Boston bombing produces familiar and revealing reactions | Glenn Greenwald

As usual, the limits of selective empathy, the rush to blame Muslims, and the exploitation of fear all instantly emerge

There's not much to say about Monday's Boston Marathon attack because there is virtually no known evidence regarding who did it or why. There are, however, several points to be made about some of the widespread reactions to this incident. Much of that reaction is all-too-familiar and quite revealing in important ways:

(1) The widespread compassion for yesterday's victims and t...

Obama, Guantanamo, and the enduring national shame | Glenn Greenwald

One of the most powerful Op-eds ever published in the NYT, by a Yemeni detainee, underscores the president's role in this travesty

(updated below)

The New York Times this morning deserves credit for publishing one of the most powerful Op-Eds you will ever read. I urge you to read it in its entirety: it's by Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, a Yemeni national who has been imprisoned at Guantánamo without charges of any kind for more than 11 years. He's one of the detainees participating in the escala...

Barbara Boxer, AIPAC seek to codify Israel's right to discriminate against Americans | Glenn Greenwald

A bill introduced by the California Democrat would uniquely exempt Israel from long-standing requirements imposed on all other nations

(updated below - Update II)

In order for the US to permit citizens of a foreign country to enter the US without a visa, that country must agree to certain conditions. Chief among them is reciprocity: that country must allow Americans to enter without a visa as well. There are 37 countries which have been permitted entrance into America's "visa waiver" program, a...

Three key lessons from the Obama administration's drone lies | Glenn Greenwald

The axiom that political officials abuse their power and lie to the public when operating in the dark is proven yet again

For years, senior Obama officials, including the president himself, have been making public claims about their drone program that have just been proven to be categorically false. The evidence of this falsity is so conclusive that even establishment sources are using unusually harsh language - including "lies" - to describe Obama's statements. McClatchy's national security r...