Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 65

The NYT and Obama officials collaborate to prosecute Awlaki after he's executed | Glenn Greenwald

A joint media-government attempt to justify the assassination of a US citizen ends up doing the opposite

The New York Times and the Obama administration have created a disturbing collaborative pattern that asserted itself again on Sunday with the paper's long article purporting to describe the events leading up to the execution by the CIA of US citizen Anwar Awlaki. Time and again, the Obama administration shrouds what it does with complete secrecy, and then uses that secrecy to avoid judicial...

Three Democratic myths used to demean the Paul filibuster | Glenn Greenwald

The progressive 'empathy gap', a strain of liberal authoritarianism, and a distortion of Holder's letter are invoked to defend Obama

Comencing immediately upon the 9/11 attack, the US government under two successive administrations has spent 12 straight years inventing and implementing new theories of government power in the name of Terrorism. Literally every year since 9/11 has ushered in increased authorities of exactly the type Americans are inculcated to believe only exist in those Other,...

This week | Glenn Greenwald

Two guest writers will fill in this week

As I indicated several days ago, I'll be on vacation from this column this week (primarily due to the speaking tour I'm doing, the schedule for which is here: all events are open to the public). We have arranged for two outstanding guest columnists who will post throughout the week: Murtaza Hussain, a Toronto-based writer and foreign policy analyst who has previously filled in for me at Salon, and Kade Crockford, the director of the Technology for Liber...

Bradley Manning: the face of heroism | Glenn Greenwald

The 25-year-old Army Private, this generation's Daniel Ellsberg, pleads guilty today to some charges and explains his actions

(updated [Friday])

In December, 2011, I wrote an Op-Ed in the Guardian arguing that if Bradley Manning did what he is accused of doing, then he is a consummate hero, and deserves a medal and our collective gratitude, not decades in prison. At his court-martial proceeding this afternoon in Fort Meade, Manning, as the Guaridan's Ed Pilkington reports, pleaded guilty to hav...

Ron Fournier's amazing admission about his service to White House officials | Glenn Greenwald

As the trivial though bitter bickering between the White House and press corps intensifies, truths about their relationship emerge

I wrote earlier today about Bob Woodward's revealing criticisms of the Obama White House as part of the trivial but increasingly bitter fight between the White House and the DC press corps. But now, there's an even more extraordinary outburst from National Journal's Ron Fournier, formerly the Washington bureau chief for Associated Press. Fournier has written this i...

Bob Woodward embodies US political culture in a single outburst | Glenn Greenwald

Washington's most celebrated journalist hails the values of militarism, lawlessness, and presidential omnipotence

Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced that it would deploy "only" one aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, rather than the customary two. This move, said the Pentagon, was in preparation for the so-called "sequestration", scheduled to take effect this week, that mandates spending cuts for all agencies, including the Pentagon. This aircraft carrier announcement was all part of...

Supreme Court shields warrantless eavesdropping law from constitutional challenge | Glenn Greenwald

The five right-wing justices hand Obama a victory by accepting his DOJ's secrecy-based demand for dismissal

The Obama justice department succeeded in convincing the five right-wing Supreme Court justices to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 2008 law, the FISA Amendments Act, which vastly expanded the government's authority to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants. In the case of Clapper v. Amnesty International, Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion, released today,...

Is the US maintaining death squads and torture militias in Afghanistan? | Glenn Greenwald

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and local residents insist that the answer is yes

In 2010, as WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of classified documents relating to the conduct of the US government, government defenders dismissively claimed that they revealed nothing new. Among the many documents disproving that claim were ones relating to a US policy in Iraq set forth in "Frago 242", which ordered coalition troops not to stop or even investigate torture and other war crimes by the Iraqi...

Zero Dark Thirty, the CIA and film critics have a very bad evening | Glenn Greenwald

The stigma attached to the pro-torture CIA propaganda vehicle, beloved by film critics, results in Oscar humiliation

Just a few months ago, the consensus of the establishment press and the nation's (shockingly large) community of film critics was that Zero Dark Thirty was the best film of the year and the clear (and well-deserved) front-runner to win the most significant Academy Awards. "OK, folks, you can plan something else for Oscar Night 2013 . . . . Zero Dark Thirty will win Best Picture...

Obama officials refuse to say if assassination power extends to US soil | Glenn Greenwald

The administration's extreme secrecy is beginning to lead Senators to impede John Brennan's nomination to lead the CIA

The Justice Department "white paper" purporting to authorize Obama's power to extrajudicially execute US citizens was leaked three weeks ago. Since then, the administration - including the president himself and his nominee to lead the CIA, John Brennan - has been repeatedly asked whether this authority extends to US soil, i.e., whether the president has the right to execute US...