Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 72

The 'both-sides-are-awful' dismissal of Gaza ignores the key role of the US government | Glenn Greenwald

The temptation to wash one's hands of the whole conflict is understandable, but US support of Israel is a central force driving it all

Everything about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict follows the same pattern over and over, including the reaction of Americans. In the first couple of days after a new round of violence breaks out, there is intense interest and passion, which is quickly replaced by weariness, irritation, and even anger that one has to be bothered by this never-ending, always-ugl...

US battles Iraq and Afghanistan over detention without charges | Glenn Greenwald

The Obama administration fights to spread its own values on the core, fundamental right of due process

For several decades, the US government - in annual "human rights" reports issued by the State Department (reports mandated by the US Congress) - has formally condemned nations around the globe for the practice of indefinite detention: imprisoning people without charges or any fixed sentence. These reports, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her preface to last year's document, are gro...

Stop pretending the US is an uninvolved, helpless party in the Israeli assault on Gaza | Glenn Greenwald

The Obama administration's unstinting financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel is a key enabling force in the conflict

(updated below)

A central premise of US media coverage of the Israeli attack on Gaza - beyond the claim that Israel is justifiably "defending itself" - is that this is some endless conflict between two foreign entitles, and Americans can simply sit by helplessly and lament the tragedy of it all. The reality is precisely the opposite: Israeli aggression is possible...

Obama's kill list policy compels US support for Israeli attacks on Gaza | Glenn Greenwald

The US was once part of the international consensus against extra-judicial assassinations. Now it is a leader in that tactic.

(updated below)

Israel's escalating air attacks on Gaza follow the depressingly familiar pattern that shapes this conflict. Overwhelming Israeli force slaughters innocent Palestinians, including children, which is preceded (and followed) by far more limited rocket attacks into Israel which kill a much smaller number, rocket attacks which are triggered by various forms of...

FBI's abuse of the surveillance state is the real scandal needing investigation | Glenn Greenwald

That the stars of America's national security establishment are being devoured by out-of-control surveillance is a form of sweet justice

The Petraeus scandal is receiving intense media scrutiny obviously due to its salacious aspects, leaving one, as always, to fantasize about what a stellar press corps we would have if they devoted a tiny fraction of this energy to dissecting non-sex political scandals (this unintentionally amusing New York Times headline from this morning - "Concern Grows Ove...

Petraeus scandal is reported with compelled veneration of all things military | Glenn Greenwald

The reverence for the former CIA Director is part of a wider religious-like worship of the national security state.

A prime rule of US political culture is that nothing rivets, animates or delights the political media like a sex scandal. From Bill Clinton, Gary Hart, and Eliot Spitzer to John Edwards, Larry Craig and David Vitter, their titillation and joy is palpable as they revel in every last arousing detail. This giddy package is delivered draped in a sanctimonious wrapping: their exciteme...

CNN claims Iran shot at a US drone, revealing the news networks' mindset | Glenn Greenwald

Its Pentagon reporter parrots significant, inflammatory government claims without an iota of skepticism or balance

(updated below)

Barbara Starr, CNN's Pentagon reporter (more accurately known as: the Pentagon's reporter at CNN), has an exciting exclusive today. Exclusively relying upon "three senior officials" in the Obama administration (all anonymous, needless to say), she claims that "two Iranian Su-25 fighter jets fired on an unarmed US Air Force Predator drone in the Persian Gulf last wee...

Obama and progressives: what will liberals do with their big election victory? | Glenn Greenwald

With fights over social security, Medicare, ongoing war, and other key progressive priorities looming, what will they do with their new power?

The greatest and most enduring significance of Tuesday night's election results will likely not be the re-election of Barack Obama, but rather what the outcome reflects about the American electorate. It was not merely Democrats, but liberalism, which was triumphant.

To begin with, it is hard to overstate just how crippled America's right-wing is. Althoug...

Discovering a truly exciting Obama and five other things to note on election day | Glenn Greenwald

The long national nightmare - at least one of them - will come to an end tonight, hopefully.

Today, as you may have heard, is Election Day in the US. Here are a few notes about that:

(1) Ponder how great it would be if one could vote for the imaginary/fantasy Obama which, alas, sadly exists only in the paranoid imagination of those who populate the fever-swamps of the right-wing: the Kenyan anti-colonialist on the angry warpath against American militarism and oligarchy, engineering Apology Tour...

US Muslim placed on no-fly list is unable to see his ailing mother | Glenn Greenwald

Despite never having been charged with any crime, an Air Force veteran is effectively exiled from his own country

In April of this year, Saadiq Long, a 43-year-old African-American Muslim who now lives in Qatar, purchased a ticket on KLM Airlines to travel to Oklahoma, the state where he grew up. Long, a 10-year veteran of the US Air Force, had learned that the congestive heart failure from which his mother suffers had worsened, and she was eager to see her son. He had last seen his mother and...