Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 76

Obama officials' spin on Benghazi attack mirrors Bin Laden raid untruths | Glenn Greenwald

In a familiar pattern, White House claims about what motivated the killing of the US ambassador in Libya are now contradicted

Almost immediately after President Obama announced the killing of Osama bin Laden, top government officials, including then-CIA Director Leon Panetta and top terrorism adviser John Brennan, made numerous false statements about what took place. That included the claim that Bin Laden was killed after he engaged in a "firefight", that he used his wife as a human shield to...

Various matters: cyberwar, last gasps, and hate speech | Glenn Greenwald

An Obama official seems to justify an Iranian attack on the US; Panetta channels Cheney; Tom Friedman writes from expertise

There are several brief matters worth noting today:

1) It seems that a leading Obama official just endorsed the right of Iran to attack the US and Israel:

The Washington Post, today ("US official says cyberattacks can trigger self-defense rule"):

"Cyberattacks can amount to armed attacks triggering the right of self-defense and are subject to international laws of war, the S...

Unlike Afghan leaders, Obama fights for power of indefinite military detention | Glenn Greenwald

Obama lawyers file a breathless, angry appeal against the court ruling that invalidated the NDAA's chilling 2011 detention law

In May, something extremely rare happened: a federal court applied the US constitution to impose some limits on the powers of the president. That happened when federal district court judge Katherine Forrest of the southern district of New York, an Obama appointee, preliminarily barred enforcement of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the statute enacted by...

Conservatives, Democrats and the convenience of denouncing free speech | Glenn Greenwald

Westerners love to decry censorship aimed at them by Muslims while ignoring the extreme censorship they impose on them

[Updated below]

Nothing tests one's intellectual honesty and ability to apply principles consistently more than free speech controversies. It is exceedingly easy to invoke free speech values in defense of political views you like. It is exceedingly difficult to invoke them in defense of views you loathe. But the true test for determining the authenticity of one's belief in free...

US media angrily marvels at the lack of Muslim gratitude | Glenn Greenwald

NBC News, along with a leading US newspaper, insist that Egyptians should be grateful to the US for having 'freed' them

One prominent strain shaping American reaction to the protests in the Muslim world is bafflement, and even anger, that those Muslims are not more grateful to the US. After all, goes this thinking, the US bestowed them with the gifts of freedom and democracy – the very rights they are now exercising – so how could they possibly be anything other than thankful? Under this world...

Vanity Fair gives quote approval power to White House for Obama profile | Glenn Greenwald

The magazine's writer, Michael Lewis, sets out to profile the president but unwittingly reveals more about himself and his profession

[Updated below]

Vanity Fair just published a lengthy profile of Barack Obama by Michael Lewis, a profile he was able to write by "hanging around Barack Obama for six months, in the White House, aboard Air Force One, and on the basketball court". How did Lewis get such extensive, unfettered access to the President? In large part, it was by agreeing that he would g...

The tragic consulate killings in Libya and America's hierarchy of human life | Glenn Greenwald

The murder of American staff over a hate film is an unmitigated wrong. But so are deaths caused by the US that go unremarked

Protesters attacked the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Tuesday night and killed four Americans, including the US ambassador, Chris Stevens. The attacks were triggered by rage over an amateurish and deeply hateful film about Islam that depicted the Prophet Muhammad as, among other things, a child molester advocate, a bloodthirsty goon, a bumbling idiot, and a promiscu...

Another Guantánamo prisoner death highlights Democrats' hypocrisy policy | Glenn Greenwald

With closing Guantánamo given up as a lost cause, Obama's policy has moved onto assassination rather than detention

A detainee at Guantánamo was found dead in his cell on Saturday, according to camp officials. He is the ninth person to die at the camp since it was opened more than ten years ago. As former Gitmo guard Brandon Neely pointed out Monday, more detainees have died at the camp (nine) than have been convicted of wrongdoing by its military commissions (six). This is the fourth detainee...

America's refusal to extradite Bolivia's ex-president to face genocide charges | Glenn Greenwald

Obama justice officials have all but granted asylum to Sánchez de Lozada – a puppet who payrolled key Democratic advisers

[Updated below]

In October 2003, the intensely pro-US president of Bolivia, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, sent his security forces to suppress growing popular protests against the government's energy and globalization policies. Using high-powered rifles and machine guns, his military forces killed 67 men, women and children, and injured 400 more, almost all of whom were poor an...

Democrats parade Osama bin Laden's corpse as their proudest achievement | Glenn Greenwald

It's one thing for Democrats to fete Obama's tougher-than-thou national security credentials, but this ghoulish jingoism is warped

[Updated below - Update II]

One of the formative events shaping my views of the last decade's American political landscape was watching the 2004 Republican national convention. An expertly staged, supremely manipulative ritual of jingoism and leader-worship, I regarded it with an equal measure of awe and horror.

America's militarism was continuously exploited by spe...