Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 82

Two-tiered justice

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The paperback version of my last book,With Liberty and Justice for Some, was released yesterday. Those who wish to do so can obtain it hereor here (an excerpt can be read by clicking on the book cover on thee Amazon page).

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Dianne Feinstein targets press freedom

The supreme Senate defender of state secrecy and the Surveillance State, California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, yesterday issued a statement to Australia's largest newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald, demanding (once again) the prosecution of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. To see how hostile Feinstein is to basic press freedoms, permit me to change "Assange" each time it appears in her statement to "The New York Times":

The head of the US Senate's powerful intelligence oversight committee has r...

Challenging the Surveillance State

I'm traveling this week in connection with the release of the paperback of With Liberty and Justice for Some, so writing every day may be difficult. In the meantime, here are the first four segments of the speech I gave in Chicago on Friday night on Challenging the Surveillance State (if you can only watch one, the fourth segment -- on the harms from ubiquitous surveillance -- is the one I'd recommend). I will post the video of the excellent audience discussion that followed once it is availa...

Tea Party “treason”

The ThinkProgress blog today accuses a U.S. citizen -- the Chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party, Roy Nicholson -- of treason; says ThinkProgress (emphasis in original):

Of all the right-wing meltdowns following yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act,this statementput out by the chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party may take the cake:

When a gang of criminals subvert legitimate government offices and seize all power to themselves wi...

CNN journalist: don’t be nosy

LZ Granderson is a regular CNN columnist and contributor, and has written a column this week that -- no joke -- urges Americans to stop being so "nosy" about all the bad things the U.S. Government does. You just have to read it to believe it:

We are a nosy country.

Though to be fair, it's not entirely our fault. Between the 24/7 news cycle, social media and reality TV, we have been spoon fed other people's private business for so long we now assume it's a given to know everything. And if there...

Collapsing U.S. credibility

Two Op-Eds in The New York Timesthis morning both warn of the precipitous decline of American credibility on matters of human rights and peace ushered in by the Obama presidency. Taken together, they explain much of why I've been writing what I've been writing over the last three years. The first is from Columbia Professor and cyber expert Misha Glenny, who explains the significance of the first ever deployment of cyberwarfare -- by the U.S. (first under Bush and accelerated under Obama), alo...

Various matters

(1)If you can find 25 minutes or so this weekend, I can't recommend highly enough this segment from this week's Bill Moyers program, with Yves Smith and Matt Taibbi, discussing the increasingly corrupt banking industry and the multiple ways the U.S. Government continues to prop it up:

(2) One of the hallmarks of the establishment media is how it reverses its ostensible function: it is servile and reverent when reporting on or questioning the nation's most powerful actors, yet becomes aggressiv...

Various items

(1)If you can find 25 minutes or so this weekend, I can't recommend highly enough this segment from this week's Bill Moyers program, with Yves Smith and Matt Taibbi, discussing the increasingly corrupt banking industry and the multiple ways the U.S. Government continues to prop it up:

(2) One of the hallmarks of the establishment media is how it reverses its ostensible function: it is servile and reverent when reporting on or questioning the nation's most powerful actors, yet becomes aggressiv...

The U.S. and the Saudis

"I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family" - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, March 2, 2009.

* * * * *

For all the righteous talk about human rights oppression and violent assaults on democratic protesters in the Muslim world, any honest ranking would place Saudi Arabia near or at the top of that list. This week, the long-time head of the deeply repressive Saudi Interior Ministry, Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, died. Prince Nayef -- in addition to ha...

Julian Assange's right to asylum | Glenn Greenwald

Given the travesty that is American justice, WikiLeaks' founder is entitled to seek asylum and well-advised to fear extradition

If one asks current or former WikiLeaks associates what their greatest fear is, almost none cites prosecution by their own country. Most trust their own nation's justice system to recognize that they have committed no crime. The primary fear is being turned over to the US. That is the crucial context for understanding Julian Assange's 16-month fight to avoid extraditi...