Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 92

Afghanistan and American imperialism | Glenn Greenwald

Afghans have been excluded from the judicial process after the shooting that left 16 dead. No wonder anti-US feeling is growing

US army staff sergeant Robert Bales is accused of slaughtering 16 Afghan villagers, including nine children, and then burning some of the bodies. The massacre took place in two villages in the southern rural district of Panjwai. Though this horrific crime targeted Afghans on Afghan soil, Afghanistan will play no role in investigating the crime or bringing the perpetra...

Discussing the motives of the Afghan shooter

(updated below)

Here's a summary of the Western media discussion of what motivated U.S. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales to allegedly kill 16 Afghans, including 9 children: he was drunk, he was experiencing financial stress, he was passed over for a promotion, he had a traumatic brain injury, he had marital problems, he suffered from the stresses of four tours of duty, he "saw his buddy's leg blown off the day before the massacre," etc.

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NPR and NYT on Americans v. Afghans

The New York Times yesterday conveyed important and exciting evidence of American progress in Afghanistan which I believe we can and should all find inspiring; it concerns the reasons the protests in Afghanistan over the slaughter of 16 villagers by a U.S. soldier were not as intense as feared:

Many observers say, the Americans have had a lot of practice at apologizing for carnage, accidental and otherwise, and have gotten better at doing it quickly and convincingly.

I don't mind admitting...

Democracy Now on the imprisoned Yemeni journalist

(updated below)

It's very rare that I write primarily for the purpose of posting a video, but I'm going to make an exception today for this truly compelling, must-watch Democracy Now segment on the Jeremy Scahill article about imprisoned Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye which I wrote about yesterday. This is political television as good as it gets: it not only has an in-depth discussion of Obama's central role in Shaye's imprisonment with Scahill and Mohamed Abdel Dayem of the...

Obama's personal role in a journalist's imprisonment

(updated below – Update II)

Jeremy Scahill, The Nation's national security correspondent, is easily one of America's best and most intrepid journalists. He spends his time in dangerous places in order to uncover what the U.S. Government is doing around the world. He often produces vital scoops that, during the Obama presidency, are — for reasons often recounted here — largely ignored by the American establishment media and both political parties. In July of last year, he returned from...

Washington's high-powered terrorist supporters

We now have an extraordinary situation that reveals the impunity with which political elites commit the most egregious crimes, as well as the special privileges to which they explicitly believe they — and they alone — are entitled. That a large bipartisan cast of Washington officials got caught being paid substantial sums of money by an Iranian dissident group that is legally designated by the U.S. Government as a Terrorist organization, and then meeting with and advocating on behalf of that ...

Dennis Kucinich and "wackiness"

Last week, Rep. Dennis Kucinich was defeated in a Democratic primary by Rep. Marcy Kaptur after re-districting pitted the two long-term incumbents against each other. Kucinich's fate was basically sealed when the new district contained far more of Kaptur's district than his. His 18-year stint in the House will come to an end when the next Congress is installed at the beginning of 2013.

Establishment Democrats have long viewed Dennis Kucinich with a mixture of scorn, mockery and condescension. ...

The Authoritarian Mind

Hollywood producer and director Davis Guggeinheim just produced a 17-minute "documentary" hailing the greatness of Barack Obama and his many historic and profound accomplishments, and it will be released this week by the Obama campaign. Please just watch this two-minute interview of Guggenheim by CNN's Piers Morgan in which Guggenheim explains that nothing critical can or should be said of our President other than the fact that he is so Great that his Greatness cannot be sufficiently...

Unintended irony from the NYT

(updated below)

The New York Times today has an article lamenting the extreme levels of corruption in Afghanistan's ruling class — "a narrow business and political elite defined by its corruption" — and explains how these unchecked improprieties are impeding U.S. goals for post-withdrawal stability ("pervasive graft has badly undercut the American war strategy, which hinged on building the Karzai administration into a credible alternative to the Taliban"). Within that article lurks one of my f...

UN top torture official denounces Bradley Manning's detention

In December, 2010, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on torture announced a formal investigation into the conditions of Bradley Manning's detention that endured for the eight months he was held at a Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia. The Army Private has been detained since May, 2010, on charges that he leaked classified documents to WikiLeaks, but has not yet been tried. Yesterday, the U.N. official overseeing the investigation pronounced that "Bradley Manning was subjected to cruel, inhuman...