Glenn Greenwald on the suppression of liberties in the name of fighting terror
Glenn Greenwald isn’t on the right, nor is he a Trump supporter. What he is is intelligent, thorough, and devoted to the cause of liberty and the criticism of its suppression through the mechanism of fear. He’s been writing excellent pieces in the past year or so, and here’s a recent example.
In that essay, Greenwald criticizes the Bush administration for the extent of its curtailment of liberty in the wake of 9/11. At the time it was happening, I took issue with a few of these things, but most of them seemed justified to me back then. However, at this point I’d be inclined to take an attitude closer to Greenwald’s. When the NSA spying came out during the Obama administration – due in part to Greenwald’s efforts to publicize Snowden’s work – I disagreed with the method through which it was uncovered but I ultimately became shocked by the extent of the government spying on American citizens.
In the present essay, Greenwald tackles the ginned-up war on the right that’s being waged by the left in the name of fighting domestic terrorism:
Before Joe Biden was even inaugurated, he and his allies knew they needed a new villain…
Pending Domestic War on Terror legislation favored by the White House — sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) — would simply amend the old War on Terror laws, which permitted a wide range of powers to fight foreign terrorist organizations, so as to now allow the U.S. government to also use those powers against groups designated as domestic terror organizations. Just as was true of the first War on Terror, this second one would thus vest the government with new, wide-ranging powers of surveillance, detention, prosecution and imprisonment, though this time for use against U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.
Even while that legislation is pending, the U.S. government is already waging an aggressive new domestic war on terror that has largely flown under the radar. Grave warnings from DHS are now just as common, vague and unreliable — but also fear-inducing — as they were in the days of Tom Ridge. Domestic surveillance is also on the rise. Last month, CNN reported that “the Biden administration is considering using outside firms to track extremist chatter by Americans online, an effort that would expand the government’s ability to gather intelligence but could draw criticism over surveillance of US citizens.”
…Meanwhile, one of the most repressive features of the first War on Terror — due-process-free no-fly lists against American citizens — is now back in full force. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) have both been demanding that the FBI ban January 6 protesters and other “domestic extremists” from air travel without being convicted of any crime or even given a hearing to determine whether this prohibition is justified. Rep. Thompson even demanded that Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) be put on the no-fly list, then took to Twitter to boast of how proud he was of this demand…
Beyond the DHS bulletins, that agency and other intelligence operatives continue to issue reports, for both public and classified consumption, warning that the greatest national security threat the U.S now faces is domestic extremism…
Online censorship, of course, is also rapidly increasing in the name of stopping the threat of domestic extremism…
The dangers of the first War on Terror were grave enough. Transferring it to “the Homeland,” as President Biden calls it, is bound to be far more dangerous still.
Please read the whole thing.
Greenwald and Taibbi have been atypical among the chattering classes in that they have fixed principles.
We now have a senile puppet calling “white supremacy” (i.e. conservatives, Trump-supporters, and traditional civic nationalists) the “most lethal threat” of all, citing the disgraceful fabrications of our over-funded and thoroughly corrupt “intel agencies”, while genuine political prisoners in our so-called republic are languishing in vile conditions in DC’s jail for the sole “crime” of trespassing at the Capitol on 1/6. Greenwald was correct, years ago, in criticizing the excesses of the surveillance state, and, to his credit, he is applying the same standard of judgement to the “soft totalitarianism” of the illegitimate Harris/Biden regime.
To echo what was asked a few days ago: Will anyone of my liberal/D friends even hear about this, or even care???
All of us here know of all this shit, and it doesn’t surprise us. But, until it makes it out into the general culture it matters not. And with Pravda (the MSM) protecting their buds, it won’t happen. Russia, Hunter, Hillary emails, Epstein, the list goes on and on…. I just can’t get excited and/or upset about any of this any more. To paraphrase an old TV show that used to open with: “they control the horizontal, they control the vertical”, they control the culture and thus the mind set of the populace; or at least 50% of it.
The left’s criminal prosecution of Americans for strong disagreement with the left’s agenda will prove to be a suicidal strategy…
It’s a level of stupidity that only ideological fanaticism could imagine will be successful.
Everyone has a limit to what they’ll put up with and when governments repeatedly escalate injustices, one way or the other they’re living on borrowed time.
” Will anyone of my liberal/D friends even hear about this, or even care???”
those with one sigma above the mean have heard and don’t care. the rest meh
@avi:
The up and coming Tech Oligarchy will have some table-waiting and book keeping jobs for 2-sigmas. One-sigmas are doing nicely in the present system if they are sufficiently sociopathic, but they’re going to be in for a shock when they find out that they’re surplus to requirements later.
To echo what was asked a few days ago: Will anyone of my liberal/D friends even hear about this, or even care???
I posted a link to the only LA Times story about the virus this morning. On Facebook. It was about the House minority leader attending his son’s wedding when he might have had the virus. NOT ONE WORD ABOUT Fauci’s emails.
We have the refrain “Will anyone of my liberal/D friends even hear about this, or even care???” on a constant loop replay.
Most of us can’t fathom how any group of people can continue to support politicians or other elites with a never-ending record of failure at providing anything approaching what normal people consider “good results” politically, economically, or socially.
Daniel Pipes may have an explanation, which also covers the recurring question “Why does the Left support Islamic / Arabic countries, especially since they have “social values” that are antithetical to the “important” ones the Leftists profess?”
It’s long and heavy on examples, but I think it delineates a mind-set, point-of-view, or whatever you want to call it that is shared by the Left (and their useful-Liberals) with the Islamic countries — the analysis is embedded in the examples, and is not easily excerptible.
https://www.meforum.org/62395/arab-leaders-finesse-military-defeats
@AesopFan:
Been cost-free to date. That fence in DC suggests though that they’re easily spooked.
Problem with them being spooked is that when USGov acquires a fresh new Big Agenda, it rapidly turns into a multi-generational elephantine grift. And you don’t want to be ground underfoot by such an enormously profitable beast.
If the thing doesn’t flash over in the next two or three years, it’s going to be a very long haul.
}}} warning that the greatest national security threat the U.S now faces is domestic extremism…
This IS true, but it ain’t the RIGHT’s extremism that is the threat.
:-/
I DID complain about the “Patriot Act” on the general basis of the fact that it made no real distinction between external actors and those of American descent, and would thus apply to “freedom fighters” such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as much as it would apply to Osama Bin Laden.
That concern was borne out when, six months after passage, it was revealed that the DoJ was giving LEOs seminars on “how to use the Patriot Act in their own casework”. Imagine my total and absolute lack of surprise >:-(
The term “war on terror” has become thoroughly Orwellian, as those prosecuting it are acting as enemies of the United States in undermining fundamental freedoms in their aggressive pursuit of American patriots.
How vast are the legions of enemy agents in our government? They appear to be well over half of the federal bureaucracy. At this moment, the Pentagon is aggressively purging itself of those committed to defending the nation and its founding values. Having successfully defrauded a national election, the pretenders are hastily consolidating their conquest via greater and greater amplifications of dishonesty.
All of which has a negative karmic structure pointing in a negative direction. How negative? If the fraudsters had an inkling of where their chosen path leads, they would pray for forensic audits across the country to save them from their misdeeds. Regrettably, they are oversupplied with hatred, uninterested in truth, infatuated with the spoils of their deceit, and excited by what further theft will bring them.
“Fear is crucial for state authority. When the population is filled with it, they will acquiesce to virtually any power the government seeks to acquire in the name of keeping them safe. But when fear is lacking, citizens will crave liberty more than control, and that is when they question official claims and actions. When that starts to happen, when the public feels too secure, institutions of authority will reflexively find new ways to ensure they stay engulfed by fear and thus quiescent.”
To me, this is the money quote. I work for the USG as a diplomat. I suppose one could say that I swim in the Deep State’s fetid sewer, and have seen much of what Greenwald describes. To Neo everyone who comments on this blog I can assure you that 90% of my State Dept colleagues are more than happy to use their Top Secret clearances and insider knowledge to (at the least) silence you and make you understand your “place.” We receive cables and memos regularly meant to keep the fear (right now it’s mostly covid-related) levels high. And the Dept’s willingness to implement the Biden (Mal)Administration’s lies grows stronger, not weaker, the longer it is power.
AesopFan,
““Never,” an Iraqi transcript quotes him, “has [an Arab] political regime entered into a war with Israel or the United States and lost politically.”
Thats because America hasn’t fought to win a war since WWII. Nor Israel since 1948. To win a war you have to utterly destroy an enemy’s ability to ever wage war again.
“To Neo [&] everyone who comments on this blog I can assure you that 90% of my State Dept colleagues are more than happy to use their Top Secret clearances and insider knowledge to (at the least) silence you and make you understand your “place.” Telemachus
Sooner or later, fools playing with fire get burned.
Telemachus,
Though not a diplomat, I worked in contact with many U.S. Embassies around the world. In general (as you say, 90%) of the Foreign Service hold ordinary Americans in disdain.
Of course, I should point out that this is mostly true of all the diplomatic services of world. This elitism is not unique to the U.S. Government.
Glenn Greenwood had always bothered me because he makes me think more than I want. That is very valuable in a journalist. And for that reason, I have followed him for years.
But like other excellent journalists, and when he doesn’t your the lefty line, he gets smeared:
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/corporate-medias-double-standard
Sharyl Attkison was smeared as a paranoid nut job. Andy Ngo has been smeared.
Everytime a journalist starts to tell the truth, they are smeared. And while you, me, and most of your readrs are aware of this, the problem comes when we point to their stories as something our lefty acquaintances should read, or lefty acquaintances have already mentally filed that writer under “can’t trust that nutjob’s writing; they’re a nut job.” They’ve done that to Greenwood, Atkisson, Andy Ngo, et al.
“Everytime a journalist starts to tell the truth, they are smeared. And while you, me, and most of your readrs are aware of this, the problem comes when we point to their stories as something our lefty acquaintances should read, or lefty acquaintances have already mentally filed that writer under “can’t trust that nutjob’s writing; they’re a nut job.” They’ve done that to Greenwood, Atkisson, Andy Ngo, et al.
Yep. The Woke Ascendancy gets to make all the Cancellations, De-Credentializations (just made that up), Sovereign Exceptions, etc. in the West because, well, They Rule.
Forget about playing Turn-About or Speaking Truth to Power (heh). Them’s not for the likes of us.
There is no debating and probably even no populist demagogue-ing a way out of this situation. Which leaves…
“…the Homeland…”
Holy Globalism!!
The irony of ironies of course being that the USA MUST be protected from the Democratic Party.
(Which is, in turn, why the Democratic Party must obliterate all those who oppose its goal of achieving total power…even while they do their best to legislate fraudulent elections forever—this after their stellar “performance” last November….)
Hmmm. Getting a bit circular here. (Orwellian circularity–which is perfectly par for the course as far as totalitarian constructs go.)
Now that’s a nice kettle ‘a fish…. A pickle?
FUBAR, actually… (though, one hopes without the BAR…)
I have visions of clean-cut, crew-cut, gentlemen in Ford Explorers wearing brand new Hawaiian Shirts and temporary tattoos stopping at back country gas stations in the PNW and asking ‘Which way to the Homeland, Fellow White Person?’ — Cue the ‘Walks into a BAR’ jokes.
Wonder how many BARs could be out there in the wild irretrievably lost in boating accidents, burgled by Bears, ripped off by kleptomaniac Rocs?
They have been, there done that in northern Idaho, under Janet Reno. Although it was a sawed off shotgun not a Browning Automatic Rifle that served as the pretext. Vicki Weaver didn’t get the joke, but neither did Ashli Babbitt.
“White supremacy” is very powerful after all and no joking matter. It must be treated by those with a “Can Do!” mindset. (sarc)
They have been, there done that in northern Idaho, under Janet Reno.
IIRC, the Weaver debacle occurred under the previous administration, when Wm. Barr was attorney general and Wm. Sessions the FBI director. The role of Louis Freeh and Janet Reno was to see to it that the perpetrators received no punishment.
It was absolutely madcap to a degree Waco was not. One guy, his wife and children, and a family friend, and they have a small army there to arrest him for failure-to-appear for a hearing on a weapons charge. The weapons offense had been generated by an agent provacateur to boot.