Toluu

Salon: Glenn Greenwald

Salon Stories by Category

The list of the governments that have persecuted journalistsYesterday

(updated below - Update II)

The Washington Post Editorial Page today hails the courage of six journalists who have faced down persecution and grave danger in their line of work and who, consequently, are this week receiving the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists:

Plainclothes Ugandan police officers descended yesterday on the newsroom of the weekly newsmagazine the Independent, seizing computer documents and attempting to deliver an arrest warrant to managing editor Andrew M. Mwenda. "Unluckily, I was out of Uganda," Mr. Mwenda told us. Unluckily? "Yes. I do not want them to think I am running away" . . . . Mr. Mwenda [] is in the United States to receive an International Press Freedom award from the Committee to Protect Journalists . . . . Mr. Mwenda's courage is typical of CPJ award winners. Others being honored this year include photographer Bilal Hussein of the Associated Press, whom the U.S. military imprisoned in Iraq for two years without charges; Danish Karokhel and Farida Nekzad, who run a news agency in Afghanistan, one of the world's most dangerous places for reporters, and especially for female reporters such as Ms. Nekzad; Beatrice Mtetwa, a lawyer who has defended journalists against the vicious persecution of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe; and Cuban journalist Héctor

Five detainees ordered released "forthwith" after seven years at GuantanamoNovember 20

(updated below - Update II) 

A federal district judge, Richard Leon, today ordered the Bush administration "forthwith" to release five Algerian detainees who have been held in Guantanamo without charges since January, 2002 -- almost seven full years.   The decision was based on the court's finding that there was no credible evidence that the 5 detainees intended to take up arms against the U.S.  The court found sufficient evidence to justify the ongoing detention of a sixth Algerian detainee.

When they were detained in 2001 in Bosnia, the Bush administration claimed that they were plotting to bomb the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo.  But once they were shipped to Guantanamo, the U.S. backed off that accusation and instead claimed they intended to travel to Afghanistan to fight against the U.S.

I don't want to say too much about the legal reasoning behind the decision because it was just issued via an oral ruling from the bench, and I haven't yet been able to obtain a copy of the judge's decision.  For now, then, the following can be noted about this landmark ruling -- the first time a court has ruled that the Government's evidence is insufficient to justify ongoing imprisonment of a detainee as an "enemy combatant":

(1)  These 5 detainees were able to be heard in federal court only because the U.S. Supreme Court in

Salon Radio: Scott Horton on war crimes prosecutionsNovember 19

(updated below w/transcript)

Scott Horton wrote the cover story for the current edition of Harper's (sub. req'd) -- entitled "Justice after Bush:  Prosecuting an Outlaw Administration" -- in which he argues that it is imperative to investigate, expose, and prosecute the Bush administration's war crimes, particularly its torture of detainees.  Scott sets forth a detailed proposal for how this should be pursued, beginning with the creation of a Truth Commission to expose what was done and to generate public support for further proceedings, followed by prosecution.

I spoke to Scott today on Salon Radio regarding this article, and we discussed:

• what distinguishes the Bush administration's lawlessness from the isolated lawbreaking of past Presidents ("This administration did more than commit crimes.  It waged war against the law itself");
•  
• why -- of all the Bush crimes -- torture is, in Scott's words, "not only the crime that most clearly calls for prosecution but also the crime that is most likely to be successfully prosecuted";
•  
• whether the limited retroactive immunity bestowed on war criminals by the Detainees Treatment Act and Military Commiss

Preliminary facts and thoughts about Eric HolderNovember 19

(updated below - Update II)

Even before there has been a single Cabinet selection announced, I'm already weary from all the gossip and chatter about potential appointees, but, at least for me, the position of Attorney General is different.  So much of the anti-constitutional abuses and radicalism of the last eight years emanated from the Justice Department, and few things will have more of an impact on what the Obama administration does about them than the views, integrity and independence of the new Attorney General, who looks to be Eric Holder, Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration and, very briefly, Acting Attorney General.

The bulk of what I've read about and from Holder suggests, with a couple of ultimately marginal exceptions, that this appointment would be a very positive step.  Digby yesterday quoted at length from an impassioned speech Holder gave in June of this year in which he condemned Guantanamo as an "international embarrassment"; charged that "for the last 6 years the position of leader of the Free World has been largely vacant"; complained that "we authorized torture and we let fear take precedence over the rule of law"; and called for an absolute end both to rendition and warrantless eavesdropping.  He proclaimed that "th

Has there been too much bipartisanship or too little?November 18

(updated below - Update II)

As Senate Democrats this morning prepare to reward Joe Lieberman with the powerful Chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, the most commonly recited claim -- both with regard to the Lieberman issue and Washington more generally -- is that Barack Obama's campaign to "change" Washington requires, first and foremost, an end to partisan bickering and a renewal of bipartisanship.  As but one of countless examples, Steny Hoyer told The Hill yesterday "that bipartisanship will be a priority" and the 33 new Democratic members of Congress "were elected on promises of bipartisanship."  In The Atlantic, Ronald Brownstein complains about "escalating partisan conflict" and "hyper-partisanship" and claims that "American politics has been polarized as sharply as at any point in the past century."

Whatever else one might want to say about "bipartisanship," there is nothing new about it.  By definition, it does not remotely constitute "change."  To the contrary, the last eight years have been defined, more than anything else, by overarching bipartisan cooperation and consensus. 

Where is the evidence of the supposed partisan wrangling that we hear so much about?  Just examine the question dispassionately.  Look at every major Bush initiative, every con