So What's the Deal with Glenn Greenwald?

[CoffeeTiger 5,135]

Ok, so I know Glen Greenwald is a journalist and has been at least somewhat well known and respected in the journalism career. I know @DKW 86 has a love affair with the guy, but after reading a few of his writings I've never really got a handle on what this guy exactly believes or what his deal is. 

Glen claims he's neither 'left or right'. As far as a personal life goes, He's gay, a vegan, and lives in Brazil. Greenwald reportedly met his now Husband when Glen was 37 and he was a 19 year old homeless boy living in the streets/slums of Bazil. They moved in together and wedded shortly after meeting on the streets......still a better love story than Twilight. 

Most seem to view him as being on the left/far left as he is a supporter of the US progressive wing of Bernie Sanders, AOC, etc, but at the same time he seems to have a seething hatred for the Democratic party and their brand of liberalism, while he gives very little attention to the Right/Republicans, and in fact seems to come to regularly come to the defense of Republicans when the evil 'regular' Democrats attack them  

I read through his twitter (and Greenwald tweets A LOT), and I'd say a good 90% of his tweets and retweets are negative attacks on Democrats, particularly Hillary and Obama. Greenwald, while espousing far left economic/political leanings, is also a defender of some of the Republicans most far right figures. Greenwald makes regular appearances on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show talking about whatever anti-democratic topic they have for the day. A few days ago Glen and Tucker  had a segment attacking Obama's Birthday party where they slammed Obama for 1)being rich 2)having a birthday party in covid and 3) doing a fundraiser for his presidential library.

A few days after that interview, on Twitter, Greenwald jumped to the defense of Tucker Carlson who is being attacked by some for going to Hungary to film his show for a bit. Tucker has complimented Hungary's right wing authoritarian government, and has said that Hungary is more free than even the U.S. Greenwald says this is unimportant and Tuckers not doing anything wrong, but Greenwald is very opposed to Brazil's right wing authoritarian government and president who he frequently slams Biden for being too soft on. I'm unsure if he ever said anything about Trumps love affair with Bolosonario. 

Greenwald also pointed out a quote from Matt Gatz that he believes was good. 

 

Greenwalds beliefs and allies just seem so contradictory to each other. 

He apparently holds a lot of far left views (he never really talks about HIS views much...he mainly seems to like to criticize others views) , but hates the Democratic party in America for not being what he considers the correct form of liberalism. Even though the Republican party as a whole is 10000% against everything that Greenwald believes, Glen seems to like to cozy up to the Right and tries desperately to ingratiate himself with the American far right, I would guess because he sees the Democratic party as enemy #1 and while he doesn't "love" Republicans, he sees them as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Greenwald also ironically hates Brazils President for being authoritarian, but then defends Republicans and Tucker Carlson when they are friendly to similar authoritarian countries like Hungary , while simultaneously attacking Democrats for not being tough enough on them. It's a really weird two-step that Glen seems to play and I don't quite understand it.   

 

One big thing I also would point out is that Greenwald is a HUGE fan of Edward Snowden and goes to bat for the guy at every opportunity, and at least in my view Republicans seems to be a bit more friendly towards Snowden due to the Democratic National Convention hack/info dump that hurt Hillary Clinton, so that might be why Gleenwald gives Republicans/the far right such a huge leeway? 

 

 

[AUFAN78 3,911]

2 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Ok, so I know Glen Greenwald is a journalist and has been at least somewhat well known and respected in the journalism career. I know @DKW 86 has a love affair with the guy, but after reading a few of his writings I've never really got a handle on what this guy exactly believes or what his deal is. 

Glen claims he's neither 'left or right'. As far as a personal life goes, He's gay, a vegan, and lives in Brazil. Greenwald reportedly met his now Husband when Glen was 37 and he was a 19 year old homeless boy living in the streets/slums of Bazil. They moved in together and wedded shortly after meeting on the streets......still a better love story than Twilight. 

Most seem to view him as being on the left/far left as he is a supporter of the US progressive wing of Bernie Sanders, AOC, etc, but at the same time he seems to have a seething hatred for the Democratic party and their brand of liberalism, while he gives very little attention to the Right/Republicans, and in fact seems to come to regularly come to the defense of Republicans when the evil 'regular' Democrats attack them  

I read through his twitter (and Greenwald tweets A LOT), and I'd say a good 90% of his tweets and retweets are negative attacks on Democrats, particularly Hillary and Obama. Greenwald, while espousing far left economic/political leanings, is also a defender of some of the Republicans most far right figures. Greenwald makes regular appearances on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show talking about whatever anti-democratic topic they have for the day. A few days ago Glen and Tucker  had a segment attacking Obama's Birthday party where they slammed Obama for 1)being rich 2)having a birthday party in covid and 3) doing a fundraiser for his presidential library.

A few days after that interview, on Twitter, Greenwald jumped to the defense of Tucker Carlson who is being attacked by some for going to Hungary to film his show for a bit. Tucker has complimented Hungary's right wing authoritarian government, and has said that Hungary is more free than even the U.S. Greenwald says this is unimportant and Tuckers not doing anything wrong, but Greenwald is very opposed to Brazil's right wing authoritarian government and president who he frequently slams Biden for being too soft on. I'm unsure if he ever said anything about Trumps love affair with Bolosonario. 

Greenwald also pointed out a quote from Matt Gatz that he believes was good. 

 

Greenwalds beliefs and allies just seem so contradictory to each other. 

He apparently holds a lot of far left views (he never really talks about HIS views much...he mainly seems to like to criticize others views) , but hates the Democratic party in America for not being what he considers the correct form of liberalism. Even though the Republican party as a whole is 10000% against everything that Greenwald believes, Glen seems to like to cozy up to the Right and tries desperately to ingratiate himself with the American far right, I would guess because he sees the Democratic party as enemy #1 and while he doesn't "love" Republicans, he sees them as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Greenwald also ironically hates Brazils President for being authoritarian, but then defends Republicans and Tucker Carlson when they are friendly to similar authoritarian countries like Hungary , while simultaneously attacking Democrats for not being tough enough on them. It's a really weird two-step that Glen seems to play and I don't quite understand it.   

 

One big thing I also would point out is that Greenwald is a HUGE fan of Edward Snowden and goes to bat for the guy at every opportunity, and at least in my view Republicans seems to be a bit more friendly towards Snowden due to the Democratic National Convention hack/info dump that hurt Hillary Clinton, so that might be why Gleenwald gives Republicans/the far right such a huge leeway? 

 

 

Greenwald is a straight shooter, politics be damned. That doesn't play well in todays climate. 

[AUDub 11,158]

 

[AUDub 11,158]

His reporting in the past was pretty good. Some of it still is, especially regarding Bolsanaro. 

Other than that he's gone from a semi-respectable journalist to window licking insane. 

[DKW 86 7,431]

6 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Ok, so I know Glen Greenwald is a journalist and has been at least somewhat well known and respected in the journalism career. I know @DKW 86 has a love affair with the guy, but after reading a few of his writings I've never really got a handle on what this guy exactly believes or what his deal is. 

Glen claims he's neither 'left or right'. As far as a personal life goes, He's gay, a vegan, and lives in Brazil. Greenwald reportedly met his now Husband when Glen was 37 and he was a 19 year old homeless boy living in the streets/slums of Bazil. They moved in together and wedded shortly after meeting on the streets......still a better love story than Twilight. 

Most seem to view him as being on the left/far left as he is a supporter of the US progressive wing of Bernie Sanders, AOC, etc, but at the same time he seems to have a seething hatred for the Democratic party and their brand of liberalism, while he gives very little attention to the Right/Republicans, and in fact seems to come to regularly come to the defense of Republicans when the evil 'regular' Democrats attack them  

I read through his twitter (and Greenwald tweets A LOT), and I'd say a good 90% of his tweets and retweets are negative attacks on Democrats, particularly Hillary and Obama. Greenwald, while espousing far left economic/political leanings, is also a defender of some of the Republicans most far right figures. Greenwald makes regular appearances on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show talking about whatever anti-democratic topic they have for the day. A few days ago Glen and Tucker  had a segment attacking Obama's Birthday party where they slammed Obama for 1)being rich 2)having a birthday party in covid and 3) doing a fundraiser for his presidential library.

A few days after that interview, on Twitter, Greenwald jumped to the defense of Tucker Carlson who is being attacked by some for going to Hungary to film his show for a bit. Tucker has complimented Hungary's right wing authoritarian government, and has said that Hungary is more free than even the U.S. Greenwald says this is unimportant and Tuckers not doing anything wrong, but Greenwald is very opposed to Brazil's right wing authoritarian government and president who he frequently slams Biden for being too soft on. I'm unsure if he ever said anything about Trumps love affair with Bolosonario. 

Greenwald also pointed out a quote from Matt Gatz that he believes was good. 

 

Greenwalds beliefs and allies just seem so contradictory to each other. 

He apparently holds a lot of far left views (he never really talks about HIS views much...he mainly seems to like to criticize others views) , but hates the Democratic party in America for not being what he considers the correct form of liberalism. Even though the Republican party as a whole is 10000% against everything that Greenwald believes, Glen seems to like to cozy up to the Right and tries desperately to ingratiate himself with the American far right, I would guess because he sees the Democratic party as enemy #1 and while he doesn't "love" Republicans, he sees them as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Greenwald also ironically hates Brazils President for being authoritarian, but then defends Republicans and Tucker Carlson when they are friendly to similar authoritarian countries like Hungary , while simultaneously attacking Democrats for not being tough enough on them. It's a really weird two-step that Glen seems to play and I don't quite understand it.   

 

One big thing I also would point out is that Greenwald is a HUGE fan of Edward Snowden and goes to bat for the guy at every opportunity, and at least in my view Republicans seems to be a bit more friendly towards Snowden due to the Democratic National Convention hack/info dump that hurt Hillary Clinton, so that might be why Gleenwald gives Republicans/the far right such a huge leeway? 

You pretty much got the whole bit. GG is a real Progressive. He is no longer friendly with the DNC version of Republican Lite.

Most Progs i follow want M4A, A real Decent Living Minimum Wage, and maybe 2 years of post high school education, college or trade school with a lot of help, if not free. I am tired of Corp America getting every benefit of our labors. I am tired of CEOs getting wealthier by the minute while the Middle Class gets smacked in the face yet again. The Dems are a nickel better than the Republicans, and that is being gracious. 

GG, Aaron Mate, Katie Halper, Matt Taibbi, Sagaar Enjeti, Krystal Ball, Kyle Kulinski, et al' and others have blown some of the sycophantic ass-licking of the American Media to smithereens. Somewhere along the way TYT took a s*** load of cash and has turned against most Progs in America. Those listed have called them out repeatedly. The MSM might as well just mouth the talking points. Their cable news shows all just sound repetitious at this point. They could not care less about the Middle Class. They may even hate the Middle Class.

Now, in real life, Cori Bush and others are too busy, and insane, setting up what could be a devastating midterm cycle for the Dems. Defund the Police has become the new third rail. Crime increasing has sent much of the US back to the drawing boards. DTP is DEAD to most Americans and most thinking people should be running from it but they wont because they might offend 5 Millenials in Portlandia..

Peoples Party is gaining steam...

There are in reality about 5 differing views of America. The Progs are learning after Force the Vote Failed, mainly stabbed to death by TYT until it was way too late to mean anything, That they really need a new party. 

Edited August 10, 2021 by DKW 86

[AUDub 11,158]

9 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

GG is a real Progressive.

He self IDs as a libertarian. 

[DKW 86 7,431]

12 hours ago, AUDub said:

 

 

12 hours ago, AUDub said:

His reporting in the past was pretty good. Some of it still is, especially regarding Bolsanaro. 

Other than that he's gone from a semi-respectable journalist to window licking insane. 

This would be the mind numbed talking points from the DNC and why GG made the comment in my sig. You are not allowed to Criticize the DNC. It just cannot happen. They will de-monetize you etc with their reach into the business world. GG and his husband face real death in Brazil. Not the faux pearl clutching s*** that passes for cable news stories here in the US. GG has been fortunate that while he was forced out at the Intercept, he could get national airtime with Carlson and others. So, if you dont lie down and take your beatings like a good schlub, the Dismissal Machine cranks into high gear to do what it does. Damage you while NEVER actually engaging in a debate, because they know they would lose. That actually gives me hope. They know they are wrong, deep down. But they are so busy kissing DNC ass they just cant stop nor help themselves.....

Edited August 10, 2021 by DKW 86

[AUDub 11,158]

Just hilarious when you characterize what I said as "dismissal" when I literally point out that some of his work is still pretty good.

Another of David's sacred cows he can't stand to see questioned. 

[DKW 86 7,431]

9 hours ago, AUDub said:

Just hilarious when you characterize what I said as "dismissal" when I literally point out that some of his work is still pretty good.

Another of David's sacred cows he can't stand to see questioned. 

I question everything. I encourage questioning everything. Many on this forum, both sides, only want the questions to go one way so they continually find themselves talking in circles and not TO each other.  

IE: GG loses his gig at the Intercept because he dares question the DNC Elites. He gets back on the air with TC, JRE, and others that actually want to hear his views.. He is immediately dismissed for trying to simply continue his career. You see, this s*** is so thinly veiled it is easily seen by anyone with a brain. I do not agree with GG on all things, but I agree more than I disagree. Same for Dore, Ball, Kulinski, Enjeti etc etc etc. I choose to listen to those that have real eyes and can see both sides of an issue and an individual. Its the Talking points People I just dont have time for anymore. 

(clutching their pearls) "GG went on TC Show, he is a right leaning a**hole, **** him!"
Truth: GG is an educated and well rounded man that seeks the truth and to engage as many people as he can.

Everyday, he and his spouse are more in risk of death threats than the entire news media in this nation. Why? Because he is actually a threat to the the bad guys.  

Edited August 10, 2021 by DKW 86

[TitanTiger 20,499]

I think he used to be really good.  But over the last year or two he's just become something of a loon.  I can't trust what he says anymore.  He could be on to something or just batshit insane and I don't have the time to go sifting through everything to figure out which he is on a given story.

[DKW 86 7,431]

17 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

I think he used to be really good.  But over the last year or two he's just become something of a loon.  I can't trust what he says anymore.  He could be on to something or just batshit insane and I don't have the time to go sifting through everything to figure out which he is on a given story.

Cue the dismissals...

 

[TitanTiger 20,499]

1 minute ago, DKW 86 said:

Cue the dismissals...

 

Cue David assuming things.

[CoffeeTiger 5,135]

31 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

I question everything. I encourage questioning everything. Many on this forum, both sides, only want the questions to go one way so they continually find themselves talking in circles and not TO each other.  

IE: GG loses his gig at the Intercept because he dares question the DNC Elites. He gets back on the air with TC, JRE, and others that actually want to hear his views.. He is immediately dismissed for trying to simply continue his career. You see, this s*** is so thinly veiled it is easily seen by anyone with a brain. I do not agree with GG on all things, but I agree more than I disagree. Same for Dore, Ball, Kulinski, Enjeti etc etc etc. I choose to listen to those that have real eyes and can see both sides of an issue and an individual. Its the Talking points People I just dont have time for anymore. 

(clutching their pearls) "GG went on TC Show, he is a right leaning a**hole, **** him!"
Truth: GG is an educated and well rounded man that seeks the truth and to engage as many people as he can.

Everyday, he and his spouse are more in risk of death threats than the entire news media in this nation. Why? Because he is actually a threat to the the bad guys.  

My legitimate question here, is Greenwald not harming his own reputation and his own potential career by aligning himself so closely with Tucker Carlson and the far right? Tucker Carlson tolerates having a gay, vegan, "socialist" on his show ( a person Tucker and most of his audience would normally absolutory HATE) BECAUSE Greenwald knows how to tow the line, knows what to say and what not to say/criticize AND it gives Tucker a more legitimate 'journalist' to have on his show because most everyone else not already known as a loon wont touch Carlson with a 10 foot pole.  

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6238614/fullcredits

According to this list Greenwald has made the 17th most appearances on Carlson's show at 41 episodes and is pretty much the main "journalist" that Tucker Carlson ever even has on his show outside of regular Fox News personalities. Greenwald also goes on many other Fox News shows, he's basically a regular Fox News employee at this point. 

The question is that is Greenwald not selling himself out a bit here? Greenwald lives in Brazil, has been arrested by Brazilian authorities and persecuted because of his views and writings, and Greenwald is very critical of the Right wing Government in Brazil, BUT he completely ignores and even defends his good friend Tucker when Carlson goes to Hungary, who has a very similar right wing authoritarian government to Brazil, and talks up that government and wishes that America could become like Hungary? 

This is what makes me so confused here. You say Glen is forced to ally with Carlson and the far right because the Democratic Elite doesn't support him, but does he really? Isn't he just contradicting his own beliefs and his own positions for the money and attention that being on Fox News so often gets him? Is that what a true Progressive journalist does? Goes on whatever platform he can get on for exposure and is willing to say whatever it takes to get the exposure and tv cameras, and never talks about his own progressive views and beliefs because his bosses at Fox News would stop calling him for show appearances? 

 

[DKW 86 7,431]

Glenn Edward Greenwald^[1] (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author, and lawyer.

In 1996, he founded his own law firm, which concentrated on First Amendment litigation.

Authoritarian Figure here, no doubt...lol

He began blogging on national security issues in October 2005, while he was becoming increasingly concerned with what he viewed to be attacks on civil liberties by the George W. Bush Administration 

and here again, a friend of the Right, nazi...lol

in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.^[2][3] He became a vocal critic of the Iraq War and has maintained a critical position of American foreign policy.

Uber Nazi!!! What else can we conclude?

Greenwald started contributing to Salon in 2007,

Because only Nazis write for Salon...

and to The Guardian in 2012. In June 2013, while at The Guardian, he began publishing a series of reports detailing previously unknown information about American and British global surveillance programs based on classified documents provided by Edward Snowden.

How dare he defend the 1st Amendment, only a Nzai would support Free Speech....

His work contributed to The Guardian and The Washington Post winning a Pulitzer Prize,

Only folks that support White Supremacist Tucker Carlson and the Nazis get Pulitzers...

and he won the 2013 George Polk Award 

"The awards were established in 1949 in memory of George Polk, a CBS correspondent who was murdered in 1948 while covering the Greek Civil War (1946–49). In 2009, former New York Times editor John Darnton was named curator of the George Polk Awards.^[5][6]"

along with three other reporters, including Laura Poitras. In 2014, Greenwald, Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill launched The Intercept, for which he was co-founding editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substack, an online newsletter-based journalism platform.^[4]

 

 

[homersapien 11,393]

18 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Ok, so I know Glen Greenwald is a journalist and has been at least somewhat well known and respected in the journalism career. I know @DKW 86 has a love affair with the guy, but after reading a few of his writings I've never really got a handle on what this guy exactly believes or what his deal is. 

Glen claims he's neither 'left or right'. As far as a personal life goes, He's gay, a vegan, and lives in Brazil. Greenwald reportedly met his now Husband when Glen was 37 and he was a 19 year old homeless boy living in the streets/slums of Bazil. They moved in together and wedded shortly after meeting on the streets......still a better love story than Twilight. 

Most seem to view him as being on the left/far left as he is a supporter of the US progressive wing of Bernie Sanders, AOC, etc, but at the same time he seems to have a seething hatred for the Democratic party and their brand of liberalism, while he gives very little attention to the Right/Republicans, and in fact seems to come to regularly come to the defense of Republicans when the evil 'regular' Democrats attack them  

I read through his twitter (and Greenwald tweets A LOT), and I'd say a good 90% of his tweets and retweets are negative attacks on Democrats, particularly Hillary and Obama. Greenwald, while espousing far left economic/political leanings, is also a defender of some of the Republicans most far right figures. Greenwald makes regular appearances on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show talking about whatever anti-democratic topic they have for the day. A few days ago Glen and Tucker  had a segment attacking Obama's Birthday party where they slammed Obama for 1)being rich 2)having a birthday party in covid and 3) doing a fundraiser for his presidential library.

A few days after that interview, on Twitter, Greenwald jumped to the defense of Tucker Carlson who is being attacked by some for going to Hungary to film his show for a bit. Tucker has complimented Hungary's right wing authoritarian government, and has said that Hungary is more free than even the U.S. Greenwald says this is unimportant and Tuckers not doing anything wrong, but Greenwald is very opposed to Brazil's right wing authoritarian government and president who he frequently slams Biden for being too soft on. I'm unsure if he ever said anything about Trumps love affair with Bolosonario. 

Greenwald also pointed out a quote from Matt Gatz that he believes was good. 

 

Greenwalds beliefs and allies just seem so contradictory to each other. 

He apparently holds a lot of far left views (he never really talks about HIS views much...he mainly seems to like to criticize others views) , but hates the Democratic party in America for not being what he considers the correct form of liberalism. Even though the Republican party as a whole is 10000% against everything that Greenwald believes, Glen seems to like to cozy up to the Right and tries desperately to ingratiate himself with the American far right, I would guess because he sees the Democratic party as enemy #1 and while he doesn't "love" Republicans, he sees them as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Greenwald also ironically hates Brazils President for being authoritarian, but then defends Republicans and Tucker Carlson when they are friendly to similar authoritarian countries like Hungary , while simultaneously attacking Democrats for not being tough enough on them. It's a really weird two-step that Glen seems to play and I don't quite understand it.   

 

One big thing I also would point out is that Greenwald is a HUGE fan of Edward Snowden and goes to bat for the guy at every opportunity, and at least in my view Republicans seems to be a bit more friendly towards Snowden due to the Democratic National Convention hack/info dump that hurt Hillary Clinton, so that might be why Gleenwald gives Republicans/the far right such a huge leeway? 

 

 

Well, it's no wonder that DKW likes him. 

[DKW 86 7,431]

GG has spent his whole career fighting for 1st Amendment, opposing the Iraq War, winning a Pulizer and other awards across his career because he was a bad guy...

More about GG

Greenwald's first book, How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values From a President Run Amok was published by Working Assets in 2006.

GG was attacking Bush43

It was a New York Times bestseller,^[44] and ranked No. 1 on Amazon.com, both before its publication (due to orders based on attention from 'UT' readers and other bloggers) and for several days after its release, ending its first week at #293.^[45]

A Tragic Legacy, his next book, examined the presidency of George W. Bush.

Another book exposing Budsh43, the moron, and Dick Cheney too.

Published in hardback by Crown (a division of Random House) on June 26, 2007, and reprinted in a paperback edition by Three Rivers Press on April 8, 2008, it was a New York Times Best Seller. 

Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics, was also first published by Random House in April 2008.^[46][47] 

One more time, an attack on GOP Politics...

With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, was released by Metropolitan Books in October 2011

An expose' on corruption.., ****** Nazi...lmao...

and No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State, was released in May 2014.^[48] The latter work spent six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list,^[49] and was named one of the ten Best Non-Fiction Books of 2014 by The Christian Science Monitor.

How dare he publish a book that is kind to Snowden, This is where the DNC decides that GG is a bad guy and starts to attack him. He is criticizing the Obama Administration at this point. ****** Nazi....

Greenwald wrote the book Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Brazil as a follow up to No Place to Hide. It will be published by Haymarket Books on 6 April 2021. It describes his publication in 2019 of leaked telephone calls, audio and text messages related to Operation Car Wash and the retaliation he received from the Bolsonaro government

Writes about the attacks he and his spouse, a Brazilian MP actually see in REAL LIFE...

Edited August 10, 2021 by DKW 86

[DKW 86 7,431]

David Michael dos Santos Miranda (born 10 May 1985) is a Brazilian politician. He is a Federal Congressman representing the state of Rio de Janeiro, sworn in on 1 February 2019, and affiliated to the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL).^[1] Prior to that, he was a City Councilman representing the city of Rio de Janeiro.^[2]

In 2019, Miranda was named by Time magazine as one of the world's next generation of new leaders.

Yea, how could we have not seen that CLEARLY Greenwald and his Socialist husband, getting death threats almost daily, is just the scum of the Earth and should be dismissed because...He goes on the wrong shows to talk to people that might not get to hear him otherwise. How dare he...

Edited August 10, 2021 by DKW 86

[DKW 86 7,431]

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/glenn-greenwald-securing-democracy-review-death-threats-journalism-leaks-lula

Glenn Greenwald Took on the Authoritarian Right in Brazil — and Won

BY

KEITH DANNER

The full story of how Glenn Greenwald revealed the antidemocratic corruption behind Brazil’s supposed anti-corruption investigation Lava Jato — which jailed former president Lula da Silva and gave rise to Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right presidency — is one of bravery against a violent, reactionary right.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald's investigation into the Lava Jato anti-corruption probe led to the freeing of former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from prison. (EVARISTO SA/AFP via Getty Images)

Review of Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Bolsonaro’s Brazil by Glenn Greenwald (Haymarket, 2021).

Imagine this counterfactual: In 2016, a judge presiding over the corruption trial of Hillary Clinton secretly corresponds with the prosecutorial team, strategizing to assure she is found guilty and that the judgment will hold on appeal. He then subjects her to “preventative detention” ahead of the trial verdict, nullifying her ability to run for the presidency. Or, as long as we are telling stories, imagine the same fate for 2020 nominee Bernie Sanders.

This, in rough analogue, is what happened to Workers’ Party (PT) candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2018 in Brazil. Leading the polls in the run-up to the national elections, Lula was disqualified following the acceptance of a money laundering indictment by Judge Sergio Moro. The far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, an admirer of the Brazilian dictatorship era, prevailed. One of Bolsonaro’s early acts as president was to appoint Lula’s jailer, Moro, to one of the most powerful positions in the country: minister of justice. Glenn Greenwald’s new book, Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Bolsonaro’s Brazil, tells the story of Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato in Portuguese), the anti-corruption inquiry led by Moro.

That a reporter should break even one story of real consequence, one that shakes up business as usual in a country or region or across the planet, is extremely rare. Excellent journalists go their entire careers without such a story to their names. But in 2013, Greenwald, along with Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill, broke whistleblower Edward Snowden’s National Security Administration (NSA) story. Among many other things, Snowden’s top-secret archive revealed that the NSA was collecting metadata on every single phone call made through Verizon. Every call, all day, every day.

The 2019 Lava Jato reports are similarly earth shattering, having already had the effect of freeing Lula from prison and, in late March, leading the Brazilian Supreme Court to declare Justice Moro to have been biased in Lula’s case. Though other roadblocks may still appear, Lula appears free to challenge Bolsonaro in 2022. Without Greenwald’s source, Walter Delgatti Neto, none of this could’ve happened.

Though largely chronological and straightforwardly told, long, compelling stretches of Securing Democracy read like a thriller. The narrative tension derives from an actual horror that forms part of the backdrop of the book: the assassination of Rio de Janeiro city councilor Marielle Franco in March 2018. Franco was, before her execution, an important voice against the militias that rule many favelas, the desperately poor neighborhoods that dot Rio and other large cities of Brazil. Those militias are comprised largely of former police. Indeed, Franco’s killers, arrested a year after her death, were former officers.

“Who ordered the murder of Marielle?” reads a poster at a rally one year after the murder of prominent city councillor Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes. The politician was shot dead in her car on March 14, 2018. (Ian Cheibub/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)

Franco was elected to the Rio City Council in the same year as Greenwald’s husband, David Miranda. Like Miranda, Franco was gay, black, and raised in a favela. Greenwald describes the phone call where David hears of the killing:

Within seconds of David answering his phone, I heard sounds coming out of his body that I had never heard in all our years together. He began howling, screaming, sobbing. It was impossible for me to make out any words. It was obvious that something unbearable had happened. After hanging up the telephone, David sobbed for five minutes straight. My attempts to calm him down enough to tell me what happened were futile.

After those moments of all-consuming fear and pain, watching my husband sob and convulse with emotional torment, he finally gathered himself enough to speak a sentence — one that, to this day, horrifies me as much as the first time that I heard it. “They killed Marielle.”

After the public funeral (Miranda was a pallbearer), in the days following the murder, Miranda rented an armored car, and insisted that no family member — neither Glenn, David, nor their children — leave the house without an armed security detail.

In April, one month after Franco’s murder, Lula was jailed. In October, Jair Bolsonaro, who once said he would rather any of his sons turn up dead than gay, was elected. In January 2019, gay member of Congress Jean Wyllys, citing credible threats on his life from elements within the Bolsonaro movement, fled the country.

Greenwald describes the situation: “[Wyllys] received threatening e-mails with photos of the license plate on his car, and of the front door of his mother’s house, accompanied by vows to murder him and his family members.” David had finished one spot behind Jean Wyllys in the national election, and “that meant that David, as the alternate, would automatically take the congressional seat.”

This, then, is the context in which Greenwald was contacted on May 12, 2019, by a source who had managed to hack the Telegram accounts of, among many others, Judge Sergio Moro and the lead prosecutor in the Car Wash inquiries, Deltan Dallagnol. A friend and comrade murdered, a presidential candidate imprisoned, one gay man fleeing the country that had elected him to the legislature, only to then be replaced by one’s spouse.

An Imperfect but Heroic Source

Ahacker named Walter Delgatti Neto was the source of the massive archive of Telegram chats that formed the basis of the stories released by Greenwald and other journalists at major news outlets from across the political spectrum. Delgatti had discovered a flaw in Telegram that allowed him to spoof the phone of his victims, request a security code to add Telegram to a new device, and then download the contents of years’ worth of chats from the cloud.

Unlike Greenwald’s earlier book on the NSA revelations, which features Edward Snowden as a central character, Securing Democracy does not place Delgatti at the center of the narrative. This is, in part, because Greenwald never actually met Delgatti, even as he and his journalistic partners released over a hundred stories over the course of 2018. But it may also be because it is difficult to imagine any source matching Snowden’s technical competence and political clarity.

Snowden organized the NSA files with astonishing thoroughness, creating folders, glossaries, and prefatory documents. The Telegram chats hacked by Delgatti were far less organized, and even Delgatti himself didn’t have a full idea of everything they contained. Snowden wanted to be publicly identified as the source of the leak, and made plans to be in a country, Hong Kong, that would make extradition to the United States difficult. Delgatti not only stayed in Brazil but continued hacking even after he had given his full archive to Greenwald.

Snowden accepted that he might end up in jail and was willing to face that possibility to provoke public discourse about whether or not we want our lives to be completely surveilled by our rulers. Delgatti seemed surprised by his arrest. Snowden was careful as careful could be (he was, after all, a CIA/NSA intelligence operative), using encryption for all communications and placing cell phones in the refrigerator when discussing anything in person. Delgatti used Telegram (which he himself had shown to be insecure) and the telephone (decidedly not secure).

Finally, just as Greenwald and the Intercept Brasil were about to publish, Delgatti made a monumental error in judgment, one impossible to imagine coming from Snowden. Greenwald explains:

From the start of my discussions with our source a month before, he had been extremely consistent in his motives and message. He had presented himself as a whistleblower, pure and simple. . . . He had repeatedly emphasized that he sought no personal attention or financial gain. . . . On that Friday, however, the source made what seemed to be a joke that suggested an alternative motive. As we chatted, I advised him that we were nearing the date of publication, and he said, completely out of nowhere, “Please let me know in advance exactly what you intend to publish and when, so that we can profit off the stock market.”

Greenwald and his colleagues at the Intercept Brasil held an emergency meeting and moved the publication date from Tuesday to Sunday, without telling Delgatti. That was not only the ethical thing to do but the pragmatic one, as every chat between Delgatti and Greenwald eventually came into the possession of the Brazilian government, and even though Greenwald had done nothing illegal, smears that Greenwald had paid for the stories or that they had come from the Russians — combined with a sophisticated social media campaign of memes labelling him an “Enemy of Brazil” who should be deported — eventually did lead to charges filed by the Brazilian government as a coconspirator.

Delgatti repeatedly refused to implicate Greenwald when arrested in July, insisting he had acted only to expose corruption. But that didn’t stop the Brazilian government from filing charges. Delgatti came under intense pressure to finger Greenwald in the hack itself and never did. Indeed, prosecutors used some of the same techniques that were employed in Lava Jato itself — preventative detention in Brazil’s notoriously harsh prisons, with promises of release and more lenient treatment in exchange for testimony, in this case against Greenwald and the Intercept.

Delgatti’s refusal to buckle, in the context of his expressed intent to clean up his country by whistleblowing, seems to have convinced Greenwald — and I agree — that Delgatti deserves the label “hero” every bit as much as Snowden.

Similarly stirring is the story about a solidarity rally for Greenwald and the Intercept Brasil in Rio in late July 2018 after a wave of death threats. (Greenwald received and still receives Bolsonarist death threats daily.) Greenwald says:

One person after the next vowed to fight Moro and the Bolsonaro movement. I devoted most of my speech to this theme, brandishing my US passport that I had in my jacket pocket to explain that I could — but never would — leave Brazil in order to publish the Telegram archive documents from the safety of the United States or other foreign soil. “I will never leave this country,” I said. “I will never allow the country of my children to revert to dictatorship.”

Before reading Securing Democracy, I had never thought of different shades of death threats. After 9/11, when someone got my phone number off of a flyer for an event called “Don’t turn Tragedy into War,” I received a call threatening me and my wife and my children, the caller saying he hoped we died in flames. I didn’t have a wife or children at the time, but it scared the living hell out of me. Two years ago, my wife received a threat that was similarly frightening, hand delivered — without stamp or signature — to her university mailbox in response to an editorial she had written on immigration and sanctuary cities for the LA Times.

But I didn’t have a mental box to put those threats in that was distinct from other more ominous and credible threats, until I read this passage:

David and I were well accustomed to the sort of standard nonserious threats everyone with a non-public platform has to endure of the “I hope you die” or “You will pay” variety. But these threats of violence were markedly different . . . with a great deal of private information about our family — where we lived, where our kids went to school, personal data about both of us — along with gruesome and demented threats of what they would do to our children.”

A longer article could be written about Greenwald’s political evolution and use of Twitter over the past decade or so. But, although I believe it should be possible to have empathy for those who receive less serious threats online, after reading Securing Democracy, I understand why Greenwald has little patience for those who wilt under what he sees as the feeble sun of mean tweets.

Some of you folks are SFOS it boggles the mind...

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by DKW 86

[AUDub 11,158]

Flooding the zone with s*** does not an argument make. 

[homersapien 11,393]

On 8/10/2021 at 2:16 AM, AUDub said:

Just hilarious when you characterize what I said as "dismissal" when I literally point out that some of his work is still pretty good.

Another of David's sacred cows he can't stand to see questioned. 

One iconoclast paying homage to another. 

[DKW 86 7,431]

GG has done more for the world than anyone that criticizes him. He is pretty much right on the money, most topics. Like I said, I dont agree with him about everything, But those that are saying that he is some kind of Right Winger for going on Carlson's show are just full of s***. I mean factually FOS. So much s*** their brains quit working a long time ago. If anything, he is more on point and doing even better work fighting corruption today than he ever has. 

Those that think, and boy am i using that word "loosely," just do not have a clue. He gets REAL death threats from REAL villains, not the make believe BS passing in the US.  

Edited August 11, 2021 by DKW 86

[AUDub 11,158]

1 hour ago, DKW 86 said:

GG has done more for the world than anyone that criticizes him. He is pretty much right on the money, most topics. Like I said, I dont agree with him about everything, But those that are saying that he is some kind of Right Winger for going on Carlson's show are just full of s***. I mean factually FOS. So much s*** their brains quit working a long time ago. If anything, he is more on point and doing even better work fighting corruption today than he ever has. 

He defines Carlson, Bannon and Trump as Socialists.

They fail any definition of the word unless you put "national" in front of it.