As Anger Toward Belarus Mounts, Recall the 2013 Forced Landing of Bolivia's Plane to Find Snowden

greenwald.substack.com/p/as-anger-tow…
What Belarus did, while illegal, is not unprecedented. The dangerous tactic was pioneered by the same U.S. and E.U. officials now righteously condemning it.

At the time, EU states falsely denied that they forced the downing of Bolivia's plane, but ultimately admitted the truth.
The whole world suspected who was behind this dangerous and illegal downing of the Bolivian President's jet: the US.

In 2013, it was left to the US State Dept spokesperson -- Jen Psaki -- to answer questions. As always, she refused even basic transparency about the US role.
Ultimately, though, Psaki ended up acknowledging just enough for the press to recognize that the US admitted that it was in contact with these EU countries that forced the landing of the Bolivian president's plane -- by telling them that Snowden was aboard, on his to asylum.
That the US and EU dangerously forced a plan to land because they intended to arrest a passenger does not mitigate Belarus' illegal act. But any press reports that depict this as "unprecendented" or omit the similar acts of US/EU officials are propaganda

greenwald.substack.com/p/as-anger-tow…
Amazing how much indignation this article provoked within minutes of publication. It states 5 times that what Belarus did is both illegal and dangerous. But some demand propaganda: as if it's immoral to point out that US/EU officials are condemning that which they *pioneered."
It's "despicable," says this EU Political Scientist, for a journalist to mention that what the EU today is vehemently condemning Belarus for doing is exactly what the EU & US itself did in 2013.

These people are pure jingoistic propagandists.

Many Americans have been trained never to question whether their own government does exactly that which they accuse adversaries of doing.

They've even been given a term -- "whataboutism" -- that basically means: never point out that our own tribe does what it condemns in others.
Hilarious yet illustrative of how the US functions that they sent out Jen Psaki to condemn Belarus when it was Psaki herself, then State Dept spokesperson, tasked with obfuscating and defending the US/EU's forced landing of Morales' plane to get Snowden:

thehill.com/homenews/admin…

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More from @ggreenwald

25 May
Please take the time to watch this video in which Russell Brand (@rustyrockets), long associated with the left, explains why the united pre-election censorship by the corporate press and Silicon Valley of the Biden Family laptop archive was so dangerous:

Brand uses clips of the interview I did with him, but this is his 15-minute monologue -- very insightful and plain-spoken -- about why this was such a menacing event.

US media & tech giants united to bar millions of Americans from hearing this reporting before they voted.
Relatedly: this @DouthatNYT column is very smart and important. As the liberal-left gains cultural hegemony and political power, they no longer need or want anti-authoritarian theorists like Foucault. Factions that become dominant turn authoritarian:

nytimes.com/2021/05/25/opi…
Read 4 tweets
25 May
Yet another huge vindication of Edward Snowden's whistleblowing and the reporting it enabled:

The European Court of Human Rights rules the mass surveillance program of GCHQ (the UK version of NSA) illegal: violating both privacy rights and press freedom.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/m…
While the west is currently wallowing in an orgy of self-righteousness over Belarus' thuggish arrest of a dissident journalist, realize that the two people who arguably did the most to expose the truth about the US Govt -- @Snowden & Assange -- are exiled & imprisoned.
Assange and Snowden are the west's Roman Protasevich, and are treated exactly the same as Lukashenko treats him, up to and including the lawless forced landing of a Bolivian plane in order to nab Snowden. The US/UK have no moral credibility to preach.

greenwald.substack.com/p/as-anger-tow…
Read 7 tweets
21 May
The only reason Pelosi's More-Capitol-Police-Funding bill passed is because @AOC, @JamaalBowmanNY & @RashidaTlaib spent a year demanding "Defund the Police!" for everyone else, but then did what they had to (voted "present") to ensure they got more police funding for themselves:
It's one of the most cynical, opportunistic and deceitful things I've seen in awhile. Credit to @CoriBush, @IlhanMN & @AyannaPressley for voting with all GOP House members to try to stop this bill, but at least 3 Squad members ensured more police funding.

greenwald.substack.com/p/the-squad-en…
DEFUND THE POLICE!

DEFUND THE POLICE!

DEFUND THE POLICE!

Oh wait. What's that? Pelosi, Schumer and the Democrats want $1.9 billion more in spending for the Capitol Policing to protect *us*?

Hell yeah. Tell us what we have to do to make that happen.
Read 5 tweets
21 May
The Squad Enables Pelosi's Massive Capitol Police Spending Bill While Cynically Feigning Opposition

greenwald.substack.com/p/the-squad-en…
Three Squad members -- all of whom recently chanted "Defund the Police" -- all had the power to kill a $1.9 billion increase in Capitol Police and security spending.

Instead, @AOC, @JamaalBowmanNY and @RashidaTlaib ensured its passage.
Three other Squad members -- @IlhanMN, @CoriBush and @RepPressley -- joined all GOP members in voting "no." But all Squad members previously said they opposed this.

So just enough of them voted "no" to create an appearance of radical resistance while achieving nothing.
Read 4 tweets
20 May
The Intercept's editors went to the media reporters at both WashPost and The Daily Beast to voice all sorts of accusations against me. Their smear campaign never ends.

These are the emails I get when The Intercept and their well-funded staff attack me. Thanks for the harassment.
When will The Intercept stop endangering journalists and subjecting us to harassment campaigns by inciting this sort of hatred among their small but vicious readership?

They already have Antifa followers vowing to target the journalists attacked by them:

Also, I cannot wait for either one of these articles The Intercept tried to plant against me -- in the WashPost or The Daily Beast -- to be published so that I can publish my full responses to their questions about the Intercept and their top editors. 🙏
Read 5 tweets
20 May
Less than a year after Democrats and liberals led a nationwide anti-police protest movement, they unite to vote to spend $2 billion more to boost security at the Capitol (6 Squad members, to their credit, voted no or abstained).

This is what Insurrection hysteria is spawning:
No matter what is done to the police, those who control power and money will always have ample armed security to protect themselves, as House Democrats just demonstrated.
See this thread on why the Democrats' bill which just passed by one vote -- that, among other things, spends $2 billion more on Capitol police and otherwise increases security state measures at the Capitol -- is so dangerous:

Read 8 tweets

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