Thread by @ggreenwald

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…

It's always fun and easy to condemn the bad acts of distant, enemy governments. Doing that lets you feel better about your own tribe.

But in the US/UK - like Belarus - journalists are "free" only if they stay unthreatening. Those who expose power end up in Belmarsh or exile.

The US Govt isn't attempting to imprison Snowden and Assange for life *despite* the crucial work they did in exposing state corruption, lies and illegalities. They're being persecuted precisely *because* they did that. Condemning Belarus is designed to distract you from that.

Here's the NYT today trying to explain why the US/EU's forced downing of Bolivia's plane to arrest Snowden is different and more noble than what Belarus did to the Ryanair plane to arrest their dissident. And note the use of "whataboutism": inquiries about consistency are barred.

This has been the core, overarching function of the corporate press for decades: acting as state media, they insist that what the US does -- CIA assassinations, coups, disinformation campaigns, dictator support -- is better and more noble than the same acts done by US enemies.

Our forcing down a plane in order to arrest someone we think is on board is better than their forcing down a plane in order to arrest someone they think is on board. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

One key fact that's being overlooked (on purpose) in the discussion of what the US/EU did to Evo Morales' plane is that they thought Snowden was on board because Bolivia had granted him asylum. Think about that: Obama was prepared to violate asylum norms in order to nab Snowden.

Here's @mtaibbi on the lengths the US corporate press is willing to go to whitewash what Obama and key EU states did when forcing the Bolivian President's plane to land so that they could kidnap Snowden out of Bolivian asylum custody.

taibbi.substack.com/p/this-week-in…