Glenn Greenwald gave a speech last Friday at the Socialism 2013 conference. It was his first speech after he broke the NSA whistleblowing story. He gives a fascinating account of his encounter with Edward Snowden and what he observed of his motivations. He is scathing about the state of contemporary major American media, saying that this episode has exposed how subservient they are to the US government.
He gave it via Skype but it is very clear. What I observed for the first time is that he can be pretty funny. I think he has been energized by this story because the NSA leaks have validated so many of the things that he has been warning about for so long but was pooh-poohed. He now has documentary proof.
He ends with a positive message. He says that the courage displayed by Snowden is contagious and that we can and must defy the climate of fear that the government seeks to impose on us.
The speech is about 40 minutes long and begins at the 10 minutes mark. You can move the cursor to that point. It is well worth listening to. That excellent journalist Jeremy Scahill introduces him at the 3:00 minute mark and he is well worth listening to also.
He is such an amazing individual -- he has this amazing way of exposing blind partisanship simply by remaining consistent and unwavering in his core beliefs. It seems like he’s suffered quite a bit from our government, especially recently, but I get the sense that he’s a tru_believer of actual American values -- and that keeps him going!
Now that I think about it…I was introduced to him by this blog!! :] I owe Dr.(?) Singham a thank you! Not to mention one for this blog itself! :]
P.S. -- Very jealous of my friend that was at this conference and saw it live! Jeremy Scahill is an amazing individual as well -- currently reading Dirty Wars and it is unbelievable.
I stumbled across Greenwald a long time ago when he was writing a blog called Unclaimed Territory on his own, long before he became well-known and moved to Salon and then to the Guardian. I was immediately impressed by his principled stands, his sharp mind, his writing, and his passion. I am really glad that he is getting all this attention now.