(10 Aug 2023)
Khan was sacked from power in April 2022 after he lost a no-confidence vote in parliament. He alleged he knew of the “cypher” while he was in office which, according to him, proved the US hatched a conspiracy with the help of his political opponents and the Pakistani military to remove him.
He later made a U-turn, saying he wants good relations with the US, but continued to blame his successor Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the military for orchestrating his removal.
(09.08.2023)
One month after the meeting with U.S. officials documented in the leaked Pakistani government document, a no-confidence vote was held in Parliament, leading to Khan’s removal from power. The vote is believed to have been organized with the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military. Since that time, Khan and his supporters have been engaged in a struggle with the military and its civilian allies, whom Khan claims engineered his removal from power at the request of the U.S.
The text of the Pakistani cable, produced from the meeting by the ambassador and transmitted to Pakistan, has not previously been published. The cable, known internally as a “cypher,” reveals both the carrots and the sticks that the State Department deployed in its push against Khan, promising warmer relations if Khan was removed, and isolation if he was not.
These claims that Iran could rapidly step in to solve Europe’s woes are somewhat overstated. Although Iran does have massive natural gas reserves, the necessary pipeline and shipping infrastructure simply does not exist at present for exporting gas to Europe. To put it simply, there is no flip of a switch that can rapidly turn on supplies to Europe and help them cope with the winter ahead.
While CIA officers run the operations, most of the ground support during strike force unit missions, including the control of air power, is provided by fighters loaned out by Joint Special Operations Command. Variations on this arrangement have been used by the CIA since the Church Committee clamped down on agency excesses at home and abroad in 1975. Originally dubbed “Omega” in Afghanistan, the program temporarily strips special forces of their regular military designation — a process known as “sheep-dipping”— and places them under CIA command. This enables the CIA to circumvent the restrictions placed on fighters who ordinarily operate under regular wartime Title 10 authority, placing them instead under the agency’s Title 50 authority for covert actions.
Das Phänomen, dass sich als „links“ einordnende Journalisten gemeinsam mit dubiosen Geheimdienst-Mitarbeitern Enthüllungen über Biden sabotieren, erklärt Greenwald in dem Interview folgendermaßen, und er weist dabei auf die Gefahren dieser Koalition hin:
„Die CIA hat sich vom ersten Tag an dem Ziel verschrieben, die Trump-Regierung zu sabotieren. Aus diesem Grund wurden die CIA und die Akteure des Deep State zu Helden der „liberalen Linken“. Die Unterstützer der Demokratischen Partei sind nun in einer starken Verbindung mit Neocons, Bush-Cheney-Mitarbeitern, der CIA, dem Silicon Valley und der Wall Street. Diese starke Machtgruppe – gemeinsam mit den Medien des Mainstreams – wird bei einem Wahlsieg mindestens einen Teil der Macht erringen, wenn nicht die ganze Macht.“
(29.10.2020)
I had no objection to their disagreement with my views of what this Biden evidence shows: as a last-ditch attempt to avoid being censored, I encouraged them to air their disagreements with me by writing their own articles that critique my perspectives and letting readers decide who is right, the way any confident and healthy media outlet would. But modern media outlets do not air dissent; they quash it. So censorship of my article, rather than engagement with it, was the path these Biden-supporting editors chose.
The censored article will be published on this page shortly (it is now published here, and the emails with Intercept editors showing the censorship are here). My letter of intent to resign, which I sent this morning to First Look Media’s President Michael Bloom, is published below.
(29.10.2020)
Greenwald said in his resignation announcement that he will continue to publish on the Substack, which he heralded as a place where journalists „have come in order to practice journalism free of the increasingly repressive climate that is engulfing national mainstream media outlets across the country.“
On Thursday afternoon, he published on Substack the article and the email exchange he had with his editors about it.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald has resigned from The Intercept, seven years after co-founding the online publication, citing censorship by his own editors over an article concerning former Vice President Joe Biden.
(14.08.2020)
As the primary in Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District turned into a national story following allegations of misconduct against Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, the state Democratic Party declined to weigh in, citing its policy to remain neutral in contested primaries.
But behind the scenes, the state party had been coordinating with the College Democrats of Massachusetts to launch those very allegations, according to five sources within the state party and connected to the CDMA, a review of messages between party leadership and CDMA leadership, and call records obtained by The Intercept.
(13.08.2020)
The leadership of the University of Massachusetts Amherst College Democrats began discussing an operation they believed could sink the campaign of Alex Morse for Congress as far back as last October, a plan they then helped engineer and which came to fruition on Friday, after the College Democrats sent a letter regarding Morse to the Daily Collegian, the school’s student newspaper.
This week’s Democratic primaries in Kentucky, New York, and Virginia saw a number of progressive challengers defeating moderate or establishment rivals. Of particular note were the victories of two insurgent candidates in New York: Jamaal Bowman, who defeated 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel, and Mondaire Jones, who triumphed over a crowded field in the 17th District to become one of the first openly gay black men ever elected to Congress. Jones joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss his victory.
Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, Juan González and Nermeen Shaikh will be joined by The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill and others to host a rolling roundtable discussion with guests across the country, reporting real-time results and analysis as polls close in 14 states.
According to leaked internal European Union documents, the EU could soon be creating a network of national police facial recognition databases. A report drawn up by the national police forces of 10 EU member states, led by Austria, calls for the introduction of EU legislation to introduce and interconnect such databases in every member state. The report, which The Intercept obtained from a European official who is concerned about the network’s development, was circulated among EU and national officials in November 2019. If previous data-sharing arrangements are a guide, the new facial recognition network will likely be connected to similar databases in the U.S., creating what privacy researchers are calling a massive transatlantic consolidation of biometric data.
New York University professor Nikhil Pal Singh, author of “Race and America’s Long War,” dissects Bloomberg’s record, his “racial terror” tactics in New York City, and what his candidacy says about the state of electoral politics in the U.S. Attorney Diala Shamas of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who fought Bloomberg over his Muslim surveillance program, describes the New York Police Department’s “Demographics Unit” that targeted Muslim Americans and their businesses, houses of worship, and restaurants. Shamas compares the surveillance program to some of the activities of the East German Stasi secret police and says Bloomberg’s use of the program should be seen as an ominous sign of what he might do as president.
Acronym, which includes a hybrid model of a 501(c)4 entity that does not disclose donors and a Super PAC that does, has been a favorite for deep-pocketed Democratic donors. Donald Sussman, the founder of Paloma Partners, and Michael Moritz, a partner at Sequoia Capital, each donated $1 million to Acronym last year. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg gave $500,000. Investor Seth Klarman, once a major donor to Republican causes, gave $1.5 million to Acronym.
Die Veröffentlichung der geleakten Kommunikation auf The Intecept Brasil ab Juni 2019 legten nahe, dass Moro und Dallagnol ihre Ämter missbrauchten und unter dem Vorwand der Korruptionsbekämpfung vielfach gegen rechtsstaatliche Grundsätze verstießen, um einen Regierungswechsel zu begünstigen.
A coalition of more than 40 press freedom and human rights groups from across the globe sent a letter Friday to Brazilian authorities condemning cybercrime charges brought against American investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald earlier this week as a clear intimidation effort for his reporting on key members of President Jair Bolsonaro‘s government.
Greenwald, who co-founded The Intercept, lives in Rio de Janeiro with his husband, Brazilian Congressman David Miranda, and their family. The letter (pdf) initiated by Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) and Freedom of the Press Foundation echoes journalists, politicians, and advocates worldwide who have expressed support for Greenwald since Tuesday.
„Bolsonaro is attacking and threatening journalists all the time. So this is obviously a plan, a goal of this government, to bring repression back to Brazil,“ the U.S. journalist said.
This time, though, it was CNN moderators who brought out the bat and swung it hard at Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Vermont independent had topped a major Iowa poll last week, compounding fears that have only recently emerged among the party establishment that he may be on course for the nomination.
In contrast to Sanders’s treatment, former Vice President Joe Biden, the national frontrunner, was barely touched — either by moderators or his rivals.
Ausführlich schildert der mutmaßliche Hacker, wen er wann anzapfte und, wie er Kontakt mit Greenwald aufgenommen habe. Bolsonaros Attacke hat auch die Interamerikanische Menschenrechtskommission auf den Plan gerufen. „Leider scheint der brasilianische Präsident die Verfassung seines Landes und die internationalen Verträge über die Meinungsfreiheit, die Brasilien unterzeichnet hat, vergessen zu haben“, kommentierte dessen Sonderberichterstatter für Meinungsfreiheit, Edson Lanza. Man werde die Entwicklung weiter beobachten, so der Sonderberichterstatter der zur Organisation Amerikanischer Staaten (OAS) gehörigen Kommission.
Die jüngsten Enthüllungen blieben auch der deutschen Bundesregierung nicht verborgen. Doch auch nach Kenntnisnahme der Berichterstattung bleibe „die Position Deutschlands gegenüber Brasilien unverändert“, teilte das Auswärtige Amt auf Anfrage von amerika21 mit. Die Bundesregierung argumentiert, dass es „der brasilianischen Justiz obliegt, über die Rechtmäßigkeit des Verfahrens gegen den ehemaligen Staatspräsidenten Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva zu befinden.“
Aktuelle Enthüllungen auf der US-Plattform The Intercept bringen die Bolsonaro-Regierung zusätzlich in Bedrängnis: Am 25. Juni will der Oberste Gerichtshof des Landes über einen Antrag auf Freilassung des inhaftieren Ex-Präsidenten Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beraten.
The archive we received from our source is vast, and contains many more explosive stories yet to be reported. Just last night, we published another story exposing even more serious improprieties by Judge Moro, widely regarded as the anchor of legitimacy for the Bolsonaro government, that has led for more calls for him to resign. Because of the importance but also complexity of these issues for those outside of Brazil, we created a video explaining what this archive is about, what these revelations mean, and why the consequences of our reporting are so significant not only for Brazil but for the entire democratic world.
Greenwald‘s tweet was in response to threats of deportation by Brazilian far-right politician, Carlos Jordy. Last Sunday, Greenwald and a team of investigative journalists published an exposé in The Intercept outlining major judicial irregularities in the alleged corruption case against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that lead to his imprisonment since April 2018.
A new leaked conversation between chief prosecutor of the Car Wash (Lava Jato) task force, Deltan Dallagnol and current Supreme Justice Minister, Sergio Moro, allegedly show that Supreme Federal Court (STF) judge Luiz Fux was also part of the scheme against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The leak was made by The Intercept Brazil’s executive editor, Leandro Demori, during an interview on Wednesday. The messages show that Dallagnol took on at least once the role of interlocutor between Moro and Fux, while the federal judge was acting in tune with the two.
(09.06.2019)
In the files, conversations between lead prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol and then-presiding Judge Sergio Moro reveal that Moro offered strategic advice to prosecutors and passed on tips for new avenues of investigation. With these actions, Moro grossly overstepped the ethical lines that define the role of a judge. In Brazil, as in the United States, judges are required to be impartial and neutral, and are barred from secretly collaborating with one side in a case.
Other chats in the archive raise fundamental questions about the quality of the charges that ultimately sent Lula to prison.
(09.06.2019)
The Intercept’s only role in obtaining these materials was to receive them from our source, who contacted us many weeks ago (long before the recently alleged hacking of Moro’s telephone) and informed us that they had already obtained the full set of materials and was eager to provide them to journalists.
Informing the public of matters in the public interest and exposing wrongdoing was our guiding principle in doing this initial reporting on the archive, and it will continue to be our guiding principle as we report further on the large number of materials we have been provided.
(09.06.2019)
An enormous trove of secret documents reveals that Brazil’s most powerful prosecutors, who have spent years insisting they are apolitical, instead plotted to prevent the Workers’ Party, or PT, from winning the 2018 presidential election by blocking or weakening a pre-election interview with former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with the explicit purpose of affecting the outcome of the election.
Gabbard has compiled a record on domestic policy questions that places her squarely within the left populist wing of the party — from advocating Medicare for All, a national $15 an hour minimum wage, various free college programs, and even participating in anti-pipeline Standing Rock protests in North Dakota. Yet her aggressive criticisms of the pieties of the bipartisan foreign policy community — particularly her harsh criticism of regime change operations from Iraq and Libya, to Syria and Venezuela, and her warnings about escalating tensions with Russia and China and the dangers of a “new Cold War” — have further cemented her status as party outsider and heretic from the perspective of Washington Democratic insiders.
A grand jury indictment said Hale met the reporter at an April 29, 2013 book tour event in Washington, which started several months of conversations between them, in person and through an encrypted messaging app.
The FBI said while working as a contractor at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Hale printed out 11 secret or top-secret documents describing U.S. counterterrorism operations overseas under the administration of President Barack Obama.
(20.10.2018) The highly likely ascension to power of far-right extremist Jair Bolsonaro is already unleashing a climate in which journalists who are critical of him and his movement – including several writing for the Intercept – are being subjected to an aggressive campaign of personal investigation, attempted intimidation, and thuggish scrutiny of family members.
These attacks are being orchestrated by the media outlets owned by a far-right, scandal-plagued, evangelical pastor-billionaire, Edir Macedo (universally known as The Bishop and founder of the sprawling Universal Church of the Kingdom of God), who is now an explicit supporter of Bolsonaro.
(7.3.2018) Believe it or not, I’m a fan of Glenn Greenwald, who is one of the very few celebrity journalists who has had the guts to consistently challenge the ridiculous “Russiagate” narrative from the start. And just because The Intercept is owned by a neoliberal oligarch who backed a fascist coup in the Ukraine, micro-financed a few Indians to death, and employs a personal security detail of ex-Secret Service agents and State Department types who will fly him to safety in his private jet in the event of imminent zombie apocalpyse, that doesn’t mean The Intercept staff doesn’t publish important investigative journalism.
No, what struck me as I was suffering through this debate was how utterly divorced from reality it was, whatever “reality” might mean anymore. Watching Greenwald, Risen, and Scahill sitting there, like rational people, “debating” whether Donald Trump might be part of some convoluted Russian conspiracy to destroy America and Western democracy, I felt like I was finally having one of those apocryphal LSD flashbacks.