Politics Quotes by Glenn Greenwald

“threat or actuality of government surveillance may psychologically inhibit freedom of speech.”

— Glenn Greenwald

[I]f you want instant, reflexive support for the US government's police and military powers, MSNBC is the place to turn these days.

— Glenn Greenwald

American political culture quickly and always outpaces any attempt to satirize it.

— Glenn Greenwald

The Obama administration says we only destroy the privacy of non-Americans. That is not true. The government is spying on Americans.

— Glenn Greenwald

“A number I'd love to know: the % of those now saying 'we have to vote Obama to stop an attack on…

— Glenn Greenwald

Terrorist', noun: 1. Someone my government tells me is a terrorist; 2. Someone my President decides to kill.

— Glenn Greenwald

Government and businesses cannot function without enormous amounts of data, and many people have to have access to that data.

— Glenn Greenwald

Even when influential political and media figures vehemently complained about the criticisms I wrote, Salon's editors unfailingly stood behind my work.

— Glenn Greenwald

The core distortion of the War on Terror under both Bush and Obama is the Orwellian practice of equating government accusations of…

— Glenn Greenwald

A common criticism of establishment journalists entails comparing them to stenographers, on the ground that most of them do little more than…

— Glenn Greenwald

It shouldn't take extreme courage and a willingness to go to prison for decades or even life to blow the whistle on…

— Glenn Greenwald

I think Dianne Feinstein may be the most Orwellian political official in Washington. It is hard to imagine having a government more…

— Glenn Greenwald

“Expecting the US government to operate a massive surveillance machine in complete secrecy without falling prey to its temptations runs counter to…

— Glenn Greenwald

“Through a carefully cultivated display of intimidation to anyone who contemplated a meaningful challenge, the government had striven to show people around…

— Glenn Greenwald

The definition of an extreme authoritarian is one who is willing blindly to assume that government accusations are true without any evidence…

— Glenn Greenwald

“the NSA databases “store information about your political views, your medical history, your intimate relationships and your activities online.” The agency claims…

— Glenn Greenwald

It is hard to imagine having a government more secretive than the United States. Virtually everything that government does, of any significance,…

— Glenn Greenwald

We know that U.S. voters, and world leaders, allow Obama extraordinary leeway when it comes to deadly drone strikes, precisely because of…

— Glenn Greenwald

Snowden has enough [sic] information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever…

— Glenn Greenwald

“Americans now considered the danger of surveillance of greater concern than the danger of terrorism: Overall, 47% say their greater concern about…

— Glenn Greenwald

“The record is suffused with examples of groups and individuals being placed under government surveillance by virtue of their dissenting views and…

— Glenn Greenwald

“It's almost hard to imagine anything more undemocratic than the view that political officials should not debate American wars in public, but…

— Glenn Greenwald

Revealingly, the central function of the Constitution as law--the supreme law--was to impose limitations not on the behavior of ordinary citizens but…

— Glenn Greenwald

Americans love to mock the idea of monarchy, and yet we have our own de facto monarchy. I think what these leaks…

— Glenn Greenwald

“Michael Ledeen—a contributing editor of National Review and a Freedom Scholar at the influential neoconservative think tank American Enterprise Institute—wrote on the…

— Glenn Greenwald

“Ultimately, beyond diplomatic manipulation and economic gain, a system of ubiquitous spying allows the United States to maintain its grip on the…

— Glenn Greenwald

The government usually announces it killed a Big Terrorist 5 or 6 different times before they're dead - they're almost like cats.

— Glenn Greenwald

A president who is burdened with a failed and unpopular war, and who has lost the trust of the country, simply can…

— Glenn Greenwald

Free speech rights means that government officials are barred from creating lists of approved and disapproved political ideas and then using the…

— Glenn Greenwald

Colin Powell speaks regularly to high-ranking U.S. officials, he knows a lot about what's going on in the government. And so he's…

— Glenn Greenwald

You can't cheer when political officials punish the expression of views you dislike and then expect to be taken seriously when you…

— Glenn Greenwald

The point of asylum is not to declare to the world what country you think is the pinnacle of civilization. The point…

— Glenn Greenwald

“the presumption is that the government, with rare exception, will not know anything that law-abiding citizens are doing. That is why we…

— Glenn Greenwald

There is thus little or no ability for an internet user to know when they are being covertly propagandized by their government,…

— Glenn Greenwald

When someone who wields political power does something you dislike or disagree with, it's incumbent upon you to object, criticize, and demand…

— Glenn Greenwald

“From its inception, FISA has been the ultimate rubber stamp. In its first twenty-four years, from 1978 to 2002, the court rejected…

— Glenn Greenwald

It is simply an invariable truth in the history of politics, in the history of government, that whenever a new power is…

— Glenn Greenwald

It is always unconscionable for the government to punish people for expressing an idea merely because government officials - or the majority…

— Glenn Greenwald

“Bush violated FISA [...] because he wanted to violate the law in order to establish the general 'principle' that he was not…

— Glenn Greenwald

“The idea that we should dismantle the core protections of our political system to erect a ubiquitous surveillance state for the sake…

— Glenn Greenwald