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The
Intercept_
Glenn _Greenwald
✉
⎕
Photo: Hassan Anmar/AP
Hillary Clinton, Stalwart Friend of World’s Worst Despots, Attacks Sanders’
Latin American Activism
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Mar. 10 2016, 8:13 a.m.
Photo: Hassan Anmar/AP
At Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton attacked Bernie Sanders
for praising Fidel Castro in the 1980s, as well as for standing with Central
American governments and rebel groups targeted by Ronald Reagan’s brutal covert
wars. “You know,” said the former secretary of state, “if the values are that
you oppress people, you disappear people, imprison people or even kill people
for expressing their opinions, for expressing freedom of speech, that is not
the kind of revolution of values that I ever want to see anywhere.”
To defend her remarks, Clinton’s faithful Good Democratic supporters began
instantly spouting rhetoric that sounded like a right-wing, red-baiting Cold
War cartoon; in other words, these Clinton-defending Democrats sounded very
much like this:
Vehement opposition to Reagan’s covert wars in Central America, as well as to
the sadistic and senseless embargo of Cuba, were once standard liberal
positions. As my colleague Jeremy Scahill, observing the reaction of Clinton
supporters during the debate, put it in a series of tweets: “The U.S. sponsored
deaths squads that massacred countless central and Latin Americans, murdered
nuns and priests, assassinated an Archbishop. I bet commie Sanders was even
against Reagan’s humanitarian mining of Nicaraguan waters & supported
subsequent war crimes judgment vs. U.S. Have any of these Hillarybots heard of
the Contra death squads? Or is it just that whatever Hillary says must be
defended at all costs? The Hillarybots attacking Sanders over Nicaragua should
be ashamed of themselves.”
Let’s pretend for the sake of argument that the horror expressed by Clinton and
her supporters over Sanders’ 1980s positions on Latin America was all driven by
some sort of authentic outrage over praising tyrants and human rights abusers
rather than a cynical, craven tactic to undermine Sanders using long-standing
right-wing, red-baiting smears. Is Hillary Clinton a credible voice for
condemning support for despots and human rights abusers? To answer that, let’s
review much more recent evidence than the 1980s:
Egyptian despot Hosni Mubarak:
Clinton in 2009:
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad:
Clinton on Face the Nation, 2011, arguing that Qaddafi is worse than Assad:
There’s a different leader in Syria now. Many of the members of Congress of
both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe
he’s a reformer. … There’s a difference between calling out aircraft and
indiscriminately strafing and bombing and strafing your own cities, than police
actions which frankly have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want
to see.
As PolitiFact noted, Clinton phrased the “reformer” comment as something
“members of Congress” believe, but it was cited by her in order to favorably
compare Assad to Qaddafi: “Clinton’s choice to talk about those members’
opinions of Assad without knocking them down suggests she may have found them
credible.”
The Saudi regime:
Clinton in 2011:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
Clinton in 2015:
The right-wing coup government in Honduras
Clinton in 2009:
Gulf tyrannies
Clinton over the last decade:
Clinton as secretary of state:
As International Business Times reported last year, the Clinton-led State
Department approved arms sales and transfers to a slew of human-rights-abusing
regimes, which also just so happened to have donated large amounts of money to
the Clinton Foundation:
The Saudi deal was one of dozens of arms sales approved by Hillary Clinton’s
State Department that placed weapons in the hands of governments that had also
donated money to the Clinton family philanthropic empire. … The State
Department formally approved these arms sales even as many of the deals
enhanced the military power of countries ruled by authoritarian regimes whose
human rights abuses had been criticized by the department. Algeria, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar all donated to the
Clinton Foundation and also gained State Department clearance to buy caches of
American-made weapons even as the department singled them out for a range of
alleged ills, from corruption to restrictions on civil liberties to violent
crackdowns against political opponents.
War criminal and dictator-supporter Henry Kissinger:
Clinton since 2009:
It seems that, overnight, Clinton and her supporters have decided that Sanders’
opposition to Reagan-era wars against Latin American governments and rebel
groups — a common liberal position at the time — is actually terribly wrong and
something worthy of demonization rather than admiration, because those
governments and groups abused human rights. Whatever else one might say about
this mimicking of right-wing agitprop, Hillary Clinton for years has been one
of the world’s most stalwart friends of some of the world’s worst despots and
war criminals, making her and her campaign a very odd vessel for demonizing
others for their links to and admiration of human-rights abusers.
Top photo: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walks with Saudi
Foreign Minister Prince
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Glenn _Greenwald
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t
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160
Hillary Clinton, Stalwart Friend of World’s Worst Despots, Attacks Sanders’
Latin American Activism
/staff/glenn-greenwald/ /staff/glenn-greenwald/
/staff/glenn-greenwald/ /staff/glenn-greenwald/
Glenn Greenwald
Mar. 10 2016, 8:13 a.m.
Photo: Hassan Anmar/AP
At Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton attacked Bernie Sanders
for praising Fidel Castro in the 1980s, as well as for standing with Central
American governments and rebel groups targeted by Ronald Reagan’s brutal covert
wars. “You know,” said the former secretary of state, “if the values are that
you oppress people, you disappear people, imprison people or even kill people
for expressing their opinions, for expressing freedom of speech, that is not
the kind of revolution of values that I ever want to see anywhere.”
To defend her remarks, Clinton’s faithful Good Democratic supporters began
instantly spouting rhetoric that sounded like a right-wing, red-baiting Cold
War cartoon; in other words, these Clinton-defending Democrats sounded very
much like this:
Vehement opposition to Reagan’s covert wars in Central America, as well as to
the sadistic and senseless embargo of Cuba, were once standard liberal
positions. As my colleague Jeremy Scahill, observing the reaction of Clinton
supporters during the debate, put it in a series of tweets: “The U.S. sponsored
deaths squads that massacred countless central and Latin Americans, murdered
nuns and priests, assassinated an Archbishop. I bet commie Sanders was even
against Reagan’s humanitarian mining of Nicaraguan waters & supported
subsequent war crimes judgment vs. U.S. Have any of these Hillarybots heard of
the Contra death squads? Or is it just that whatever Hillary says must be
defended at all costs? The Hillarybots attacking Sanders over Nicaragua should
be ashamed of themselves.”
Let’s pretend for the sake of argument that the horror expressed by Clinton and
her supporters over Sanders’ 1980s positions on Latin America was all driven by
some sort of authentic outrage over praising tyrants and human rights abusers
rather than a cynical, craven tactic to undermine Sanders using long-standing
right-wing, red-baiting smears. Is Hillary Clinton a credible voice for
condemning support for despots and human rights abusers? To answer that, let’s
review much more recent evidence than the 1980s:
Egyptian despot Hosni Mubarak:
Clinton in 2009:
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/mubarak.png ;
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/mubarak.png
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad:
Clinton on Face the Nation, 2011, arguing that Qaddafi is worse than Assad:
There’s a different leader in Syria now. Many of the members of Congress of
both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe
he’s a reformer. … There’s a difference between calling out aircraft and
indiscriminately strafing and bombing and strafing your own cities, than police
actions which frankly have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want
to see.
As PolitiFact noted, Clinton phrased the “reformer” comment as something
“members of Congress” believe, but it was cited by her in order to favorably
compare Assad to Qaddafi: “Clinton’s choice to talk about those members’
opinions of Assad without knocking them down suggests she may have found them
credible.”
The Saudi regime:
Clinton in 2011:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
Clinton in 2015:
The right-wing coup government in Honduras
Clinton in 2009:
Gulf tyrannies
Clinton over the last decade:
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/mcclatchyclin.png
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/mcclatchyclin.png
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/foundation.png
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/foundation.png
Clinton as secretary of state:
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/hillclinton.png
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/hillclinton.png
As International Business Times reported last year, the Clinton-led State
Department approved arms sales and transfers to a slew of human-rights-abusing
regimes, which also just so happened to have donated large amounts of money to
the Clinton Foundation:
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/ibtclinton.png
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/ibtclinton.png
The Saudi deal was one of dozens of arms sales approved by Hillary Clinton’s
State Department that placed weapons in the hands of governments that had also
donated money to the Clinton family philanthropic empire. … The State
Department formally approved these arms sales even as many of the deals
enhanced the military power of countries ruled by authoritarian regimes whose
human rights abuses had been criticized by the department. Algeria, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Qatar all donated to the
Clinton Foundation and also gained State Department clearance to buy caches of
American-made weapons even as the department singled them out for a range of
alleged ills, from corruption to restrictions on civil liberties to violent
crackdowns against political opponents.
War criminal and dictator-supporter Henry Kissinger:
Clinton since 2009:
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/clintonkissinger.png
https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/03/clintonkissinger.png
It seems that, overnight, Clinton and her supporters have decided that Sanders’
opposition to Reagan-era wars against Latin American governments and rebel
groups — a common liberal position at the time — is actually terribly wrong and
something worthy of demonization rather than admiration, because those
governments and groups abused human rights. Whatever else one might say about
this mimicking of right-wing agitprop, Hillary Clinton for years has been one
of the world’s most stalwart friends of some of the world’s worst despots and
war criminals, making her and her campaign a very odd vessel for demonizing
others for their links to and admiration of human-rights abusers.
Top photo: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walks with Saudi
Foreign Minister Prince
