The federal government is \u201cshamelessly\u201d exploiting last week\u2019s extremist attacks to dismantle liberties and core principles of justice, says journalist Glenn Greenwald.<\/p>\n
The Pulitzer-Prize winning U.S. reporter warned that the Conservative government, aided by docile\u00a0news media, is purposely fuelling alarmist speculation about the domestic threat of Islamic terrorism to ram through legislation giving the state extraordinary new\u00a0powers over citizens.<\/p>\n
It remained unclear whether last Monday\u2019s and Wednesday\u2019s assaults were individual deranged acts of religious-inspired violence, or somehow the work of Islamic terror groups.<\/p>\n
Yet, \u201cwe\u2019ve allowed this word terrorism to take on such profound meaning that right before our eyes governments dismantle the protections and defining attributes of western justice in order to keep us safer,\u201d Greenwald told an audience of more than 1,000 people in downtown #ottawa<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n Greenwald, who last year broke international stories on whistleblower Edward Snowden\u2019s stunning revelations about mass electronic surveillance of citizens by western governments, directed his criticism at\u00a0Prime Minister #stephen harper<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the\u00a0day after gunman Micheal Zehaf-Bibeau killed National War Memorial sentry Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and then stormed Centre Block, Harper told the Commons new laws giving police more powers to surveil, detain and arrest suspected extremists are, \u201calready underway and will be expedited.\u201d<\/p>\n