Obama and Co. Make Up the Law as They Kill
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A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
The president's men drib and drab out their rationale for how President Obama decides which Earthlings live or die. A newly leaked “white paper” claims the president can transfer his killing authority to unnamed, unranked “informed, high level” officials. Thus, the people-killing process “is whatever the president or the nearest 'informed, high-level official of the U.S. government' says it is.
Obama and Co. Make Up the Law as They Kill
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
“The white paper empowers Obama to delegate the kill-at-will authority.”
Unlike the bombast that characterized the Bush administration’s assaults on U.S. and international law, the Obama regime tends to dribble out its rationales for gutting the Bill of Rights and every notion of global legality. This president prefers to create a fog – let’s call it the fog of his war against human rights – as he arrogates to himself the power to perpetually imprison or to summarily execute anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. Obama assures us such authority is constitutionally rooted – it’s in there, believe me, he tells us – but he never produces legal chapter and verse to prove that presidential dictatorship is lawful. Instead, we get dribs and drabs of the administration’s position from lawyers defending Obama’s preventive detention law in the courts, or from informal statements by the attorney general, or even little tidbits gleaned from an Obama conversation with comedian Jon Stewart.
The latest hors d'oeuvre to be dished out comes in the form of a leak. I say “dished out” because leaked documents are commonly placed in public view by the administration in power, to test the political waters. This leaked Justice Department “white paper” appears to have been drawn up after the execution-by-drone of U.S. citizen Anwar Awlaki, in Yemen. It justifies the killing of anyone occupying a position of status in al-Qaida, or with the ever-changing universe of groups said to be “associated” with al-Qaida. The document stretches the definition of “imminent threat” to cover anyone engaged in activities directed against the U.S., whether or not an actual operation is planned or in progress. Most interestingly, the white paper empowers Obama to delegate the kill-at-will authority to "an informed, high-level official of the U.S. government." Which has a certain logic, since dictators certainly have the power to delegate the carrying out of their unjust acts to whomever they choose.
“It justifies the killing of anyone occupying a position of status in al-Qaida.”Eleven U.S. senators are asking for further clarification of the administration’s legal position. But that is just more fog, since the Congress overwhelmingly passed Obama’s preventive detention law – twice!! – a law based on the same assumption that due process of law does not apply when the president says it’s wartime. Therefore, the commander-in-chief can lock up any American, without charge or trial, forever, or until he declares peace. The U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder, has made the administration’s position clear enough. Due process, he says, does not necessarily mean access to the judicial process – meaning, a trial. The process is whatever the president or the nearest “informed, high-level official of the U.S. government" says it is. Obama had redefined war, itself. The president told the Congress, after bombing Libya for eight months, that by his definition – which is the only one that counts – no state of war exists unless Americans become casualties, even if the U.S. kills tens of thousands, or millions. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fond of saying that the arc of history bends towards justice. In the long term, that may be true. But Martin’s arc is not bending towards justice under this administration. It bends towards fascism, with a Black presidential face. For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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When I hear the all-news radio stations giving summaries, I fli
flinch. It's even "beyond Kafka". This morning, the all-news AM radio stations, doing their "we'll give you the world in 22 minutes" (no, they don't even try, but that's another story), was summarizing this amazing "magic trick" by Obama in coverage of Brennan's testimony to be confirmed as head of the CIA. (Chilling in itself) One summary cited, "Obama has authorization to do these drone strikes of Americans anywhere...etc..based on the authorization of the use of force that was used to invade Iraq". Ponder that. Slowly, slowly, teeny, tiny opposition seems to be emerging....What there is will get very little corporate (and that includes NPR which is of like-mind) coverage. This highlights why BAR is so vital.
If I "make it", I'll be 73 or 18 1/4 Leap Year birthdays, on the last day of February. I was very young, but I lived through the McCarthy years, Co-intelpro "in full flower" in the 1960s when the government killed BlackPanthers Party members, all the events since I was born mentioned in Chalmer's Johnson's "Blowback" (a great book, which I'm reading now, copyright 2000)...but this is the scariest. Why? In part because it's "in your face" outhere, not even covering up killing people anywhere, anytime, ,,, UPDATE: I am monitoring my public photostream page of art on Flickr to keep it public "anyone can see the art" as well as download it; the settings had been changed once but not by me. There are 15 pieces of art of dissent: from NO TO DRONES to FREE LYNNE STEWART and more. Google or other search, the art on Flickr - my birthday gift to all,
"Sanda Aronson" .
UPDATE II: Re Flickr: I just got an email from Flickr that they discovered some "virus" had changed my settings re "can be seen by anyone" and "private", which I had already discovered and I corrected it to "can be seen by anyone".
Dear Obama supporters,
When the US was at war with Japan, even loyal Japanese whose families had been here for generations were interned.
After 9/11, even loyal Muslims whose families had been here for generations came under suspicion.
The US has sent troops to 35 countries in Africa. We destroyed Libya, we're supporting Al Qaeda in Syria, and we have been drone bombing in Mali, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia, not to mention our ongoing proxy wars for resources in the DRCongo.
So now that we're at war with Africa, who do you think will next be regarded as potential enemy sympathizers?
If you have some physical resemblance to the enemy, or happen to have some African decor in your home, no other evidence is needed--you are a danger to national security.
Good to see more people are
Good to see more people are waking up and fighting back. See article below:
Relying on Rutherford Institute Model Resolution, Charlottesville Becomes First U.S. City to Limit Police Drones; TRI Calls on Rest of Country to Follow Suit
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — In a 3-2 vote, members of the Charlottesville City Council adopted a resolution drafted by The Rutherford Institute which urges the Virginia General Assembly to prevent police agencies from utilizing drones outfitted with anti-personnel devices such as tasers and tear gas and prohibit the government from using data recorded via police spy drones in criminal prosecutions. In so doing, Charlottesville has become the first city in the country to limit the use of police spy drones, providing momentum and inspiration for other cities across the country to follow suit.
The passage of the resolution, which also places a two-year moratorium on the use of drones within city limits, coincides with a Department of Justice memo leaked to the media which outlines the Obama administration’s rationale for assassinating U.S. citizens via drone strike. With at least 30,000 drones expected to occupy U.S. airspace by 2020, John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, has called on government officials at the local, state, and federal level to do their part to safeguard Americans against the use of drones by police. Rutherford Institute attorneys have drafted and made available to the public language that can be adopted at all levels of government in order to address concerns being raised about the threats posed by drones to citizens’ privacy.
“It’s our hope that the rest of the country will follow Charlottesville’s lead in establishing clear limits on the use of drone technology, especially by law enforcement agencies,” said Whitehead. “The Obama administration’s unapologetic rationale for using drones to kill U.S. citizens sends a clear and urgent message about the need to limit the government’s use of these devices domestically. We cannot afford to be lulled into a sense of complacency by legislation placing temporary moratoriums on drones. As with other weapons of war which have become routine weapons of compliance domestically, such as tasers and sound cannons, once drones are unleashed on the American people, there will be no limiting their use by government agencies.”
The FAA Reauthorization Act, signed into law by President Obama in 2012, authorized the use of drones domestically for a wide range of functions, both public and private, governmental and corporate. Prior to this, drones had been confined to military use in the battlefields over Iraq and Afghanistan . Yet as attorney John Whitehead points out, without proper safeguards, these drones, some of which are deceptively small and capable of videotaping the facial expressions of people on the ground from hundreds of feet in the air, will usher in a new age of surveillance in American society. Not even those indoors, in the privacy of their homes, will be safe from these aerial spies, which can be equipped with technology capable of peering through walls. In addition to their surveillance capabilities, drone manufacturers have confirmed that drones can also be equipped with automatic weapons, grenade launchers, tear gas, and tasers. Many local police departments throughout the country, including in Florida and California , have already begun utilizing drones in police procedures without any real regulations in place. In calling on local lawmakers to be proactive in safeguarding their constituents against drones, Whitehead is urging them to adopt a “trickle up” mindset by thinking nationally, but acting locally, noting that “when either state or national governmental entities overstep constitutional bounds, it is imperative that our local government address these issues.”
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