[includes 2nd update]
"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the 'TV watcher' to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money."
- Pierre-Henri Bunel
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President Obama (source: Reuters) |
President Obama has taken this propaganda and run with it, making George W. Bush almost blush. It is Obama who has now taken to using
extrajudicial force against Americans with the supposed killing of Al-Qaida stalwarts Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Like
Osama bin Laden before him, al-Awlaki
had also been
pronounced dead many times before. Also, like bin Laden, the U.S. Government went after him, not to question, but to kill. Instead of capturing these men who must have had vast amounts of information on the supposed evil, check-under-your-bed terrorist network, the commander-in-chief did not hesitate to kill them. Now does that make any sense to
you?
Using the Bunel quote above as a starting point, it makes perfect sense that our government would rather "kill" these men than have them talk about their involvement in a propaganda campaign initiated by the USG. Obama goes along with all of it without blinking an eye and spews lies to the American public
like, "...he repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous agenda." As with Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein being behind the 9/11 attacks, there is no proof of these alleged crimes.
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Anwar al-Awlaki (source: unknown). According to administration insiders, Obama called killing this American, "an easy one." |
Which brings us to the Fifth Amendment and the fact that these two men were actually Americans. "No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property." Now don't get me wrong, I realize that during the Bush administration lawyers went out of their way to bend and twist the Geneva Convention to label these Americans as "enemy combatants". This was done to tie policy with the part of the Fifth Amendment which reads, "...except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, of the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger...". This, of course, ignores the fact that only Congress has the ability to declare a war and, to the best of my knowledge, they have never declared such a war. Yet, with Obama, an extension of the Bush administration, we seemingly live comfortably in an age of endless war. Of perpetual war. Something to pass down to our children.
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Osama bin Laden (source: unknown) |
There are very, very few cries from the Left or Right about Obama's extrajudicial mass murder campaign. On the same day Osama bin-Laden was "killed", Obama launched an air strike against Muammar Gaddafi's compound in Libya which resulted in
deaths. Then later that day came the strike against bin Laden. All of these people killed, except for a lone individual, were
unarmed. Yes, from that fact arises the pejorative phrase for President Obama: mass murderer.
Look, I understand how the folks who voted for Obama, and even those who voted against him, would bristle with some kind of righteous indignation because of the use of term "mass murderer". Why, that conjures up images of Charlie Manson and the like after all, and cannot be used as an evaluation of presidential actions. Well, it is here that I will not attach pictures of blown to bits kids; blown to bits by either the artillery we use or sell. But, I may just have digressed.
President Obama has taken that step, beyond the abyss, down the slippery slope with an extrajudicial execution of two Americans. Do you hear me those on the Left? President Obama
PUBLICLY PROCLAIMED what George W. Bush had never
DARED publicly say: there was an extrajudicial execution two Americans today. Without charges, without a writ, without lawyers, without a judge and without a jury. I ask you, is this America? What is it about 9/11 and its aftermath that would allow us, as a nation, to turn a blind eye to the extrajudicial murders of two Amercians by their President?
1ST UPDATE:
Since the publication of this post, more mass murders have taken place. The most obvious recent example is the death of Moammar Gadhafi, thanks to the handiwork of the ubiquitous American Predator Drones. My feelings about this latest killing can be found
here.
More disturbing and strangely vengeful is the recent murder of Anwar Al-Awlaki's
sixteen year old son! He was an American, for crying out loud! How many must Obama murder before there is any groundswell of banishment of this despicable practice? Killing Americans...
2ND UPDATE:
Tuesday, May 29th, 2012, The New York Times printed a lengthy piece with the troubling title:
"Secret 'Kill' List Tests Obama's Principles and Will". In it, and I mean way in the article, comes the knowledge that to avoid so many civilian deaths in unmanned drone attacks, Obama redefined that a militant was, "in effect...all military-age males in a strike zone..., according to several administration officials..." Wow - no wonder you hardly hear about civilian deaths anymore!
The article also describes Obama saying his extra-judicial murder of Anwar al-Awlaki was
"an easy one."
My goodness. I actually agree with the bulk of what you wrote. That's got to be a first.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I find the occasion infinitely depressing.
BTW, I posted similar comments on the LA Times story.
Thom Hartmann mentioned this on his Friday program.
ReplyDeleteIt's a slippery slope...but what else would you expect from a Fascist Korporatocracy willing to commit mass murder in order to protect its massive profits?
I dunno, Dan. We must have agreed on something in the past. Glad to know that Thom Hartmann is on top of this.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, I disagree.
ReplyDeleteBush ordered 9/11, that means he ordered the killing of a whole lot of citizens. I also believe he ordered the anthrax attacks, more citizens killed on his order.
If you don't believe that you can look into the way they lie about the drug war, lots of citizens killed there.
Or their lies about nukes. It is undeniable that presidents are perfectly OK with killing their own citizens. If they weren't, they wouldn't lie to us about nuclear hazards like they do.
If they cared about our safety, they would tell us the truth.
Regardless of how much inside involvement there was concerning 9/11, there is no denying the fact that Americans were killed. The main difference in this case is that the "official story has that terrorists killed Americans" and Obama's actions "ARE the official story".
ReplyDeleteI agree about all of the lies and especially our current lie about radiation contamination.