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This statement is featured on<i> AWARE On The Air</i> tonight (10pm
channel 6). <br>
<br>
Watch it to clear your mind of the feculent fatuities of the "State
of the Union" speech.<br>
<br>
<br>
On 1/25/11 11:21 AM, Brussel Morton K. wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:1BA95C7D-5360-48AC-B878-385DCBC54677@comcast.net"
type="cite">The following petition is not all inclusive (by
leaving aside many domestic policies), but it's a pretty good list
of the exactions Obama has caused and why he should be removed
from office—if not worse. --mkb
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<table class="nodetitle" style="position: static; z-index:
auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<h2 class="title"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/primary">We Will Oppose
Obama As Long As He Supports Wa</a>r</h2>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div class="content">
<p><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/user/register"
target="_blank">REGISTER</a> and then <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/petition/56390"
target="_blank">ADD YOUR NAME<br>
</a></p>
<p>We the undersigned share with <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://pollingreport.com/afghan.htm">nearly
two-thirds</a> of our fellow Americans the conviction that
our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be ended and that <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/85.php?nid=&id=&pnt=85&lb=btot">overall
military spending</a> should be dramatically reduced.
This has been our position for years and will continue to
be, and we take it seriously. We vow not to support
President Barack Obama for renomination for another term in
office, and to actively seek to impede his war policies
unless and until he reverses them. </p>
<p>Since he became president, Obama has had three
opportunities to work with Congress to reduce military
spending, but instead has championed <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/content/obamas-proposals-increase-military-spending-each-year">increases</a>
in that spending each time, despite the fact that this
spending represents a clear <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/content/its-jobs-or-wars-not-both">threat</a>
to the economic future of our country. He has continued as
well to try to hide the true costs of the wars by funding
them with off-the-books <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/161/end-the-abuse-of-supplemental-budgets-for-war/">supplemental</a>
spending bills, despite the fact that he campaigned against
this very practice.<br>
<br>
The President has escalated a war on Afghanistan in which
rising civilian <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/aww">deaths and atrocities</a>
have become routine. <br>
<br>
He has <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones">given</a>
the CIA even greater freedom of action to launch lethal
drone strikes against civilian houses in Pakistan on <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53194">mere
assumption</a> of some connection with Taliban or other
organizations, despite the warning from the U.S. Ambassador
in late 2009 -- revealed in a Wikileaks <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/wikileaks_exposes_the_danger_of_pakistans_nukes_20110113/">cable</a>
-- that such attacks could "destabilize" the Pakistani
government, despite many <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://news.antiwar.com/2011/01/02/report-cia-drones-killed-over-2000-mostly-civilians-in-pakistan-since-2006/">reports</a>
that civilians, including children, are disproportionately
victims, and despite the contention of the United Nations
and many U.S. allies that this practice is <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37474231/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/">illegal</a>.<br>
<br>
Obama has approved an increase in covert operations by <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010092106707">CIA-controlled</a>
Afghan troops into Pakistan, and his administration has
remained silent while the U.S. command in Afghanistan leaked
to the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/world/asia/21intel.html">New
York Times</a> plans for new Special Operations Forces
raids into Pakistan aimed at Afghan Taliban targets.<br>
<br>
The President has expanded the use of Special Operations
Forces (SOF), operating in virtually total secrecy and
without any accountability to Congress, in one country after
another. SOF troops are presently in some <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304965.html">75
nations</a> -- 15 more than when Obama took office.<br>
</p>
<p>President Obama has, on a later schedule than he campaigned
on, finally reduced U.S. troop presence in Iraq. But he <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/02/27/62930/obama-to-extend-iraq-withdrawal.html">has
not</a> fully withdrawn U.S. combat forces from Iraq or
ended U.S. combat there, his claims to have done so
notwithstanding. His vice president has suggested, without
correction by the President, the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Biden-in-Iraq-for-Talks-on-US-Troop-Withdrawal-113447149.html">possibility</a>
of a U.S. military presence in the country even after the
deadline for withdrawal under the U.S.-Iraq withdrawal
agreement, if only through the use of military contractors.<br>
<br>
The Obama administration has announced plans to form an army
of <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/world/middleeast/19withdrawal.html">mercenary
troops</a> from private military contractors in Iraq which
is to have its own air force and its own fleet of
mine-resistant military vehicles. The plan includes
continued contracts with the company formerly called <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.newser.com/story/7952/us-reinstates-blackwater-in-iraq.html">Blackwater</a>,
despite the knowledge that it was guilty of atrocities
against civilians in that country, and despite the openly
declared <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0917/p99s01-duts.html">opposition</a>
of the Iraqi government to such a continued role.<br>
<br>
Obama has overseen <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/world/07weapons.html">increased</a>
weapons <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/13/AR2010091306102.html">sales</a>
to foreign nations, and assisting in those sales has been a
major <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/content/us-embassy-norway-o-got-peace-prize-had-lived-and-breathed-1-year-making-norway-lockheed-cus">function</a>
of his State Department. He has approved <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/21/more-money-fewer-nukes.html">increased</a>
funding for work on nuclear weapons, even while supporting
an arms control treaty. He has established a policy of
potential nuclear <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1263914/Obamas-nuclear-strike-policy-softened-Iran-North-Korea.html">first
strike</a> against Iran or North Korea.<br>
<br>
President Obama has argued for the justness of war-making in
widely watched speeches from the Oval Office and in Oslo,
Norway, where he was <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/12/obamas_nobel_peace_prize_speec.html">accepting</a>
a Nobel Peace Prize. He has, in his Oval Office speech last
August, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/content/false-statements-president-obvamas-oval-office-speech">defended</a>
false statements that took our nation into the current wars
and false statements that have prolonged them.<br>
<br>
The President has supported sanctions against Iran and Syria
that punish the people, especially children, and not the
leadership, of those countries. He has sent ships and
missiles to Iran's border. He has risked hostilities with
North Korea through the ongoing <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2010/12/navy-makes-move-today-on-jeju-island.html">construction</a>
of new military bases in South Korea and provocative war
games exercises. His administration has <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/29-9">helped</a>
a military coup succeed in Honduras.<br>
<br>
President Obama has sought to allow more Israeli settlements
in Palestinian territories. He has protected Israel's
killing of activists on a humanitarian aid ship, not even
protesting at the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/un-factfinding-mission-sa_n_743873.html">murder</a>
of an unarmed American youth. He issued a presidential <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/25/presidential-memorandum-child-soldiers-prevention-act">memorandum</a>
on October 25, 2010, giving U.S. approval for the use of
child soldiers by Chad, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Sudan, and Yemen. He has backed Indonesian armed
forces that assassinated civilian activists in late 2009.
He has expanded the U.S. military presence in Colombia,
Costa Rica, Haiti, Guam, Italy, and Diego Garcia, as well as
overseeing an enormous military base construction project in
Afghanistan.<br>
<br>
President Obama has not closed the prison at Guantanamo Bay
and continues to maintain a network of detention facilities
in Afghanistan through which prisoners, according to the
most recent <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/ongoingtorture">information</a>
available, are still being subjected to harsh treatment. He
has <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/21/obama-national-archives-s_n_206189.html">claimed</a>
the right to imprison people, including American citizens,
indefinitely without charge or trial, thus further cementing
in place the elimination of the rights of prisoners of war
and the elimination of the right of habeas corpus for
anyone, as well as the rights found in the Fourth through
Eighth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The President
has claimed the power of <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/target-of-obama-era-rendi_n_256499.html">rendition</a>.
His CIA Director <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/2/9/102514/0119">Leon
Panetta</a> and his senior advisor <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/node/42892">David Axelrod</a>
have asserted, without correction by the President, that the
President maintains the power <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/ongoingtorture">to torture</a>.
In the recent case of Gulet Mohamed, the Obama
administration, for a time, claimed the power to forbid an
American to reenter the country, absent any conviction or
even any charge of a crime, and apparently <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/01/06/kuwait">collaborated</a>
with Kuwait to torture that American. The President has
also openly claimed the power to order the <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/07/assassinations">assassination</a>
of Americans abroad. In Iraq, the U.S. military has
continued to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/8082223/Wikileaks-Iraq-War-Logs-show-US-ignored-torture-allegations.html">work
with</a> and protect from accountability an Iraqi military
that is known to regularly use torture.<br>
<br>
The President has <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202771.html?hpid=topnews">expanded</a>
the use of <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/opinion/04sun1.html?_r=1">warrantless
spying</a>. Under his leadership, the FBI has <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/04/AR2010120403710.html">infiltrated</a>
peace groups and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.stopfbi.net/about">raided</a> the homes
of peace activists. It has set up and <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.alternet.org/story/149160/why_are_the_feds_cultivating_their_own_%22homegrown_terrorists%22">entrapped</a>
in terrorism charges people whose training and motivation
came largely or even entirely from the FBI. He has
supported the re-authorization of the <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/obama-backs-expiring-patriot-act-spy-provisions/">PATRIOT
Act</a>, which strips away Americans' civil liberties.<br>
<br>
President Obama, in direct violation of the Nuremberg
Charter, a U.S. treaty commitment, has publicly <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/16/obama-admin-no-charges-ag_n_187837.html">instructed</a>
his Attorney General not to prosecute individuals
responsible for crimes, including torture. His
administration has worked hard to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/obama-doj-worse-than-bush">provide</a>
retroactive immunity to corporations engaged in <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638765474658467.html">warrantless
spying</a> and individuals engaged in sanctioning <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a7UiIXtMlcyk&refer=home/pp%C2%A0/p">torture</a>.
He has kept secret a vast trove of documents, photos, and
videos pertaining to prisoner abuse. He has advanced
unprecedented claims of <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/obamas-state-secrets-overreach040909.html">secrecy
powers</a> in defending the crimes of his predecessor.
President Obama's White House has put great <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/obama-spain-bush-torture-prosecution/">pressure</a>
on European states not to investigate or prosecute U.S. war
crimes.<br>
<br>
This president has <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31373407/ns/politics-white_house/">restricted</a>
the release of the names of White House visitors and has
pursued the prosecution and punishment of government <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/05/25/whistleblowers">whistleblowers</a>
more aggressively than any previous president. His
administration is responsible for the cruel and unusual
lengthy confinement in a 6' by 12' cell, prior to any trial,
of alleged whistleblower <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/content/how-bradley-manning-really-being-treated">Bradley
Manning</a>. His vice president, Joe Biden, has publicly
labeled an Australian journalist, Julian Assange, a
"terrorist." President Obama has used a private propaganda
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0809/Pentagon_hires_Rendon_Group_to_screen_reporters_.html">firm</a>
that had been exposed planting lies in Iraqi media, to
screen potential embedded reporters for coverage of the U.S.
military. He has used the military to <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/bp-coast-guard-officers-b_n_581779.html">restrict</a>
reporting by American journalists on an oil spill in
American waters.<br>
<br>
Perhaps most perilously, President Obama has claimed the
right to engage in many of these activities without the
authorization of Congress. He has even claimed the power
first developed by his predecessor to rewrite new laws
through the extra-Constitutional use of presidential <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.coherentbabble.com/listBHOall.htm">signing
statements</a>. Expanded powers that are not opposed now
will be far more difficult to oppose later with another
president able to claim past precedent.<br>
<br>
The President's own deficit commission recommended cuts of
$100 billion to the military budget. The United States
spends about $1 trillion each year on the military, through
a variety of departments, and has spent over $1 trillion
already on the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Over half of
every U.S. dollar of income tax is going to war making. The
Department of Defense budget alone is larger than the
military expenditures of the next largest 16 militaries in
the world combined. That budget could be cut by 85% and
still be the largest in the world. In addition to the
lessening of hostility toward our country that would result
from a significant decrease in U.S. military presence around
the world, by shifting our financial resources we could
create jobs, green energy, top quality free education,
public transportation and infrastructure. We could also end
all talk of reducing our Social Security or health
coverage. We intend to support public servants who put our
money where it serves the public.<br>
<br>
We are not concerned with whether President Obama is acting
enthusiastically or reluctantly in pursuing a militaristic
policy abroad and more repression of dissent at home. It
matters little whether he is submitting to powerful forces
or freely following his preferred course. We do not elect
his soldiers or spies, his advisors, his campaign funders,
or the owners of our major media outlets. We elect the
president. We will not support his nomination for another
term, and we believe that a large proportion of Americans
who voted for him in 2008 will not do so again unless he
reverses the most egregious policies to which we have
referred -- especially by taking decisive steps to end the
war on Afghanistan and to make deep cuts in the military and
war budgets.</p>
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