[Peace-discuss] Obama orders another murder?

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Of course he's ordered thousands - men, women, and children - from Palestine to 
Pakistan, and from Central Asia to the Horn of Africa. E.g., see Gen. Petraeus' 
"Secret Directive" from last fall.  When 20th cent. leaders - Stalin, Hitler - 
ordered extra-judical murders & assassinations, we thought that that frimly 
diferentiated them from our own leaders.  But what is different with Obama's 
assassinations (by drone or CIA)? Is it just that he's not ordered quite so 
many? It's not a power the Founders envisioned.  They would have found it an 
eminently impeachable offense. Those Americans today who are calling for a 
return to the Constitution are clearly correct. --CGE]

	Daniel Ellsberg fears a US hit on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
	By Muriel Kane
	Friday, June 11th, 2010 -- 7:17 pm

Daniel Ellsberg, who gained fame when he leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 in 
hopes of ending the Vietnam War, told MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan on Friday that he 
not only sees a parallel between himself and the person who recently leaked a 
video of an assault by US forces on Iraqi civilians but also fears for the 
safety of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who published the video.

Army specialist Bradley Manning was recently arrested in the case, and according 
to reporter Philip Shenon, the Pentagon is "desperately" seeking Wikileaks 
founder Julian Assange in hopes of preventing further damaging revelations.

Noting that since his own prosecution under the Espionage Act "for revealing 
information to the American public" almost 40 years ago there had been only two 
other similar indictments prior to the current administration, Ellsberg stated 
angrily, "President Obama, who came in promising transparency in government and 
to end the excessive secrecy has totally violated that pledge. ... That's really 
not the kind of change I voted for when I voted for him."

Philip Shenon, who was appearing along with Ellsberg, told Ratigan that Assange 
"was supposed to appear this evening at a panel in Las Vegas ... but he 
apparently canceled on them at the last minute. ... He said last week at [a] New 
York gathering that he had been instructed by his lawyers not to return to the 
United States."

"I was supposed to do a dialogue with him at that conference," Ellsberg added, 
"and the explanation he used was that he understood that it was not safe for him 
to come to this country."

"I think it's worth mentioning a very new and ominous development in our 
country," Ellsberg continued. "I think he would not be safe even physically, 
entirely, wherever he is. ... We have a president who has announced that he 
feels he has the right to use special operations operatives against anyone 
abroad that he thinks is associated with terrorism."

Recalling that he himself had been the intended target of a CIA hit squad in 
1972, Ellsberg suggested, "As I look at Assange's case, their worry that he will 
reveal current threats, I would have to say, puts his well-being, his physical 
life, in some danger. And I say that with anguish. ... I think Assange would do 
well to keep his whereabouts unknown."

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0611/daniel-ellsberg-fears-hit-wikileaks-founder/

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