[Peace-discuss] Obama's crimes

[C. G. Estabrook]

	US actors, intellectuals protest Obama 'crimes'
	(AFP) – 15 hours ago

NEW YORK — US actors and liberal intellectuals joined a list to be published 
Friday of nearly 2,000 people accusing President Barack Obama of allowing human 
rights violations and war crimes.
	
"Crimes are crimes, no matter who does them," the statement reads over pictures 
of Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush due to appear in the New York Review 
of Books.

The statement, published as a paid advertisement, accuses Obama, who was elected 
in 2008 with the enthusiastic support of US liberals, of continuing Bush's 
controversial approach to human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in domestic 
security.

It takes aim especially at Obama's decision -- reported by US officials -- to 
authorize the killing of a radical Islamic cleric and US citizen Anwar 
al-Awlaki, who is accused of ties to Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

"In some respects this is worse than Bush," the statement says. "First, because 
Obama has claimed the right to assassinate American citizens whom he suspects of 
'terrorism,' merely on the grounds of his own suspicion or that of the CIA, 
something Bush never claimed publicly."

Among the signatories are linguist Noam Chomsky, "L.A. Confidential" actor James 
Cromwell, actor Mark Ruffalo and prominent Bush-era anti-war protestor Cindy 
Sheehan. By midday Thursday there were 1,804 signatures.

They also lambast Obama for having refused "to prosecute any members of the Bush 
regime who are responsible for war crimes, including some who admitted to 
waterboarding and other forms of torture, thereby making their actions 
acceptable for him."

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

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