[Peace-discuss] A pretty impressive list

[C. G. Estabrook]

This statement is featured on/AWARE On The Air/ tonight (10pm channel 6).

Watch it to clear your mind of the feculent fatuities of the "State of the 
Union" speech.


On 1/25/11 11:21 AM, Brussel Morton K. wrote:
> 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
>
>
>     We Will Oppose Obama As Long As He Supports Wa
>     <http://warisacrime.org/primary>r
>
> REGISTER <http://warisacrime.org/user/register> and then ADD YOUR NAME
> <http://warisacrime.org/petition/56390>
>
> We the undersigned share with nearly two-thirds 
> <http://pollingreport.com/afghan.htm> of our fellow Americans the conviction 
> that our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be ended and that overall 
> military spending 
> <http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/85.php?nid=&id=&pnt=85&lb=btot> 
> 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.
>
> Since he became president, Obama has had three opportunities to work with 
> Congress to reduce military spending, but instead has championed increases 
> <http://warisacrime.org/content/obamas-proposals-increase-military-spending-each-year> 
> in that spending each time, despite the fact that this spending represents a 
> clear threat <http://davidswanson.org/content/its-jobs-or-wars-not-both> 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 supplemental 
> <http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/161/end-the-abuse-of-supplemental-budgets-for-war/> 
> spending bills, despite the fact that he campaigned against this very practice.
>
> The President has escalated a war on Afghanistan in which rising civilian 
> deaths and atrocities <http://warisacrime.org/aww> have become routine.
>
> He has given <http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones> the CIA even 
> greater freedom of action to launch lethal drone strikes against civilian 
> houses in Pakistan on mere assumption 
> <http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53194> of some connection with Taliban or 
> other organizations, despite the warning from the U.S. Ambassador in late 2009 
> -- revealed in a Wikileaks cable 
> <http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/wikileaks_exposes_the_danger_of_pakistans_nukes_20110113/> 
> -- that such attacks could "destabilize" the Pakistani government, despite 
> many reports 
> <http://news.antiwar.com/2011/01/02/report-cia-drones-killed-over-2000-mostly-civilians-in-pakistan-since-2006/> 
> that civilians, including children, are disproportionately victims, and 
> despite the contention of the United Nations and many U.S. allies that this 
> practice is illegal 
> <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37474231/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/>.
>
> Obama has approved an increase in covert operations by CIA-controlled 
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010092106707> 
> Afghan troops into Pakistan, and his administration has remained silent while 
> the U.S. command in Afghanistan leaked to the New York Times 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/world/asia/21intel.html> plans for new 
> Special Operations Forces raids into Pakistan aimed at Afghan Taliban targets.
>
> 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 75 
> nations 
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304965.html> 
> -- 15 more than when Obama took office.
>
> President Obama has, on a later schedule than he campaigned on, finally 
> reduced U.S. troop presence in Iraq.  But he has not 
> <http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/02/27/62930/obama-to-extend-iraq-withdrawal.html> 
> 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 possibility 
> <http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Biden-in-Iraq-for-Talks-on-US-Troop-Withdrawal-113447149.html> 
> 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.
>
> The Obama administration has announced plans to form an army of mercenary 
> troops <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/world/middleeast/19withdrawal.html> 
> 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 Blackwater 
> <http://www.newser.com/story/7952/us-reinstates-blackwater-in-iraq.html>, 
> despite the knowledge that it was guilty of atrocities against civilians in 
> that country, and despite the openly declared opposition 
> <http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0917/p99s01-duts.html> of the Iraqi government 
> to such a continued role.
>
> Obama has overseen increased 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/world/07weapons.html> weapons sales 
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/13/AR2010091306102.html> 
> to foreign nations, and assisting in those sales has been a major function 
> <http://warisacrime.org/content/us-embassy-norway-o-got-peace-prize-had-lived-and-breathed-1-year-making-norway-lockheed-cus> 
> of his State Department.  He has approved increased 
> <http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/21/more-money-fewer-nukes.html> funding for 
> work on nuclear weapons, even while supporting an arms control treaty.  He has 
> established a policy of potential nuclear first strike 
> <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1263914/Obamas-nuclear-strike-policy-softened-Iran-North-Korea.html> 
> against Iran or North Korea.
>
> 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 accepting 
> <http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/12/obamas_nobel_peace_prize_speec.html> 
> a Nobel Peace Prize.  He has, in his Oval Office speech last August, defended 
> <http://warisacrime.org/content/false-statements-president-obvamas-oval-office-speech> 
> false statements that took our nation into the current wars and false 
> statements that have prolonged them.
>
> 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 construction 
> <http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2010/12/navy-makes-move-today-on-jeju-island.html> 
> of new military bases in South Korea and provocative war games exercises.  His 
> administration has helped <http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/29-9> a 
> military coup succeed in Honduras.
>
> 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 murder 
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/un-factfinding-mission-sa_n_743873.html> 
> of an unarmed American youth.  He issued a presidential memorandum 
> <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/25/presidential-memorandum-child-soldiers-prevention-act> 
> 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.
>
> 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 information 
> <http://warisacrime.org/ongoingtorture> available, are still being subjected 
> to harsh treatment.  He has claimed 
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/21/obama-national-archives-s_n_206189.html> 
> 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 
> rendition 
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/target-of-obama-era-rendi_n_256499.html>.  
> His CIA Director Leon Panetta 
> <http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/2/9/102514/0119> and his senior advisor 
> David Axelrod <http://warisacrime.org/node/42892> have asserted, without 
> correction by the President, that the President maintains the power to torture 
> <http://warisacrime.org/ongoingtorture>.  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 collaborated 
> <http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/01/06/kuwait> with 
> Kuwait to torture that American.  The President has also openly claimed the 
> power to order the assassination 
> <http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/07/assassinations> 
> of Americans abroad.  In Iraq, the U.S. military has continued to work with 
> <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/8082223/Wikileaks-Iraq-War-Logs-show-US-ignored-torture-allegations.html> 
> and protect from accountability an Iraqi military that is known to regularly 
> use torture.
>
> The President has expanded 
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202771.html?hpid=topnews> 
> the use of warrantless spying 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/opinion/04sun1.html?_r=1>.  Under his 
> leadership, the FBI has infiltrated 
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/04/AR2010120403710.html> 
> peace groups and raided <http://www.stopfbi.net/about> the homes of peace 
> activists.  It has set up and entrapped 
> <http://www.alternet.org/story/149160/why_are_the_feds_cultivating_their_own_%22homegrown_terrorists%22> 
> in terrorism charges people whose training and motivation came largely or even 
> entirely from the FBI.  He has supported the re-authorization of the PATRIOT 
> Act 
> <http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/obama-backs-expiring-patriot-act-spy-provisions/>, 
> which strips away Americans' civil liberties.
>
> President Obama, in direct violation of the Nuremberg Charter, a U.S. treaty 
> commitment, has publicly instructed 
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/16/obama-admin-no-charges-ag_n_187837.html> 
> his Attorney General not to prosecute individuals responsible for crimes, 
> including torture.  His administration has worked hard to provide 
> <http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/obama-doj-worse-than-bush> retroactive 
> immunity to corporations engaged in warrantless spying 
> <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638765474658467.html> and individuals 
> engaged in sanctioning torture 
> <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a7UiIXtMlcyk&refer=home/pp%C2%A0/p>.  
> He has kept secret a vast trove of documents, photos, and videos pertaining to 
> prisoner abuse.  He has advanced unprecedented claims of secrecy powers 
> <http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/obamas-state-secrets-overreach040909.html> 
> in defending the crimes of his predecessor. President Obama's White House has 
> put great pressure 
> <http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/obama-spain-bush-torture-prosecution/> on 
> European states not to investigate or prosecute U.S. war crimes.
>
> This president has restricted 
> <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31373407/ns/politics-white_house/> the release of 
> the names of White House visitors and has pursued the prosecution and 
> punishment of government whistleblowers 
> <http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/05/25/whistleblowers> 
> 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 Bradley Manning 
> <http://warisacrime.org/content/how-bradley-manning-really-being-treated>.  
> His vice president, Joe Biden, has publicly labeled an Australian journalist, 
> Julian Assange, a "terrorist."  President Obama has used a private propaganda 
> firm 
> <http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0809/Pentagon_hires_Rendon_Group_to_screen_reporters_.html> 
> 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 restrict 
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/bp-coast-guard-officers-b_n_581779.html> 
> reporting by American journalists on an oil spill in American waters.
>
> 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 signing statements 
> <http://www.coherentbabble.com/listBHOall.htm>.  Expanded powers that are not 
> opposed now will be far more difficult to oppose later with another president 
> able to claim past precedent.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
>
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