Tag Archives | Assassinations

Democracy Now’s interview of Jeremy Scahill: Assassinations, Drones, Dirty Wars, Asymmetric Warfare, and Africa’s Bleak Future

By on April 29, 2013 in News 0

via chycho
Jeremy-Scahill-DNstudio
To say that Democracy Now! is a powerhouse when it comes to tackling some of the most important issues of our time is an understatement. Since their inception in 1996 they have shared and provided a perspective that most mainstream media outlets have been restricted from reporting.

We were privy to an excellent example of such reporting on April 23-24 when Jeremy Scahill, “the National Security Correspondent for The Nation magazine and author of the international bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army”, was interviewed by Amy Goodman.

The first part of the interview is focused on Scahill discussing the implications of Obama’s kill list and the details of the administration’s assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old Denver-born son Abdulrahman, two U.S. citizens killed by drones strikes in Yemen in 2011.

In part 2 Scahill talks about the documentary based on his new book, “Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield”, and gives us a glimpse into what the future holds in regards to asymmetric warfare, pays tribute to the importance of Wikileaks, and explains the reasons why the future of Africa looks so bleak.… Read the rest

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Attorney General Eric Holder Says Drone Killings On U.S. Soil Are ‘Hypothetically’ Doable

By on March 7, 2013 in News 15

Will lethal drone strikes someday come home? Business Insider reports:

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter Tuesday that Obama administration believes it could “hypothetically” carry out drone strikes against Americans on U.S. soil, but “has no intention of doing so.” The letter was sent to Republican Senator Rand Paul in response to his question about the constitutionality of drone strikes on U.S. soil.

But what is truly alarming about Holder’s letter is not his position, but his vague, almost supercilious, dismissal of the drone question itself:

The question you have posed is therefore entirely hypothetical, unlikely to occur, and one we hope no president will ever have to confront. It is possible to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution…for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States.

… Read the rest

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Assassinations of Environmental Activists Have Doubled Over the Last Decade

By on March 3, 2013 in News 24

Picture: Sigurdas (CC)

Fred Pearce writes at the Guardian:

Where is Sombath Somphone? With every day that passes, the fate of one of south-east Asia’s most high-profile environmental activists, who was snatched from the streets of Laos in December, becomes more worrisome.

His case has been raised by the State Department and countless NGOs around the world. But the authorities in Laos have offered no clue as to what happened after Sombath was stopped at a police checkpoint on a Saturday afternoon in the Lao capital of Vientiane as he returned home from his office. It looks increasingly like state kidnap — or worse, if recent evidence of the state-sponsored killings of environmental campaigners in other countries is anything to go by.

Personal danger is not what most environmentalists have in mind when they take up the cause of protecting nature and the people who rely on it in their daily lives.

… Read the rest

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U.S. Congress Mulls Creation Of Drone Court To Authorize Killings

By on February 25, 2013 in News 14

Who lives and who dies? The drone court will decide. Via Reuters:

During a fresh round of debate this week over President Barack Obama’s claim that he can unilaterally order lethal strikes by unmanned aircraft against U.S. citizens, some lawmakers proposed a middle ground: a special federal “drone court” that would approve suspected militants for targeting. The idea is being actively considered, however, according to a White House official.

At Thursday’s confirmation hearing for CIA director nominee John Brennan, senators discussed establishing a secret court or tribunal to rule on the validity of cases that U.S. intelligence agencies draw up for killing suspected militants using drones.

Senator Angus King, a Maine independent, said during the hearing that he envisioned a scenario in which executive branch officials would go before a drone court “in a confidential and top-secret way, make the case that this American citizen is an enemy combatant.”

… Read the rest

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Senator To Question Obama’s CIA Pick On America’s Drone Killings Policy

By on January 16, 2013 in News 6

We may finally get specifics on Obama’s special “matrix” which tells when to assassinate U.S. citizens by drone without due process. Via Wired:

The man in charge of America’s drone wars will face Senate questioning about perhaps their most controversial aspect: when the president can target American citizens for death.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sent a letter on Monday to John Brennan, the White House’s counterterrorism adviser and nominee to be head of the CIA, asking for an outline of the legal and practical rules that underpin the U.S. government’s targeted killing of American citizens suspected of working with al-Qaida. The Obama administration has repeatedly resisted disclosing any such information about its so-called “disposition matrix” targeting terrorists, especially where it concerns possible American targets. Brennan reportedly oversees that matrix from his White House perch, and would be responsible for its execution at CIA director.

“How much evidence does the President need to determine that a particular American can be lawfully killed?” Wyden, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, asks in the letter.

… Read the rest

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Pennsylvania Man Arrested For Plot To Murder Three Psychics

By on December 27, 2012 in News 3

The Scranton Times-Tribune unravels a celebrity psychic assassination plot:

Craven Vaughn sat beside the hitman in a car parked Thursday outside Wal-Mart on Route 29 in Eaton Twp. He gave the man $3,000 and the names of three psychic mediums he wanted “eliminated.”

The 32-year-old Towanda man did not want to talk about why the three mediums had to die. While Mr. Vaughn spoke about James Van Praagh, an author, television producer and self-proclaimed medium; Maureen Hancock, another TV medium with a series on the Style Channel; and David M. Baker, another professional medium who has written books, police investigators listened to the conversation, which a hidden microphone recorded.

And just moments after Mr. Vaughn got out of the car, the undercover state trooper he had just hired to kill three people on the West Coast radioed the arrest team.

… Read the rest

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Obama’s Crocodile Tears and Madeleine Albright’s Hard Choices: An Important Article to Read Regarding the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

By on December 19, 2012 in News 31

via chycho

Like most, sorrow has been the dominant emotion that I have been feeling regarding the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Two other emotions have overcome me as well, that of anger and disgust.

Anger that Obama, the architect for the normalization of assassinations and the one who embraced the redefinition of ‘civilians’ as ‘combatants’ in the drone wars, had the audacity to use such a tragic event to shed his crocodile tears. And disgust with our governments that value children’s lives based on their citizenry.

Originally it was my intention to share my sentiments by providing a detailed post regarding the shooting and its implications. However, I came across a piece that did, for the most part, just that. I believe you will find the article entitled ‘Bug-Splats’ by George Monbiot well worth the read:

“It must follow that what applies to the children murdered there by a deranged young man also applies to the children murdered in Pakistan by a sombre American president…

“‘Are we,’ Obama asked on Sunday, ‘prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?’ It’s a valid question.

… Read the rest

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Eleven Secret Documents Americans Deserve to See

By on December 11, 2012 in News 3

David Wallechinsky has written a list of eleven secret documents that he feels every American deserves to see:

Via AllGov:

Many documents produced by the U.S. government are confidential and not released to the public for legitimate reasons of national security. Others, however, are kept secret for more questionable reasons. The fact that presidents and other government officials have the power to deem materials classified provides them with an opportunity to use national security as an excuse to suppress documents and reports that would reveal embarrassing or illegal activities.

I’ve been collecting the stories of unreleased documents for several years. Now I have chosen 11 examples that were created—and buried—by both Democratic and Republican administrations and which cover assassinations, spying, torture, 50-year-old historical events, presidential directives with classified titles and…trade negotiations.

1. Obama Memo Allowing the Assassination of U.S. Citizens

When the administration of George W. Bush was confronted with cases of Americans fighting against their own country, it responded in a variety of ways.

… Read the rest

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No Sailors Witnessed Osama Bin Laden’s Burial At Sea

By on November 23, 2012 in News 9

Osama death strangeness via the Washington Post:

Internal e-mails among U.S. military officers indicate that no sailors watched Osama bin Laden’s burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson and traditional Islamic procedures were followed during the ceremony.

The e-mails, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, are heavily blacked out, but are the first public disclosure of government information about the al-Qaida leader’s death. The e-mails were released Wednesday by the Defense Department.

In a response to separate requests from the AP for information about the mission, the Defense Department said in March that it could not locate any photographs or video taken during the raid or showing bin Laden’s body.

… Read the rest

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Ask The Democrats: Can We Trust Romney With Obama’s Kill List?

By on September 10, 2012 in News 5

Were the GOP presidential ticket to triumph, could the American public count on Mitt Romney to properly order hush-hush drone killings of U.S. citizens as we now trust Obama? Last week Gawker‘s John Cook put this question to Democratic National Convention attendees (including DNC spokespeople, Senators Carl Levin and Chuck Schumer, and Newark mayor Cory Booker), eliciting some jumbled answers to the softball question of why Barack is the best man to choose whom to extrajudicially assassinate:

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