Imperial Presidency

Greenwald Uses Pre-Russia Snowden Data to Hammer the NSA Again.

"The NSA’s spying is comprehensive. Everyone is grist for the mill. Every foreign politician now knows that he is being monitored. Greenwald is using Snowden’s basket of eggs to cook up fresh eggs for Obama’s face every month. Nothing will change at the NSA, of course. Its gigantic hidden budget will not be touched. The spying will go on. Congress will do nothing. But the blowback will also go on. Obama will continue to look like a conniving functionary of the NSA, which he in fact is. The NSA is in charge; Obama isn’t. It’s very bad for creating the image of Obama as the man in charge. He is either out of the loop or low man on the totem pole." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGreenwald Uses Pre-Russia Snowden Data to Hammer the NSA Again.

WikiLeaks Launches Criminal Investigation ahead of Obama Visit to Sweden

"WikiLeaks will file a criminal complaint in Sweden, ahead of the arrival of President Obama. The complaint concerns the seizure of WikiLeaks property on 27 September 2010, following its publication of thousands of classified US intelligence documents on the war in Afghanistan. WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange said: 'Swedish authorities have the opportunity to demonstrate that no one, including state officials, is above the law.' The property seized included evidence of a war crime perpetrated by US forces in Afganistan in which more than sixty women and children were killed, known as the Garani massacre." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWikiLeaks Launches Criminal Investigation ahead of Obama Visit to Sweden

Bradley Manning’s Letter To President Obama Requesting Pardon

"The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been at war. We’ve been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on any traditional battlefield, and due to this fact we’ve had to alter our methods of combating the risks posed to us and our way of life. I initially agreed with these methods and chose to volunteer to help defend my country. It was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I started to question the morality of what we were doing." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBradley Manning’s Letter To President Obama Requesting Pardon

U.S. Officials Are Above the Law of Nations and Ordinary Laws

"With regard to Nuremberg ideas of law and sanctions against aggressive war, the U.S. government considers itself above all that. It’s a case of 'now you see it, now you don’t'. If the U.S. decides to bomb somebody and wants to mention Nuremberg as a justification (or its equivalent like a charge of killing one’s own people), now you see it. If it decides its own officials can get away with aggression against Iraq, now you don’t. The fact of the matter is that the U.S. government regards itself as a law unto itself. It is the supreme and only superpower, by virtue of which what it says, goes. And what it says is law, it also claims." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Officials Are Above the Law of Nations and Ordinary Laws

The State: Judge in its Own Cause

"Is this really a nation of laws, though? There’s an old legal principle, 'nemo iudex in causa sua,' which translated into English means 'no one should be the judge of their own cause.' But in fact all the laws theoretically limiting the state’s power are interpreted by — wait for it — officials of the state. The commission of the actual military, intelligence and diplomatic crimes themselves, the classification of documents that evidence those crimes, and the setting of civil and criminal penalties for revealing wickedness in high places — all these things are done by officials of the same government." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe State: Judge in its Own Cause

“Absolute Immunity” for the “Supreme Crime”

"One week before whistleblower Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for exposing war crimes, the Obama administration filed a petition with a federal court in San Francisco arguing that George W. Bush and his top advisers enjoy 'absolute immunity' against any potential criminal charges or civil liability arising from the Iraq war. At the Nuremberg Tribunal following World War II, aggressive war was designated the 'supreme crime,' and it was recognized that faithful execution of unlawful orders does not immunize soldiers for their actions in waging aggressive war. High-ranking officials of the National Socialist Party were sent to the gallows for the crime committed by Bush and his cohorts." Continue reading →

Continue Reading“Absolute Immunity” for the “Supreme Crime”

Obama heckled over sentencing of Chelsea Manning

"President Barack Obama was interrupted by protesters on Thursday night amid a speech on college affordability. While Obama was speaking in Syracuse, New York, two woman began shouting at him. One of the women held up a giant 'Free Bradley Manning' sign. Both women were escorted out of the event. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday for leaking thousands of secret U.S. documents to WikiLeaks. Her supporters have called on Obama to pardon Manning, arguing she is a whistle-blower who acted on behalf of the public." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama heckled over sentencing of Chelsea Manning

How to Start a War by the Bootstrap Method

"The U.S. need never again be at peace, because it has so many ways to get war going. There is now a new way to create a war. Obama has invented it. At this point in its history, the empire no longer needs to be attacked, by an actual or fabricated attack. It no longer needs to manufacture a pretext. It no longer needs to say that there is a threat of a threat. It no longer needs to suspect weapons of mass destruction. It no longer needs to point to an humanitarian concern. It no longer needs to mention national security. Obama’s method is simple. Make a threat by drawing a red line. There need be no relation of that line to any U.S. interest or to national defense or an attack on America." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow to Start a War by the Bootstrap Method

Kerry: U.S. has firm evidence sarin gas was used in Syria attack

"'Each day that goes by,' Kerry said, 'this case is getting stronger. I mean, today I'm at liberty to tell you that we now have samples back from first responders in East Damascus - those samples of hair and blood have been tested, and they have reported positive for signatures of sarin. So, we are now getting a stronger case each day. The credibility of the United States is on the line here and I believe that Congress will do the right thing.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKerry: U.S. has firm evidence sarin gas was used in Syria attack

Glenn Greenwald: Obama, Congress and Syria

"The Congressional vote which Obama said he would seek appears, in his mind, to have no binding force at all. There is no reason to believe that a Congressional rejection of the war's authorization would constrain Obama in any way, other than perhaps politically. To the contrary, there is substantial evidence for the proposition that the White House sees the vote as purely advisory, i.e., meaningless. Recall how - in one of most overlooked bad acts of the Obama administration - the House of Representatives actually voted, overwhelmingly, against authorizing the US war in Libya, and yet Obama simply ignored the vote and proceeded to prosecute the war anyway." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Obama, Congress and Syria