Imperial Presidency

Paul Craig Roberts: Stasi In The White House

"On June 19, 2013, US President Obama, hoping to raise himself above the developing National Security Agency (NSA) spy scandals, sought to associate himself with two iconic speeches made at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Fifty years ago, President John F. Kennedy pledged: 'Ich bin ein Berliner'. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan challenged: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.' Obama’s speech was delivered to a relatively small, specially selected audience of invitees. Even so, Obama spoke from behind bullet proof glass. Obama’s speech will go down in history as the most hypocritical of all time. Little wonder that the audience was there by invitation only." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaul Craig Roberts: Stasi In The White House

Obama’s crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S.

"President Barack Obama’s unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of 'insider threat' give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama’s crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S.

Glenn Greenwald: Snowden’s revelations ‘not espionage in any real sense of the word’

'I think it’s very surprising to accuse someone of espionage who hasn’t worked for a foreign government, who didn’t covertly pass information to an adversary [or] enemy of the United States, who didn’t sell any top secret information,' Greenwald told Hayes, arguing that Snowden 'asked newspapers to very carefully vet the information to make sure that the only thing being published are things that informed his fellow citizens but doesn’t harm national security.' 'This is a 1917 statute enacted under Woodrow Wilson to criminalize opposition to World War I. It has been used very, very sparingly throughout American history until the Obama administration.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Snowden’s revelations ‘not espionage in any real sense of the word’

CIA agents training Syrian rebels since late 2012

"The CIA and US special operations forces have been training Syrian rebels for months, since long before President Barack Obama announced plans to arm the opposition, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Training for rebel forces covers the use of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons and has been carried out at bases in Jordan and Turkey since late last year. The two-week courses, for about 20 to 45 fighters at a time, began last November at a new US base in the desert in southwest Jordan, it said. The report came days after the Obama administration announced it had approved the arming of Syrian rebels." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCIA agents training Syrian rebels since late 2012

Alabama man sentenced to prison for tweeting ‘let’s kill the president’

"U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr. sentenced 26-year-old Jarvis Britton of Birmingham to one year in prison for threatening the life of Obama. He must serve three years on probation after finishing the prison term. Britton pleaded guilty in March to threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict bodily harm on the president by tweeting the message, 'Let’s kill the president. F.E.A.R.,' in September. He received a warning from the Secret Service in June, but continued to make the threats. 'Serious question? If you knew about a terrorist group planning to kill the president, would you tell? I kinda wanna see if they can! F.E.A.R,' he tweeted on September 19, 2012." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAlabama man sentenced to prison for tweeting ‘let’s kill the president’

Petition To Pardon Edward Snowden Reaching 100,000 Signatures

"WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO: Pardon Edward Snowden. Edward Snowden is a national hero and should be immediately issued a a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPetition To Pardon Edward Snowden Reaching 100,000 Signatures

Ted Cruz: Will Obama do background checks before giving arms to Syrian rebels?

"In a tweet called the 'zinger of the day' by Twitchy, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wondered Tuesday if President Obama would conduct background checks before giving arms to Syrian rebels. 'Anyone know if President Obama intends to perform background checks on the Syrian rebels before providing them weapons?' he asked. As of this writing, the short message has been retweeted 6,480 times. Polls released Monday show that an overwhelming majority of Americans do not support plans to arm the rebels, Breitbart.com said. Part of the problem, John Nolte said, is 'the fear that the new boss will be an awful lot like the old boss.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTed Cruz: Will Obama do background checks before giving arms to Syrian rebels?

Associated Press CEO: Sources will no longer speak to us because of phone monitoring

"The US government’s secret seizure of Associated Press phone records had a 'chilling effect' on newsgathering by the agency and other news organizations, AP’s top executive said Wednesday. 'Some longtime trusted sources have become nervous and anxious about talking with us,' AP president and chief executive Gary Pruitt said in a speech to the National Press Club. 'In some cases, government employees we once checked in with regularly will no longer speak to us by phone. Others are reluctant to meet in person … Journalists from other news organizations have personally told me that it has intimidated both official and nonofficial sources from speaking to them as well.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAssociated Press CEO: Sources will no longer speak to us because of phone monitoring

Michael Hastings’ Final Article Before Car Explosion: ‘Why Democrats Love To Spy On Americans’

"For most bigwig Democrats in Washington, D.C., the last 48 hours has delivered news of the worst kind — a flood of new information that has washed away any lingering doubts about where President Obama and his party stand on civil liberties, full stop. Glenn Greenwald’s exposure of the NSA’s massive domestic spy program has revealed the entire caste of current Democratic leaders as a gang of civil liberty opportunists, whose true passion, it seems, was in trolling George W. Bush for eight years on matters of national security. 'Everyone should just calm down,' Senator Harry Reid said yesterday, inhaling slowly. That’s right: don’t panic." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMichael Hastings’ Final Article Before Car Explosion: ‘Why Democrats Love To Spy On Americans’

Who is Ben Rhodes?

"He is credited with convincing the president to embrace the Arab Spring, convincing the president to bomb Libya, and, now, convincing the president to start yet another war, this time against Syria. How did a 24-year old aspiring fiction-writer in 2002 suddenly become one of the drafters of not only the 9/11 Commission report but also the Iraq Study Group Report? Then move on to Obama's presidential campaign as a speechwriter and then to Deputy National Security Advisor, from which he announced the beginning of a US war on Syria while the president met with supporters in the East Room of the White House?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWho is Ben Rhodes?