President Barack Obama has finally received praise for his terror policies . . . from Bush officials. Two of the officials commonly named as responsible for allegedly criminal acts during the Bush Administration, former National Intelligence Director retired Vice Admiral Michael McConnel and former Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden, are heaping praise on Obama for going even farther than George Bush in his policies. Now, there is an ignoble accomplishment.
McConnell is positively gushing with praise that “the new administration has been as aggressive, if not more aggressive, in pursing these issues . . . ” Hayden, who is most often cited for the unlawful surveillance programs under Bush, stated “I thank god every day for the continuity” shown by Obama in continuing Bush’s approach to the law and terror.
Hayden, who is my neighbor in Virginia, has also opposed any prosecution for torture under the Bush Administration. Obama has pleased many in the Bush Administration by insisting that CIA personnel will never face prosecution for torture — despite our treaty obligations to investigate and prosecute such crimes.
President Obama has certainly earned these professional references. He blocked public interest lawsuits in federal court on the unlawful surveillance program while blocking any investigation into torture. Hayden was the direct beneficiary of these policies. It is like Bernie Madoff praising the enforcement policies of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that allowed him to thrive in the 1990s. When many of us were stating that Hayden’s surveillance programs were clearly unlawful, Hayden was insisting that his own lawyers at the NSA had reviewed the program and were satisfied that it was lawful. This was the same tactic used by Bush in selecting biased lawyers to give clearly unsound legal analysis to support unlawful programs. Ultimately, when Hayden’s program was brought into federal court and faced actual judicial review, Hayden opposed such independent and competent review — and Obama ultimately stopped it.
I accept that people of good faith can disagree with civil libertarians on some of these programs — though even the Bush Administration came to reject the legal analysis of the torture programs. However, Hayden and Obama did not want to risk federal courts resolving this matter on issues like surveillance. Instead, they just circumvented the legal system. The pat on the back for a job well done by Hayden and McConnell should give someone in his Administration a moment of pause . . but I doubt it.
Source: SiFy
Jonathan Turley
Here’s an interview with Scahill on Democracy Now. The entire piece is worth reading through. I’m only excerpting one part to help explain my point, but the interview addressed many extremely important issues: “JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. Well, first of all, yeah, you look at Obama’s top allies, it’s people like John McCain, it’s people like Mitch McConnell, who praised Obama for implementing the Bush administration’s Iraq strategy at the end. And, I mean, some of this is partisan politics. And, please, the Republicans have no credibility on this. I mean, if we can be critical of Barack Obama, I mean, the Republicans are just merciless criminals when it comes to, you know, US policy in Iraq and toward the world, more broadly.
But the fact that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer all acted like astonished that there’s going to be 35,000 to 50,000 troops in a residual capacity in Iraq and were criticizing this, I mean, this is a classic example of what’s wrong with the Democratic Party when it comes to foreign policy and what’s been wrong with this party for a long time. And that is that when it actually mattered, when Pelosi or Reid could have said to candidate Obama, “Back off that residual force,” as many activists were calling for, they were deafeningly silent. We were at the Democratic convention, Amy, walking around, trying to find anyone to criticize that aspect of the Obama policy, and not even antiwar Democrats, who were firmly against the war from the beginning, would dissent from the policy positions of the dear leader. This is cult activity, when you refuse to go after someone to try to criticize their policies when it matters and then later act like you’ve been hoodwinked. They knew exactly what was going on. “
Elaine,m
I’m not certain why you keep thinking I’m saying no one on the left has spoken out. Here is what I just wrote: “There are leftist who have said things are wrong no matter who is doing them.” I can’t see reading that as saying, no one on the left has spoken out. I’m saying something else. Not ENOUGH people on the left have spoken out. That is changing, but it needs to move more quickly. Please don’t say my memory is selective because that seems like a personal attack which is unwarrented. It is your misreading of my posts that is incorrect.
(BTW, Jeremy Scahill agrees with me. He wrote how he’d made a mistake an forgotten about the rule that the left wasn’t supposed to criticize Obama!)
Elaine M. wrote:
“While I agree that there are those on the left who choose to avert their eyes to some of the things President Obama is doing/has done–there are many of us liberals/progressives/lefties who do not condone them. Please don’t paint us all with the same brush.”
===========
Since I agreed with Jill, I’ll address this, as well. I didn’t take what she said personally, because I feel that everyone is a bit to blame for what we’re seeing now. We’re all at fault, even those of us who don’t condone what is taking place. As long as the policies remain in place — until we see the necesssary changes in our government — we’re all complicit. And I’m pointing the finger at myself, as well. Just my humble opinion…
There were many in Nazi Germany who didn’t condone what they saw and, still, people were marched to the camps and the gas chambers…
Annie,
I think the corporations and Wall Street and the banks have the power.
I think the right has the power.
anon nurse: I don’t think the left has the power. I think of Obama as slightly left of center. The house is now turning right. Look at the new committee chairs. The Senate is also a centrist body, and it will be more that way with the loss of some progressive members. Bdaman might think Obama is a muslim socialist that was born in another country but I don’t.
Jill,
Has everyone on the left stayed silent? You seem to ignore those who have spoken out…and spoken out loudly. Why did Robert Gibbs and President Obama get upset and castigate those on the left who have criticized him and his Administration? I think that you have selective memory.
*****
“So instead of taking what I say as an insult, just take it as a statement of what has happened and what needs to happen, quickly, before it is too late.”
I agree with much of what you have written–but your perspective is a bit different from mine. YOUR reality is a not exactly the same as MY reality.
Swarthmore mom,
You’re right on one hand (no pun intended)about the left always getting the blame, but the left has the ball right now is running the wrong way on the field, with respect to fighting the crazy war on terror. I blame the right, too… but, now, it’s up to the left to stop this lunacy in its tracks…
Elaine,
I am saying that leftists have folded, big time, in the quest for justice under Obama. There are leftist who have said things are wrong no matter who is doing them. (Many of these people were/are viciously attacked by the left.) Now, just look at the anti war movement. Although we have increased the number of illegal wars of empire and the killing of civilians with drones is far worse under Obama than even Bush, the anti-war movement has been eerily silent, our numbers gutted. I know what I’m saying is going to make people on the left uncomfortable, but the reality remains, far too many leftist stood silently by as Obama engaged(s) in war and financial crimes. This is starting to change, but it needs to move much faster, because Obama and friends didn’t wait around to accomplish their aims. They have taken full advantage of the left’s silence. So instead of taking what I say as an insult, just take it as a statement of what has happened and what needs to happen, quickly, before it is too late.
Reagan blamed the left. Nixon blamed the left. Cheney blamed the left. Gibbs blamed the left. Fox news blames the left. Sarah Palin blames the left. Why is the left always the group that is blamed?
annie,
I don’t believe you read what I wrote. Here is what I said: “Of course the right will aid this repression in their own way,…”
I also clearly stated that too many Republicans had been completely remiss in their duties as citizens to oppose the repression which took place under Bush/Cheney. I doubt Rush would agree with those statements. When he blames the left, it has nothing to do with what I said. He agrees to the police state. As I leftist, I do not, but I see many leftist who do.
Remember, historically police states come from both the right and the left. As a leftist, I feel many on the left have shirked the duties as citizens to stand up for the rule of law and for justice. This failure has been and continues to be a disaster. None of this would bother Rush in the least as he completely agrees with the formation of a police state!
Jill,
“This govt. can only be this repressive because leftists consent to be governed in such a reprehensible way. Of course the right will aid this repression in their own way, but it will be the essential unethical and dishonest left who will continue to support heinous crimes, the dismantling of our own govt., all in the name of ‘it’s our guy’.”
*****
While I agree that there are those on the left who choose to avert their eyes to some of the things President Obama is doing/has done–there are many of us liberals/progressives/lefties who do not condone them. Please don’t paint us all with the same brush. There are also those in the media who are considered to be liberals/progressives/lefties who have called out the President on a number of issues–including Amy Goodman and Democracy Now, Glenn Greenwald, Ed Schultz, Jeremy Scahill and other writers for The Nation…among others.
Rush Limbaugh agrees. The left is to be blamed for everything.
Jill,
Another spot-on comment — the whole of it… (Thank you.)
FFLEO,
Tell me how I generalized too much!
Jill,
I agree mostly with what you stated; however, since I am a conservative Republican, I think you generalized too much regarding this statement of yours
{“…it will be the essential unethical and dishonest left who will continue to support heinous crimes,..”}
Here’s a sobering article:
http://www.alternet.org/story/149324/america_in_decline%3A_why_germans_think_we%27re_insane?page=entire
“Some social scientists think that making sure large-scale crime or fascism never takes root in Europe again requires a taxpayer investment in a strong social safety net. Can we learn from Europe? Isn’t it better to invest in a social safety net than in a large criminal justice system? (In America over 2 million people are incarcerated.)”
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We’re in terrible trouble. The following article was written in 2007 and things are much worse now. We can ignore it. We can pretend. We can stick our heads in the sand. But fascism is upon us and the situation is only going to get worse.
http://www.alternet.org/story/71881/
Creeping Fascism: From Nazi Germany to Post 9/11 America
By Ray McGovern
Americans today are seeing the same sheepish submissiveness that characterized Germany after the burning of the Reichstag.
“There are few things as odd as the calm, superior indifference with which I and those like me watched the beginnings of the Nazi revolution in Germany, as if from a box at the theater … Perhaps the only comparably odd thing is the way that now, years later …”
These are the words of Sebastian Haffner (pen name for Raimund Pretzel), who as a young lawyer in Berlin during the 1930s experienced the Nazi takeover and wrote a firsthand account.
I recently learned from his daughter Sarah, an artist in Berlin, that yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Haffner’s birth. She had seen an earlier article in which I quoted her father and emailed to ask me to “write some more about the book and the comparison to Bush’s America … this is almost unbelievable.” (end of excerpt)
Don’t think Karl Rove is a ‘mindless republican” neither is Dick Cheney.
Two sides of the same coin.
The Council on Foreign Relations coin.
This is why they are similar and have a meeting of minds on issues of force, oppression, torture, and murder.
The CFR is a powerful unaccountable (subversive and seditious)group of individuals. They really run America. The CIA is even a member. As are all the media giants. This is pure political corruption as has never been in human history.
It is impossible to concentrate this many powerful persons in one place without a threat to life and liberty. Absolute power corrupts, and it destroy and murders.
These people are subversives who already subscribe to a publicly stated goal of abolishing sovereign borders and forming a world government. And any American who has political office and CFR membership has already violated his or her oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the United State. They are traitors.
Examples of this are: Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Joe Biden, the late Ted Kennedy, John McCain, Al Gore, and Barack Obama. Biden and Cheney being two of the longest serving CFR members.
These people are traitors. They are dangerous, seditious extremists of the worst kind. And they are usurpers.
Obama has received his well earned praise from multiple Bush administration officials, including of course, those who have stayed on in his administration. It is interesting how these fine fellows have quickly come to terms with the reality that Obama is Bush III on steroids, yet Obama supporters still believe in Obama’s essential goodness. This tells me the cult of Obama is quite strong, obliterating the reality of Obama’s actions on torture, war, economic and environmental crimes. The people who directly benefit from these crimes are quite happy with him. What is very odd is the happiness of those who would have abhorred these same actions had they been done by a Republican president.
Just as it took a village of people, those who reflexively supported Bush because he was (supposedly) “on their side, a great guy”, we see Obama supporters reflexively closing their minds to the reality of what he is doing. Obama supporters believe a totalitarian govt. would only come from mindless Republicans and their supporters. I say, it will come from the left, people who absolutely will not face up to what has happened under this administration. This govt. can only be this repressive because leftists consent to be governed in such a reprehensible way. Of course the right will aid this repression in their own way, but it will be the essential unethical and dishonest left who will continue to support heinous crimes, the dismantling of our own govt., all in the name of “it’s our guy”.
I do not feel this dismantling is inevitable, but I do feel time is running out for people to take stock of reality, to regain intellectual and moral integrity, and oppose wrong doing whenever it occurs—period–no exceptions. This is our nation at stake, not a party, our nation. It is our world at stake, not a party, the world.