MQ-9 Reaper flies above Creech AFB during a local training mission. (Photo by Paul Ridgeway; attained from Wikipedia)
Recently, President Barack Obama gave a speech about his counterterrorism strategy at National Defense University. In it, he justified his targeted killing policy and drone strikes of suspected terrorists around the world. He also announced his plan to finally shut down Guantanamo Bay prison.
The speech is lauded by many as a signal that President Obama wants to end the War on Terror. But the speech was full of clever sophistry and Orwellian doublespeak that made it seem like the perpetual war was ending just as it’s being institutionalized and normalized. In essence, it was a repackaging of America’s targeted killing program and system of permanent war. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, civil liberties, counterterrorism, drone warfare, drones, empire, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay prison, Human Rights, International Law, Kill List, medea benjamin, national defense university, national security, Obama, obama drones speech, obama gitmo speech, obama speech, orwellian doublespeak, Pakistan, permanent war, perpetual war, senator patrick leahy, Somalia, targeted killing, War on Terror, Yemen
Camp X-Ray (Gitmo) detainees, 1/11/2002, Source: Wikipedia
A few days before the new year rang in, I made three predictions for Turnstyle News about what’s in store for the year 2013. The first was a “drawdown but not a complete end to the war in Afghanistan”, the second was “continuation of drone strikes and targeted killing”, and the third was “indefinite detention of U.S. citizens will remain”. It’s a few days into 2013 but a few recent events show that the dismal state of peace and civil liberties will not cease any time soon. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, civil liberties, drone warfare, drones, extraordinary rendition, Gitmo, Global War on Terror, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay prison, Human Rights, indefinite detention, international human rights law, International Law, Kill List, laws of war, NDAA, Obama, Pakistan, Somalia, targeted killing, War, war crimes, War on Terror, Yemen
Photo Credit (source): No Lies Radio
The long and drawn out 2012 presidential election is finally over and President Barack Obama was reelected. Shortly after he was reelected, Obama launched another drone strike in Yemen — a harbinger of what’s to come in his second term. It is worth going through Obama’s foreign policy during the past four years in order to assess what he’s done and understand what the future holds.
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Tags: 2012 election, 2012 presidential election, Afghanistan, Africa, Barack Obama, China, disposition matrix, drone warfare, drones, empire, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kill List, Libya, Obama, Pakistan, proxy war, Somalia, targeted killing, War, War on Terror, Yemen
Cover of “Death Note”. Source: Wikipedia
On May 29, 2012, the New York Times published a long report (based on interviews with three dozen current and former Obama administration advisers) revealing how President Obama personally authorizes every drone strike against individuals suspected of being terrorists. Every Tuesday, the President, with two dozen counterterrorism officials, pore over mug shots and biographies of each suspect. The goal of these meetings is to determine which of these suspects is enough of a national security threat to warrant kill or capture — of which, the New York Times puts it, “the capture part has become largely theoretical”. As I read the article, I couldn’t help but think of the popular Japanese manga “Death Note” (which also became an anime series, a live-action film, and was banned in China). “Death Note” is a perfect allegory for the insidious moral implications of Obama’s targeted killing policy. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: al-Qaeda, anime, AQAP, CIA, civil liberties, Death Note, drone strikes, drones, Human Rights, Kill List, Light Yagami, manga, New York Times, Obama, Obama Kill List, Pakistan, Somalia, targeted killing, terrorism, U.S. Constitution, War on Terror, Yemen
Stop Kony 2012 poster. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Within a matter of days, the film “Kony 2012”, put out by the NGO Invisible Children (IC), went viral. In the beginning, the film highlights the brutality of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian militia group in Uganda led by a man named Joseph Kony. The LRA is known for committing massive human rights violations, such as using child soldiers, murder, mutilation, abduction, and sexual enslavement of women and children. Most of the film, though, focuses on IC’s efforts to bring Kony to justice and encourages viewers to take part in the campaign. What IC explicitly advocates is U.S. military intervention in Uganda to apprehend Joseph Kony.
I could not help but cringe as I watched this film. For one, it reeked of a disturbing white savior undertone. Ugandans were not portrayed as agents of their own liberation. Rather, they (particularly the young boy Jacob) were portrayed as helpless victims in need of Western do-gooders to save them with charity rather than solidarity and empowerment. As an African-American, I could not help but be offended by this. Many Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Africa, AFRICOM, Barack Obama, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, imperialism, Invisible Children, Kony, Kony 2012, militarism, Obama, Rwanda, Uganda
Guantanamo X-Ray prison at dusk, January 2002 (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll reveals something quite depressing. The poll shows that a majority of Americans, including many Democrats, support President Obama’s counterterrorism policies of keeping Guantanamo Bay prison open and drone strikes against suspected terrorists abroad. These are policies that Obama and many liberals criticized Bush for doing. But now that Obama is carrying them out, there’s ample support these policies.
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Tags: civil liberties, constitutional rights, drones, Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay prison, Human Rights, International Law, liberal, liberalism, Obama, Torture, War, war crimes
Blues African 