The Obama administration seems to believe that the president has the authority to order the assassination of anyone, including US citizens, if they meet certain as-yet-undisclosed criteria.
One US citizen, accused terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, has been widely reported to be on a US government 鈥渒ill list鈥 鈥 making him just one of several US citizens the government is reportedly trying to kill without charge or trial.
Barack Obama
Good and evil is back in vogue with the US far right.
Former president George W. Bush and the Republican Party attacked opponents of his invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan as aiding the 鈥渆vil doers鈥. And such evil should be tackled by whatever means necessary, no matter what the US constitution or international law says.
This tactic sent the many liberals and Democratic Party politicians running to the corners and lining up behind the war mongers.
鈥淲e won. It鈥檚 over, America. We brought democracy to Iraq.鈥 Those were the words of a soldier from the 4th Stryker Brigade, supposedly among the last US combat soldiers to leave Iraq, quoted in the August 20 www.DailyMail.co.uk two weeks ahead of President Barack Obama鈥檚 August 31 deadline for withdrawal.
The Obama administration is claiming the withdrawal of combat soldiers represents a new day for the country. 鈥淧olitics, not war, has broken out in Iraq鈥, US Vice-President Joe Biden told an August 23 convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, www.CSMonitor.com said that day.
Despite US President Barack Obama鈥檚 promise to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that his administration wouldn鈥檛 interfere in Venezuela鈥檚 internal affairs, the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is channelling millions to anti-Chavez groups.
Foreign intervention is not only executed through military force. The funding of 鈥渃ivil society鈥 groups and media outlets is one of the more widely used mechanisms by the US government to achieve its strategic objectives.
The following open letter was written by Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the US, to the Washington Post editorial board. He wrote in response to a July 30 editorial that accused Venezuela of harbouring Colombian 鈥渢errorists鈥. Alvarez said: 鈥淭his letter has been made public given that The Washington Post rarely publishes our responses.鈥
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Alarm bells should be ringing as the threat of war looms on the horizon, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned in his July 18 weekly column.
The warning came after tensions again flared with neighbouring Colombia, and the Central American nation of Costa Rica agreed to 6000 US troops being deployed on its soil.
Chavez placed Venezuela on high alert and broke diplomatic relations with Colombia after a July 22 meeting of the Organisation of American States (OAS).
The financial reform legislation just passed by Congress was proclaimed by US President Barack Obama as 鈥渢he toughest financial reform since the ones we created in the aftermath of the Great Depression鈥.
This is a kind of doublespeak. The entire thrust of financial reform in the decades since the 1930s has been toward financial deregulation. Being the toughest financial reform measure by that standard merely means that it didn鈥檛 give the house away.
The ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the April 20 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig has exposed the obscene behaviour of the world鈥檚 fourth-largest corporation, British Petroleum (BP).
Evidence has come from many sources revealing BP was aware of safety concerns, but did nothing about them.
On June 25, ABC News Radio reported 79 occupation soldiers had been killed so far that month, the highest number in any month since the October 2001 US-led invasion.
On June 23, US President Barack Obama sacked the commander of US-led occupation forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal 鈥 but not for the rising body count.
The sacking was in response to a July Rolling Stone article in which McChrystal and his aides regularly refer to civilian leaders of the occupying powers (including Obama) using terms such as 鈥渃lown鈥 and 鈥渇ucking gay鈥.
On June 1, part-Peruvian US actor and indigenous rights activist Q鈥檕rianka Kilcher was arrested for 鈥渄isorderly conduct鈥 after chaining herself to the White House fence while Peruvian President Alan Garcia met with US President Barack Obama.
Garcia refers to the Amazonian indigenous peoples of his country as barbaric savages. Kilcher had doused her body in black paint, symbolic of the oil killing the Amazon and its people.
British Petroleum (BP) has admitted it may not stop the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico until August 鈥 at the earliest. But despite the catastrophe, the US government鈥檚 Minerals Management Service (MMS) has given BP new leases for deepwater drilling.
The MMS has rubber-stamped 198 new deepwater drilling leases in the gulf since the BP spill began on April 20. It awarded BP 13 of these.
鈥淏reak the war alliance鈥 is one of the key messages anti-war groups will send to US President Barack Obama when he visits Australia in June.
Protesters plan to focus on the stepped-up US war drive in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They will also demand of Obama and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that the occupying troops leave.
Compared to the Bush administration, total US defence spending is projected to rise from US$534.5 billion in 2006 to $663.7 billion in 2010 according to Congressional budget papers.
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