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KoKo

(84,711 posts)
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 07:19 PM Apr 2013

Top Secret Intel Docs Betray Obama Claims on Drone Targeting (McClatchy)

(While we are all Digesting Obama's "Chained CPI" to cut Social Security...In the Meantime...McClatchy has come out with this report...which questions Obama's Legal Counsel's ADVICE...It's really sort of a downer...and that it comes out now when everyone is concerned about his Budget Proposal...it might get lost.) Crossposted in "Good Reads.



Top Secret Intel Docs Betray Obama Claims on Drone Targeting (McClatchy)

Last edited Wed Apr 10, 2013, 01:11 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
Top Secret Intel Docs Betray Obama Claims on Drone Targeting
US drone war kills all kinds of people beyond Al Qaeda and
- Jon Queally, staff writer

Based on their review of leaked top-secret intelligence reports, McClatchy is reporting that the Obama Administration has long been guilty of misrepresenting the kind of groups and individuals it has targeted with its fleet of armed Predator and Reaper drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan.


McClatchy also explores the broadly held view that the US drone attacks are exacerbating conflicts, not solving them, in the regions where they take place.

Obama, they think, is misinterpreting international law, including the laws of war, which they say apply only to the uniformed military, not the civilian CIA, and to traditional battlefields like those in Afghanistan, not to Pakistan’s tribal area, even though it may be a sanctuary for al Qaida and other violent groups. They argue that Obama also is strengthening his executive powers with an excessively broad application of the September 2001 use-of-force resolution.

The administration’s definition of “imminent threat” also is in dispute. The Justice Department’s leaked white paper argues the United States should be able “to act in self-defense in circumstances where there is evidence of further imminent attacks by terrorist groups even if there is no specific evidence of where such an attack will take place or of the precise nature of the attack.” Legal scholars counter that the administration is using an exaggerated definition of imminence that doesn’t exist in international law.

“I’m thankful that my doctors don’t use their (the administration’s) definition of imminence when looking at imminent death. A head cold could be enough to pull the plug on you,” said Morris Davis, a Howard University Law School professor and former Air Force lawyer who served as chief prosecutor of the Guantanamo Bay terrorism trials.

Since 2004, drone program critics say, the strikes have killed hundreds of civilians, fueling anti-U.S. outrage, boosting extremist recruiting, and helping to destabilize Pakistan’s U.S.-backed government. And some experts warn that the United States may be setting a new standard of international conduct that other countries will grasp to justify their own targeted killings and to evade accountability.

MORE with links to McClatchy's full report at:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/04/09/188062/obamas-drone-war-kills-others.html#storylink=cpy

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Top Secret Intel Docs Betray Obama Claims on Drone Targeting (McClatchy) (Original Post) KoKo Apr 2013 OP
Sheesh...I just posted an it's already heading off to Archives.... KoKo Apr 2013 #1
"...killed hundreds of civilians, fueling anti-U.S. outrage, boosting extremist recruiting, and indepat Apr 2013 #2
Yep...How many years now? And how many years anticipated? KoKo Apr 2013 #3
Obama gotta' be strong on national defense and tough on communism, crime, drugs, and terra, else indepat Apr 2013 #4
I thought he was a Constitutional scholar. Octafish Apr 2013 #5
McClatchy is one of the very few Americans sources I still trust. bvar22 Apr 2013 #6
kick frylock Apr 2013 #7
K&R Solly Mack Apr 2013 #8
knr 840high Apr 2013 #9
K&R woo me with science Apr 2013 #10
kick woo me with science Apr 2013 #11
kick woo me with science Apr 2013 #12
Obama lied and people died NoMoreWarNow Apr 2013 #13
k&r magellan Apr 2013 #14
Kick. Luminous Animal Apr 2013 #15
Glenn Greenwald's comments: Luminous Animal Apr 2013 #16
Thanks...didn't get to this today... KoKo Apr 2013 #17
Bookmarking to read. woo me with science Apr 2013 #19
K&R DeSwiss Apr 2013 #18

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
1. Sheesh...I just posted an it's already heading off to Archives....
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 07:26 PM
Apr 2013

I guess DU is Super Busy tonight. I kid you not ...I posted and to make sure I didn't have typos I followed up and this post was Going down the Page...headed off. what's with that?

Did we just have a Nuke attack or something?

indepat

(20,899 posts)
2. "...killed hundreds of civilians, fueling anti-U.S. outrage, boosting extremist recruiting, and
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 08:05 PM
Apr 2013

helping destabilize Pakistan's U.S.-backed government." Can you just imagine the severe lessons the perpetrator(s) of actions so harmful to the U.S. would be taught, were these not self-inflicted wounds.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
3. Yep...How many years now? And how many years anticipated?
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 08:07 PM
Apr 2013

And...that according to McClatchy News (an honorable news organization) there's "Other Stuff" going on ...in that Obama is being given "questionable legal advice." That doesn't sound good.

indepat

(20,899 posts)
4. Obama gotta' be strong on national defense and tough on communism, crime, drugs, and terra, else
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 08:27 PM
Apr 2013

the mean ole 'pugs will label him weak on national defense and/or soft on communism, crime, drugs, and terra, charges no Democratic president has ever wanted to hear in fear of soiling one's own pants and, God knows: no one wants to soil his/her own pants.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
5. I thought he was a Constitutional scholar.
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 09:10 PM
Apr 2013

Maybe he thinks it's just another scrap of paper, like his predecessor.

bvar22

(39,909 posts)
6. McClatchy is one of the very few Americans sources I still trust.
Wed Apr 10, 2013, 09:23 PM
Apr 2013

The others are:

*The Christian Science Monitor

*Bill Moyers

*Cenk

*Jon Stewart

In the final analysis, MSNBC represents Corporate Interests.
I love Rachel, but there are places she is not allowed to go,
and issues she is not allowed to discuss.
Much like Colmes on the old Hannity show,
she plays the role of the Left Bookend in American politics,
giving the impression that they Balance Out Fox, so its all good.

Luminous Animal

(27,310 posts)
16. Glenn Greenwald's comments:
Thu Apr 11, 2013, 06:37 PM
Apr 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/11/three-lessons-obama-drone-lies

Three key lessons from the Obama administration's drone lies


(1) The Obama administration often has no idea who they are killing
.

This has long been the most amazing aspect of the drone debate to me. Not even the CIA, let alone ordinary citizens, has any idea of the identity of many of the people they are targeting for death. Despite this central ignorance, huge numbers of people walk around in some sort of zombie-like state repeatedly spouting the mantra that "Drones are Good because We are Killing the Terrorists" - even though the CIA itself, let alone citizens defending its killings, have no clue who is even being targeted.

2) Whisteblowers are vital for transparency and accountability, which is precisely why the Obama administration is waging a war on them.


Here is yet another example where we obtained proof of the falsity of the government's claims, and possibly illegal actions, for only one reason: a whistleblower leaked top secret documents to a journalist, who then published them. When you combine an impotent Congress, a supine media, and a subservient federal judiciary - the institutions ostensibly designed to check excessive executive branch secrecy - government leakers have really have become the only reliable means for learning about the lies and bad acts of political officials.

(3) Secrecy ensures both government lies and abuses of power.

That the Obama administrations' claims about its drone program have proven to be false should be viewed as anything but surprising. Aside from the potent impulse for governments to lie to their citizenry about what they do, secrecy in particular renders inevitable - not possible, not probable, but inevitable - both abuses of power and systematic lying. And secrecy has been the hallmark of the Obama administration generally and its drone killings in particular. A recent Washington Post article - headlined: "Drone use remains cloaked despite Obama's pledge for more transparency" - discussed Obama's repeatedly unfulfilled promises for more openness and explained:

 

DeSwiss

(27,137 posts)
18. K&R
Thu Apr 11, 2013, 07:29 PM
Apr 2013
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
~George Orwell, 1984

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