Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Jeremy Scahill and his eternal lies

Didn't Obama use his opposition to the highly unpopular Iraq War to advance his presidential campaign in 2007 and 2008? Yes, he did, but once he succeeded in exploiting the Iraq War to gain the nation’s highest office, Obama became commander in chief of the world’s greatest imperial killing machine. He and his handlers hardly want to do anything that might inhibit the American military’s freedom of action as he conducts a "five-front terror war" (Glenn Greenwald) in Iraq (where Obama has defied his campaign promises by acting to sustain the U.S. occupation), Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It should also be remembered that U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Obama repeatedly voted to fund the Iraq occupation, campaigned for pro-war against anti-war Democrats in the 2006 congressional primaries, and never once criticized Cheney and George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq on moral or legal grounds. Candidate Obama’s only problem with the Iraq occupation was that it did not make strategic sense for the interests of the supposedly benevolent and exceptionally humane and democratic American Empire. He saw the Iraq occupation like the elite Democratic "doves" of the late 1960s saw the Vietnam War – as a tactical "mistake" carried out with the best, indeed an excess, of democratic intentions. In late 2006, speaking to the Chicago Council of Global Affairs, Obama even had the cold imperial audacity to say the following in support of his claim that most U.S. citizens supported "victory" in Iraq: "The American people have been extraordinarily resolved. They have seen their sons and daughters killed or wounded in the streets of Fallujah [emphasis added]." This was a spine-chilling selection of locales. Fallujah was the site for colossal U.S. atrocity – American crimes included the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the targeting even of ambulances and hospitals, and the practical leveling of an entire city – by the U.S. military in April and November of 2004. The town was designated for destruction as an example of the awesome state terror promised to those who dared to resist U.S. power. Not surprisingly, Fallujah became a powerful and instant symbol of American imperialism in the Arab and Muslim worlds. It was a deeply provocative and insulting place for Obama to have chosen to highlight American sacrifice and “resolve” in the imperialist occupation of Iraq. For these and many other reasons detailed in the fourth chapter of my early 2008 book Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics (Paradigm, 2008), it is hardly surprising that Obama as president is going after an America Iraq war crime whistleblower, not American war crimes in Iraq.

The above is from Paul Street's "Revealing Moments" (ZNet) and he's writing about Wikileaks but we're noting it due to Iraq and Barack's ridiculous speech yesterday. For those late to the Wikileaks story (or maybe those who got their info from the highly foolish Nancy A. Youssef), Monday April 5th, WikiLeaks released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7th, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Philip Shenon (Daily Beast) reported last month that the US government is attempting to track down WikiLeaks' Julian Assange. This month, the military charged Manning. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported last month that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to his personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified information." Manning has been convicted in the public square despite the fact that he's been convicted in no state and has made no public statements -- despite any claims otherwise, he has made no public statements. Manning is now in Virginia, under military lock and key and still not allowed to speak to the press. He has made no public statements, NONE. No matter what Nancy Youssef claims, he has never once made a public statement.

Jeremy Scahill is a damn liar.

The thug posing as a reporter appears on Democracy Now! today and spews his usual lies. The Iraq War is not ending so Jerry Scahill needs someone to blame and, as usual for a woman hating bastard, he's ripping apart Hillary.

Hillary's not president, Jeremy, and your little stunts ensured that, didn't they? You whored real good, you just couldn't stick to the facts, could you?

Jerry Scahill spits out that Hillary, as a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, said she would ban contractors. Yeah and Barack refused to.

So Jerry Scahill trashed Hillary in real time and made excuses for Barack.

Why?

Samantha Power was laughing at Jerry Scahill, the entire Barack campaign was laughing at him. Samantha was supposed to neutralize Jeremy and she did. She ensured that he would go easy on Barack. The illusion of access and Jerry Scahill fell for it (and the campaign laughed and laughed at him). (Samantha Power was always Jerry Scahill's unnamed source in the Barack campaign, for those late to the party.)

So what happened was Jeremy wrote an article about (what else) contractors for The Nation? Hillary's camp agreed to pledge that if she was elected president, they would ban contractors. Barack's camp refused to take that pledge.

What does a journalist do?

Any sane one would put pressure on Barack to ban the contractors. Instead, Jeremey has multiple hissy fits (on multiple platforms) where he trashed Hillary and excused Barack.

Way to hold those feet to the fire, Jerry!

Jeremy's a damn liar.

Hillary's not devising policy, she's not president. Nor did she propose the militarization of the State Dept. As early as 2007, Samantha Power -- a War Hawk and Jerry Scahill's 'in' to Campaign Obama was proposing that.

And it's not that different from what the War Whore Sammy Power has called for in her badly written books. She's a 'humanitarian' only if you're an idiot. (Jerry Scahill is an idiot.)

It's Samantha's policy which Barack signed off on.

And yet Jerry Scahill -- AS USUAL -- refuses to call out Barack Obama. He's happy to trash Hillary yet again.

Most of all he's a coward. Listen to the interview and all the hate and scorn he heaps on Hillary Clinton.

Again, she's not president. But it takes guts apparently to call out a sitting president and Jeremy Scahill just doesn't have the guts. Jeremy Scahill is a joke, an inferior cretin who darts from the underside of one rock to another. It's cowards like Jerry Scahill that allow the Iraq War to continue. While spewing his hatred at Hillary, he wasn't able to offer anything of value. Surprising only if you haven't grasped what a psycho Jerry's become.

He had nothing to say, nothing to contribute. He's so sealed off in his own hatred, he can't even process. NPR's Morning Edition has a better report on the militarization of the State Department this morning so pay attention to that and ignore Jerry.

At MakeThemAccountable, Caro notes that Barack's planning to gut Social Security and:

It’s what we get for allowing Obama to steal the nomination.

Pacific John at Alegre's Corner:

Here are two rockstar 300 delegates, Alma Sanford, and Gloria Allred, discussing how the DNC pressured and intimidated delegates to switch their votes against state laws and party rules.

As Ms. Sanford says, pledged delegates in TN are required by law to cast votes as pledged on the first two ballots, to respect the 22,000 voters they each represent.

The reason this is so significant is that after the party inevitably seated Michigan and Florida, even after vote fabrication at the RBC meeting, the gap in pledged delegates was only 17, with neither candidate having enough votes for the nomination.

That's why Obama and the party tried to lock things up by depriving Hillary voters of a floor vote.


When the will of the people was trampled on, where was Jeremy Schahill? Exactly.

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