A former U.S. president is accusing the current president of sanctioning the "widespread abuse of human rights" by authorizing drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists.
Jimmy Carter, America's 39th president, denounced the Obama administration for "clearly violating" 10 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writing in a New York Times op-ed on Monday that the "United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights."
"Instead of making the world safer, America's violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends," Carter wrote. We still have friends?
While the total number of attacks from unmanned aircraft, or drones, and the resulting casualties are murky, the New America Foundation estimates that in Pakistan alone 265 drone strikes have been executed since January 2009 . Those strikes have killed at least 1,488 people, at least 1,343 of them considered militants, the foundation estimates based on news reports and other sources. Let's see: 1,488 people - 1,343 terrorists = 1,000,000 innocent civilians.
In addition to the drone strikes, Carter criticized the current president for keeping the Guantanamo Bay detention center open, where prisoners "have been tortured by waterboarding more than 100 times or intimidated with semiautomatic weapons, power drills or threats to sexually assault their mothers." Ridiculous. I doubt you could even pay any red-blooded american to assault their mothers. But give this coming depression a chance and maybe that will change. The former president blasted the government for allowing "unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications." Sounds a lot like Ron Paul. If Jimmy is making sense, he's definitely starting to lose it.
He also condemned recent legislation that gives the president the power to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely, although a federal judge blocked the law from taking effect for any suspects not affiliated with the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"This law violates the right to freedom of expression and to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, two other rights enshrined in the declaration," Carter said. Yikes! Did a Democrat just use the term "enshrined in the Declaration"? Maybe enshrined means that that passage just happens to align with his goals at the moment.
While Carter never mentioned Obama by name, he called out "our government" and "the highest authorities in Washington," and urged "concerned citizens" to "persuade Washington to reverse course and regain moral leadership." Moral leadership? Not enough time.
Article 51 of the UN charter, which the US has signed, allows countries the right of self defense but requires the country to report to the SC of the UN when doing so. I doubt whether the US has done this or if it has, it was clear that our self defense would be on going and against non state actors. Of course the UN charter did not imagine transnational forces and of course the UN charter did not understand the potential for violence inherent in Islamism.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/26/2012 7:52 Comments ||
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#3
Jimmy worried about keeping that bottom spot in the ratings for Presidents with the ongoing efforts by Obama?
#4
I consider the UN to have broken it's charter after what it did to Israel for the past 50+ years. They are a pack of vermin, and should be kicked out of this country and our money wasted on it returned.
#5
The only abuse I can see Jimmy is Obama's abuse of all America-loving citizens. Oh, and your abuse of Americans by your cockamamie, fuzzy-headed idiotic notions and incessant chatter that you consider profound thought.
#14
Gorb, that act would give him a Heart-Attack I'm sure. The Secret Service wouldn't allow it to happen. I think. Lately I've lost my solid-faith in the Service.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/26/2012 17:58 Comments ||
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#15
Speaking of "constant reminders" of someone's existence.......
A political analyst says American banks and corporations have launched an all-out war against the country's working class, Press TV reports.
"The reality of the situation is that there is an all-out war on working people being waged by the huge banks and corporations," Ralph Schoenman said in an interview with Press TV.
"We've just seen a scandal in Washington focused around the fact that J P Morgan Chase has been pursuing precisely the policies of speculative paper shuffling through derivatives involving endless billions of dollars, which are acknowledged, in fact dwarfing what was being done in 2008 at the time of the last great crash," he added.
"In that setting in which banks are profiteering as never before and which in fact off-shoring of huge assets on the part of banks and corporations is a standard every day event, the people of the United States, the people who work for a living, the people who are trying to hold onto the homes are in crisis mode," Schoenman explained.
The analyst also noted that the US economy is in freefall because wages as a percent of the economy are at an all time low.
Schoenman blamed the Democratic Party and US President Barack Obama On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today... "for the vast escalation of this war on working people."
The analyst warned that the current financial crisis is deep and endemic.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Ralph Schoenman == A peacenik so odious not even his girlfriend Bertrand Russel could stand him.
Even the Iranians kicked his ass out of Iran after the revolution.
#2
Schoenman's yet another drooling Old Lefty who's still waiting for an American socialist revolutionary vanguard for him to stand at the front of. That being said, I'd still like to see the Trunks take more notice of Sarah Palin's critique of crony capitalism:
This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk...its the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest to the little guys. Its a slap in the face to our small business owners the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70 percent of the jobs in America.
I don't like Dodd-Frank, and I definitely don't like Obamacare. But I wouldn't mind seeing Glass-Steagall resurrected, and for damn sure I'd love to see Goldman Sachs smashed into a thousand pieces and scattered to the winds, its executives perp-walked into Supermax cells.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
06/26/2012 0:26 Comments ||
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#3
The leftists alternate between "We've got to vote for the socialists!" and then "Both sides are too beholden to their corporatist masters!" when socialism turns out _exactly_ the way everyone from Bastiat through Hayek to Friedman says it does.
#6
The Donks are not about NASCAR. Their hearts and ideology are just not there. They need to continue on with their snobbish, snotty, elitist jerk Hollywood $40K/plate dinners and $3 raffles for the "little people". They need to continue on with their solicitation of money, boodle, wedding presents, silverware, china, birthday presents, heirlooms, jewelery, etc. Maybe they should stand at the border and charge so much a head for illegal immigrants as they head north.
How about starting in the White House political offices? It's obvious to everyone it was Obama butt-boys that leaked to teh NYTimes to make Champ look like a "strong leader" bwahahahah
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/26/2012 09:51 ||
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Nice bit of political redirection General Clapper.
#2
Republicans on Capitol Hill aren't backing down on their calls for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate a series of National Security leaks of highly classified information to the press in what many think was an effort to make President Obama look tough on foreign policy. According to long time Democrat Pat Caddell, the man known in Washington as "the leaker in chief," political operative and now Obama national security adviser Tom Donilon.
#4
Officials at the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies will be given expanded polygraph tests under a new Obama administration directive aimed at stamping out national-security leaks.
Yup, nothing like a red herring being thrown out for a head fake. If the leak is high up in the WH, what good would it do to polygraph lower level people not in the loop unless it is for mis-direction or re-direction? This has been BO's MO for a long time--make it look like something is happening when in fact nothing is being done.
#6
Polygraphs are routine for certain people with special accesses to compartmentalized information, or PRP duties. It comes with the job, and you hate them but learn to deal with them every few years.
#9
1) Polygraphs will be nothing but fabricated drama. I was asked once to take a polygraph. If your fingers twitch or if your pulse rate goes up while answering those answers are deemed a lie. Problem was, a hot moma was giving the test so I refused to take it on grounds of being smitten already.
2) Obama is trying his best to close curtins to true government operations. He is then to create a trully closed society if he can. Gas prices are down. Rumors are he made a sectret deal with the Saudies. He told no one of that negotiation that impacts every American. Very, Very disturbing if the rumors are true.
#10
Penn & Teller had a bit on Polygraphs on their show Bull$hit. Basically they are unreliable. Pucker your bum when the do the base-line questions and for some reason your chances of passing increase dramatically. That and a lot of it is based on the test giver guessing or insinuating why.
They also mentioned an odd connection. The guy that invented Wonder Woman wither her lasso that makes you tell the truth also invented the lie detector test. Strange world.
[Iran Press TV] Dave Lindorff, investigative journalist, in a phone interview with Press TV's U.S. Desk on Monday said that if Romney is elected president the American economy will fall into depression.
"The idea that Americans are saying in a poll that they don't think it will make much difference which person is elected president, Romney or Obama, shows the incredible both naivety of the American public and more importantly, the really poor level of reporting in the American media on economic issues," he said.
Lindorff continued that as bad as Obama had been in dealing with the financial crisis and the role of the banks and stimulating the economy, "he at least has understood that you do need to have economic stimulus in a terrible recession like we've been having whereas Romney's position is this insane Republican one that says that the issue is the deficit which it clearly is not."
Lindorff believes that there will be a very big difference between Romney winning "in which case we will see the economy fall into [a] depression and Obama winning in which case the economy will probably just stumble along the way it has been doing which I guess is a lot better than a collapse."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2012 00:00 ||
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Dave Lindorff: Wrote for Counterpunch and The Nation
#7
Well, considering Obama has set a fiscal IED set to go off on January 1 when taxes double on capital gains and dividends and the Bush era income tax cuts expire, yeah. If the Republicans don't win the Senate, the Democrats have set things up to blow sky high with the economy starting January 1. Business investment will come to a screeching halt.
Taking the Senate is going to be the key because if they don't the Democrats will not allow those things to be repealed and will bring the entire economy crashing down for no reason but to politically damage the Republicans.
The Democrats don't give a pinch of owl scat about the average person in this country, they are just looking for political power.
#11
Considering the indicators to describe the first Great Depression, how are we not in a Depression now other than the usual doublespeak of Ministry of Truth? /rhet question
#12
1. Lindorff calls himself an investigative reporter. However, the piece is short on investigation and reporting.
2. Stimulus spending has been so successful (sarc). Europe is not in trouble because of spending too much. They have bloated governments and too much spending. The U.S. suffers the same problem--too much spending and too many entitlements.
#15
"The idea that Americans are saying in a poll that they don't think it will make much difference which person is elected president, Romney or Obama, shows the incredible both naivety of the American public and more importantly, the really poor level of reporting in the American media on economic issues," he said.
To be honest I don't think there is a regular on rantburg that would disagree with that one. We just come out with a different answer when confronted with logic than a Nation reporter who has to create his own facts.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A former U.S. president is accusing the current president of sanctioning the "widespread abuse of human rights" by authorizing drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists.
The former president blasted the government for allowing "unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications."
A political analyst says American banks and corporations have launched an all-out war against the country's working class, Press TV reports.
