Obama Administration killing Americans

In my initial blog, I mentioned some things about the current administration that bother me, including the continuation of the Bush-era Domestic Spying program. I recently learned of another Bush practice Mr. Change and Hope is continuing: the practice of assassinating American citizens.

Initially reported last week by the Washington Post, under the Bush Administration, the CIA began a practice of targeting American citizens with possible ties to terrorist networks, with the goal of bringing them to justice by any means necessary, including assassination. These aren't people that are confirmed terrorists; they're suspected terrorists. Unfortunately, Barack Obama, who opposed so many of Bush's policies while running for president, including the use of torture, has decided murder is a good policy. Three Americans have been targeted, and although they very likely have played a hand in terrorist activity, none have been confirmed as terrorists.

Murdering someone that is only suspected of anything is just bad policy by authorities, but when the government is involved, whether the FBI, CIA, DHS, etc., questions of personal vendettas are raised. The government can get away with killing anyone as long as the story's good. See: Ivins, Bruce, below.

I would like to think that only true terrorists were going to get the axe, but you never know who the true terrorists are until they're questioned; I also always suspect the government will use any excuse to take out personal enemies, and this is as good a red herring as any.

Why is it OK to murder someone on a list, but if you capture them, it's not OK to torture them? Just a thought.

This policy has already been opposed by Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich, and his Republican counterpart Ron Paul. Links to videos of their objections are below.

In conclusion, Mr. President, it is not OK for people to call you a socialist and claim you weren't born in this country. It's even worse when you OK the murders of some of that country's citizens.

Democracy Now's report, featuring Kucinich:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhaDWmYNZ2E

Ron Paul's brief response:

http://www.ronpaul.com/2010-02-04/ron-paul-to-obama-dont-assassinate-american-citizens/


My thoughts on Bruce Ivins from two years ago, worth repeating here and now for those that missed it:

If this doesn’t get me thrown in Guantanamo, I don’t know what will

For the past eight years, we've had a pretty shitty president and an administration willing to clean up after him, or engage in illegal activities first and tell him about it later. Or never.

The Bush Administration has been an active participant in every kind of scandal you can think of:

1) Dragging the country into an unpopular war based on lies

2) Outing an undercover agent and using "Scooter" as a scapegoat

3) Abducting people and holding them without probable cause for years at a time, often exercising the use of torture on someone that happens to have a last name that rhymes with Drewhommed

4) Spying on innocent people illegally

5) Transforming the executive branch of government into a position that is not only above the law, but doesn't even recognize its existence

6) The creation of a new "security system" clearly designed to distract American citizens from these other atrocities against civil liberties; what alert level/pretty color are we at right now anyway, and when was the last time it was changed/used/mentioned?

That's not all, but I can't be expected to name everything; that's for Vincent Bugliosi and Dennis Kucinich to do.

Yes, there has been a lot for those of us on the left to protest for nearly decade now, but there's been something missing. We've been missing that mysterious death that was timed so well, politically, that the FBI or some other government agency just had to be behind it.

The wait is over. Say hello, or rather goodbye, to Bruce Ivins, the scientist "behind" the anthrax attacks of 2001.

Let's begin with the facts of the anthrax attacks, as they stood in September, 2001. They began less than a week after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The anthrax attacks seemed to be aimed at senators (while there were other instances of suspicious packages, only the senators were attacked by anthrax). The poison might as well be considered not deadly at all. And the initial claim was that Iraq was behind the attacks. (I saw the cover of the Philadelphia Daily News with Sadaam Hussein's portrait on the cover proclaiming he was behind this attack on America. RIP Sadaam less than a week after 9/11). What's more, once this Iraq accusation was made public, the investigation into the attacks was taken off the front page, in favor of the various other reasons to invade Iraq, i.e., weapons of mass destruction, imminent threat, connections to bin Laden, etc. (don't tell me this war wasn't based on lies).

Not much was said about the investigation publicly until recently. In fact, I heard nothing about it until today.

Now let's take a look at Mr. Ivins, someone that even his therapist literally was afraid of. He was a psychopath and a weirdo that had next to no friends. You know, like most scientists. The perfect person to pin this on.

For a while, the FBI was investigating another scientist that was cleared of any wrongdoing in the situation. The focus then shifted to Mr. Ivins, who "committed suicide" as the FBI was "closing in on him" (at a snail's pace, might I add).

Here's what happened in my opinion, which for the sake of argument we'll just take as a fact:

First, let's acknowledge that the "anthrax attacks" happened within days of 9/11, and most intelligent people I crossed paths with agreed the two incidents had nothing to do with the other, even though the letters that accompanied the anthrax made reference to 9/11.

In order to carry these attacks out so close to the tragedy and be able to make reference to it, the anthrax had to have been ready to go, with the mention to 9/11 slipped in at the last minute before being shipped out. It takes a while to gather enough anthrax that when mailed to government officials, it can be used as a scare tactic. And if it came from Iraq, something tells me we would've been able to figure that one out for sure, rather than have it be subject to speculation with no real proof. There still remains the possibility that those terrorists that actually died in the 9/11 attacks set the whole thing up prior to their demise, something I left my mind open to for quite some time.

Then comes the accusation of our dear Mr. Ivins.

The fact is, our very own Bush Administration was behind these anthrax attacks, looking to blame Iraq and gather support for a war against that nation. When it wasn't enough, it had to come up with about 500 other reasons before just doing essentially because it wanted to.

The fact is, another scientist was the target of a hush-hush FBI investigation, but he was too competent to frame, so they had to let up on the charges.

The fact is, Mr. Ivins was unstable, an easy target for a frame-up, so paranoid and easy to scare that when the FBI began closing in on him, rather than defend himself, he committed suicide

OR

he was willing to defend himself, something the FBI never counted on, so they found a way to take him out and make it look like a suicide. Remember, every president's administration gets one free assassination.

This is why the administration is rushing through this case, trying to close it before people realize it happened. Remember, while the death took place on a Tuesday, the story didn't break until Friday, when news tends to get lost in normal people's weekend drinking binge.

The issue was also resolved close to a presidential election, when people may hear about it but not look too much into it because there's "more important" political news to consider.

And now I'm just going to spell it out: The Bush Administration knew something was going to happen on or around 9/11, not that they knew what or helped set it up or knew that it would be as bad as it was, just that they knew something would happen; they had the anthrax ready to go so they could plant in the public's mind the thought that we needed to invade Iraq with no real opposition; they tried to frame one person for the attack, but he was unframable; and finally

The government killed Bruce Ivins.

Not that it's a big deal. Ivins was actually part of the anthrax investigation until the FBI turned its focus on him. So someone who was trying to help his country ended up dead, killed by the powers-that-be.

The same thing happens in Iraq and Afghanistan every day.

Life goes on.

But only for some of us.