Obama’s Assassination Policy In February, the Justice Department released to the two congressional intelligence committees classified documents spelling out its legal justification for assassinating American citizens. The documents refer to the Pentagon dinner guest Anwar al-Awlaki who was allegedly killed by a CIA Predator drone strike in Yemen. Obama had the documents released on the eve of confirmation hearings of John O. Brennan, his pick for CIA boss and, not exactly coincidentally, the main architect of his murderous drone program. Even though the public was not allowed to see the documents, the establishment media dutifully spread the message – the government had contrived a legal justification for assassinating citizens, beginning with alleged al-Qaeda bigwig al-Awlaki and his teenage son. Millions of Americans – brainwashed by years of war on terror fairy tales and propaganda – supported the policy. Targeting Journalists The Obama administration demonstrated its contempt for the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution when it was revealed in May that the Justice Department secretly obtained phone records of journalists at the Associated Press. The move was an obvious attempt to intimidate and send a message to elements of the establishment media not following the government’s playbook. Fear and intimidation may work for establishment journalists, but for alternative media journalists – even those working on the fringe of the establishment represented by the liberal magazine Rolling Stone – assassination now appears to be the preferred course of action for deviating from the script. The sloppiness of the Michael Hastings assassination was deliberate. The government, the Pentagon and the CIA are interested in sending a message, the same message sent by Hitler, Stalin, Mao and dozens of other dictators – go up against the government, deviate from unwritten parameters, and you may be assassinated.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 19:47:54 +0000
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