By Kenneth J. Theisen
With the stroke of a pen President Obama did much to continue the fascist direction of the Bush regime last week. He signed legislation to maintain kangaroo justice, to fund U.S. imperialist wars, and to cover-up torture.
On Wednesday, October 28th, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which extends the illegal military tribunals established under the Bush regime. He also signed legislation to cover up the torture photos of the Bush regime. The legislation he signed this week further funds the various imperialist wars begun by the Bush regime and continued by the Obama administration.
The NDAA fails to bring the military tribunals in line with the U.S. Constitution and international law under the Geneva Conventions. It continues to apply the military commissions to a much broader group of individuals than should be tried before them under the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions and does not prohibit military commission trials of children. In effect, Obama has continued kangaroo justice for those captured in the U.S. war of terror, even for children.
The ACLU has called for the military commissions to be shut down for good as they remain a second class system of justice that cannot shed the shameful legacy of Guantánamo and all it stands for. Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project said, “It will be a shame if the law that the president signed today gives new life to the military commissions. The Obama administration has committed to closing the prison at Guantánamo, but closing the prison will have little meaning if the administration leaves in place the policies that the prison has come to represent…The commissions remain not only illegal but unnecessary…"
Center for Constitutional Rights Executive Director Vincent Warren said this of the signing, “These are now President Obama’s military commissions: he owns them and all of the problems that come with them, and their inevitable failure will scar his legacy and embolden our critics in the world. Military commissions are an unnecessary, jury-rigged creation, second-rate in comparison to our legal system. Obama is tinkering with the Constitution for no good reason.”
President Obama also affixed his signature to a Homeland Security appropriations bill that grants the Department of Defense (DOD) the authority to continue suppressing photos of prisoner abuse. The amendment, which would allow the DOD to exempt photos from the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), is aimed at photos ordered released by a federal appeals court as part of an American Civil Liberties Union FOIA lawsuit for photos and other records related to detainee abuse in U.S. custody overseas, although it would apply to other photos in government custody as well.
ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer stated, "We are disappointed that the president has signed a law giving the Defense Department the authority to hide evidence of its own misconduct, and we hope the defense secretary will not take advantage of that authority by suppressing photos related to the abuse of prisoners…The last administration’s decision to endorse torture undermined the United States’ moral authority and compromised its security. A failure to fully confront the abuses of the last administration will only compound these harms."
Many people who supported Obama expected him to institute changes in the direction that the Bush regime began in its eight years of power. But Obama has continued to show that he is a commander-in-chief that can be counted on to defend and expand the U.S. Empire. Soon he will make the decision to further escalate the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If people really want change they will have to mobilize with millions of others to institute such change. Remember it was Congress that passed this fascist legislation and Obama who signed it. What will you do about this and all the other crimes of your government?
image by Ryan Kowalchik
Write your Congressman and demand that he/she introduce a Bill of Impeachment against President OBama! The left should never tolerate a fascist of any professed political persuasion. Obama is like the rest of the Presidents from Johnson to Bush II – excepting Carter – who fully endorsed the secret government of the CIA national intelligence apparatus, Presidents who taol their orders from theri masters in the cabal of the Military-Industrial-Finacial combine of Corporatist ( fascist ). Nothing in matters of illegal foreign interventions has really changed since the Mexican-American War in 1846-48. Obama’s forebearers may have been freed, but we all continue to be slaves to a violent and unjust system of predetory interests. It is the more monstrous that he is either unable to see this or lacks the integrity to deal with this truth.
This article points again the “the slippery slope” we are on and that “War is Hell”. No war is justified in the final analysis. We each as individuals have the power individually to say no to war even as we are privaledged to be in the greatest country of the world and even as we recognize what we are advocating may bring more pain to our own soil. Advocating peace when generations of societies in countries too numerous have been or feel they have been oppressed at the hands of the United States. That feeling of vengence, not absent from U.S. citizens who have lost loved ones or been maimed, only perpetuates further war. It takes “at least three generations” for an imagrant non-english speaking family to be aculturated in the U.S. according to a Foreign Language High School Assistant Principal I worked with at Bushwick High School for 8 years. The same principal I believe may be applied to those who are/have directly suffered loss or been maimed. The power of “Our Higher Power” alone can help remedy this with the practical application of peaceful economic help to our sister countries ***on their own terms*** or not at all. Oil, the Popi and a Strategic position in the World for U.S. military bases remain the chief factors increasing this war. Oil, we all know is a factor. “the Popi” needs to be recognized as a cancer that must be stemmed not by dealing with Popi growers but with our own society and **global** attitude towards using it. The “strategic position” when there are already too many U.S. military bases in the region while cited by the military is weak. Imperialistic expansion by might has been the defacto order since after President Eisenhower stated “beware of the industrial military complex. It may userp the citizens power if left to its own devices” {paraphrased}. Indeed, despite President Obama’s platform he is starting to show signs of “backing off” from forces backed by this “machine”. Passive resistance, writing our Congressmen and Senators, demonstrating **in tens of thousands** will get the congress going. We must be united in a resolve to decrease military use everywhere. I personally would like to see expansion of the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps be **the** main force to replace militarism. There is a need in particular in this time of high unemployment that the vacuume created by dismanteling military peoples involvement that they have an alternative to go to readily available.
Sincerely, Cara Ava Bissell