Obama�s U.S. assassination program?
ABC News (Part 1 | Part 2) - Chuck Norris (July 28 & August 1, 2010)
Sound too conspiratorial to be true? Like the coverup ops of spy novels? Well, it�s reality. And it is possibly the most bizarre, inhumane and abusive way that the White House is expanding its power over the American people.
It�s not an extremist belief or theory of the far Right. It�s a fact that has been confirmed by publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC and even documented by the far-left blog, Salon.com.
And it�s the gravest nightmare of U.S. citizens and abandonment of our Constitution to date: A presidential assassination program in which U.S. citizens are in the literal scopes of the executive branch, based upon nothing more than allegations of terrorism involvement as they define it.
Of course, the CIA has executed covert assassinations of foreigners for decades. But, tragically, Obama is now expanding this program to include American, non-Islamic, stateside, homegrown terrorists.
It all started in January of this year when The Washington Post reported, �As part of the operations, Obama approved a December 24 strike against a [Yemeni] compound where a U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, was thought to be meeting with other regional al-Qaida leaders. Although he was not the focus of the strike and was not killed, he has since been added to a shortlist of U.S. citizens specifically targeted for killing or capture. ��
�A shortlist of U.S. citizens specifically targeted for killing?�
That�s right. No arrest. No Miranda rights. No due process. No trial. Just a bullet.
While the Obama administration continues its Bush-blaming for the economy, it is mega-morphing Bush policy in covert ops overseas, according to The Washington Post, �to kill U.S. citizens abroad if strong evidence existed that an American was involved in organizing or carrying out terrorist actions against the United States or U.S. interests.�
Well, in recent months and weeks, the Obama administration has taken this overseas killing op to a new low: stateside assassinations.
Former Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair confessed before Congress: �We take direct actions against terrorists in the intelligence community. If we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that.�
If you are wondering who the �we� are, to whom Blair refers, they are Smith, Wesson and the White House.
Now we know what Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan meant when he admitted in May of this year: �And under President Obama, we have built upon the work of the previous administration and have accelerated efforts in many areas.� (Remember when Bush�s eavesdropping on U.S. citizens seemed harsh?)
Brennan further explained then that the problem of homegrown terrorists ranks as a top priority, because of the increasing number of U.S. individuals who have become �captivated by extremist ideology or causes.� He went on to say, �There are � dozens of U.S. persons who are in different parts of the world that are very concerning to us.�
Do you think �different parts of the world� doesn�t include their country of origin?
Conveniently, the Obama administration is also integrating a pervasive plan to assure the expiration of radicals as they deem them abroad and domestic too, with the resurrection of the �Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007,� introduced by U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. (Venice, Los Angeles County). Also known as H.R. 1955, it was passed in the House by the Democratic majority, but was then rejected by the Senate.
Everyone thought that legislation was dead until the Obama administration resurrected its tenets in its new 52-page National Security Strategy, released in May. So alarming is the feds� potential abuse of power that officials from London to the Kremlin are recognizing the threat to U.S. citizens.
As the European Union reported, �Foreign Ministry reports circulating in the Kremlin today are warning that an already explosive situation in the United States is about to get a whole lot worse as a new law put forth by President Obama is said capable of seeing up to 500,000 American citizens jailed for the crime of opposing their government.�
Woodrow Wilson, during his reign as president, incarcerated more than 2,000 U.S. citizens for speaking out against the government. And now for the first time since, a U.S. president is highlighting the threats of homegrown terror and literally hunting U.S. citizens as terrorists. As one senior administration said, �For the first time since Sept. 11, the [National Security Strategy] integrates homeland security and national security.�
And what type of �integration� does that entail?
President Obama explained in an often overlooked statement within the document of the National Security Strategy: �We are now moving beyond traditional distinctions between homeland and national security. � This includes a determination to prevent terrorist attacks against the American people by fully coordinating the actions that we take abroad with the actions and precautions that we take at home.�
Could it be any clearer? Right out of the horse�s mouth. Or do I need to spell out what �fully coordinating the actions we take abroad with the actions we take at home� means?
Remember the words, �A shortlist of U.S. citizens specifically targeted for killing?�
That�s right. No arrest. No Miranda rights. No due process. No trial. Just a bullet.
National security adviser John Brennan explained that the problem of homegrown terrorists ranks as a top priority because of the increasing number of U.S. individuals who have become �captivated by extremist ideology or causes.� He went on to say, �There are � dozens of U.S. persons who are in different parts of the world that are very concerning to us.�
Former director of national intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair even confessed before Congress: �We take direct actions against terrorists in the intelligence community. If we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that.�
That�s right. No arrest. No Miranda rights. No due process. No trial. Just a bullet.
Ironically, or maybe not so, and also under the radar, the Supreme Court just ruled to back off strict enforcement of Miranda rights. Charles Weisselberg, a law professor at U.C. Berkeley, said, �This is the most important Miranda decision in a decade. And it will have a substantial impact on police practices. This decision approves of the practice of giving the warnings and then asking questions of the suspect, without asking first whether he wants to waive his rights.�
President Obama himself explained in an often overlooked statement within the document of the National Security Strategy: �We are now moving beyond traditional distinctions between homeland and national security. � This includes a determination to prevent terrorist attacks against the American people by fully coordinating the actions that we take abroad with the actions and precautions that we take at home.�
Now, it finally is coming to light why back on Dec. 16, 2009, Obama signed an executive order �designating Interpol [International Criminal Police Organization] as a public international organization entitled to enjoy certain privileges, exemptions and immunities.�
Glenn Beck spoke for a host of other government watchdogs back then, when he asked on the air on his Jan. 7 show, �We�ve been asking ever since it was signed: why? Who can tell me what special interest group asked for this? If it were about terror, why not tell us that when he signed it? This Congress attacks our CIA and FBI, but Interpol gets immunity? Why? It makes no sense.�
It all comes down to one basic verb. Can you find it in the following paragraph?
Obama�s executive order reads, �By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288), and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol)��
There�s the magic verb: �to extend!�
As I wrote in any earlier column on Interpol, is it also just coincidental that Interpol is exempt from typical American search and seizure laws?
Anyone still not connecting the dots?
There is one more titanic element that I must stress. The one overriding dilemma for Americans in Obama�s hunt for homegrown terrorists is that, remember, he has changed the definitions of terrorism and terrorists. Their definitions no longer necessarily include or infer Islamic extremism or extremists.
Don�t ever forget: Obama and his administration have repeatedly played down the actual threat of terrorism by Islamic jihadists. In 2008, then-presidential candidate promised to close down Gitmo in his first year of presidency because, he said, it was an affront to American values and justice. He also promised to end the �warrantless wiretaps� of George Bush. In March of 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano proclaimed there was no terrorism � only �man-caused disasters.� In the same month, the Obama administration also proclaimed that there are �no enemy combatants� and �no war on terror� � only an �overseas contingency operation.� And, in May 2010, Obama top counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan added, ��nor we do describe our enemies as jihadists.�
We are therefore left to wonder: to the Obama administration, what exactly qualifies as radical extremism and terrorism and who is on their �shortlist of U.S. citizens specifically targeted for killing?� Consider even now who might fall into this category of non-Islamic, non-jihadist stateside homegrown terrorists. Do I need to make a list?
That�s another thing that really chaps my hide. While Obama ratchets up the power and pursuit of homegrown U.S. terrorists, why in God�s name is he loosening his grip over Muslim extremists who are right now planning, recruiting and seeking to carry out harm against the very U.S. citizens he has sworn to protect?
To add insult to injury, on July 27, 2004, at the Democratic convention, during the presidency of George W. Bush and just three years after Sept. 11, then-Sen. Barack Obama declared to the country, �If there is an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.�
And yet he doesn�t feel obligated as president to fight for other ethnic U.S. citizens� rights or due process, even if defined by the White House as terrorists?
Am I missing something?
When the executive branch solely defines what and who is a terrorist and enlarges its unilateral power to execute the death penalty on U.S. citizens without due process or a trial, does not the whole country see this as Washington power run amuck?
Has the White House not completely strayed, when the president of the United States minimizes the role of Islamic jihadists, reserves the right to assassinate U.S. citizens regarded as terrorists without due process or a trial, increases the powers of law enforcement agencies like Interpol who are not bound to search and seizure laws, sues the state of Arizona for enforcing illegal immigration border control, and does nothing to prohibit an Islamic victory mega-mosque on the edge of Ground Zero? (The very name �Cordoba House� refers to Cordoba, Spain, where Muslim conquerors symbolized their victory over Christianity by transforming a church into one of the largest mosques in the world.).
I don�t care if the policy is from Barack Obama, George W. Bush or George Washington, there�s absolutely no justifying one iota of this type of unconstitutional, unbridled and unchecked reckless wielding of executive power and privileges.
Rep. Ron Paul was 100 percent correct when he replied about these abhorring acts by the federal government: �These activities should be anathema to the citizens of a constitutional republic.�
I guess the Obama administration forgot to read the Dec. 4, 1981, Executive Order 12333 signed by then President Ronald Reagan: �2.11 Prohibition on Assassination. No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination. 2.12 Indirect Participation. No agency of the Intelligence Community shall participate in or request any person to undertake activities forbidden by this Order.�
Tragically, they are also again abandoning the fundamental principles of due process, habeas corpus and our Constitution, which states in the Sixth Amendment: �In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.�
God, help us. God, protect U.S. citizens. God, save our courts. God, save our land. God, restore our republic.