From the Progressive Review list:
*/Drafted by FBI Whistleblowers Sibel Edmonds & Coleen Rowley
/. According to a new report to the president by the Information
Security Oversight Office the cost of classification for 2010 has
reached over $10.17 billion. That's a 15 percent jump from the previous
year, and the first time ever that secrecy costs have surpassed $10
billion. Last month, ISOO reported that the number of original
classification decisions generated by the Obama administration in 2010
was 224,734 -- a 22.6 percent jump from the previous year.
. Obama has invoked baseless and unconstitutional executive secrecy to
quash legal inquiries into secret illegalities more often than any
predecessor. The list of this President's invocations of the "state
secrets privilege" has already resulted in shutting down lawsuits
involving the National Security Agency's illegal wiretapping -- Jewel
vs. NSA & Shubert vs. Obama; extraordinary rendition & assassination --
Anwar al-Aulaqi; and illegal torture -- Binyam Mohamed.
. Obama's presidency has amassed the worst record in US history for
persecuting, prosecuting, and jailing government whistleblowers and
truth-tellers. President Obama's behavior has been in stark contrast to
his campaign promises which included live streaming meetings online and
rewarding whistleblowers. Obama's Department of Justice is twisting the
1917 Espionage Act to press criminal charges in five alleged instances
of national-security leaks -- more such prosecutions than have occurred
in all previous Administrations combined.
. The Obama DOJ's prosecution of former NSA official Thomas Drake who,
up till June 9, faced 35 years in prison for having blown the whistle on
the NSA's costly and unlawful warrantless monitoring of American
citizens typifies the abusive practices made possible through expansive
secrecy agreements and threats of prosecution.
. President Obama has set a powerful and chilling example for potential
whistleblowers through the abuse and torture of Bradley Manning, whose
guilt he has also publicly stated prior to any trial by his, Obama's,
military subordinates.
. Obama is the only president who has reenacted Fahrenheit 451 by
actually having his agency collect and burn a book due to a
never-justified classification excuse: Lt. Col Tony Shaffer's Operation
Dark Heart.
. Under President Obama, the FBI has launched a series of raids and
issued grand jury subpoenas targeting nearly two dozen antiwar
activists. Over two thousand six hundred arrests of protesters in the US
have been made while Obama has been president, further encroaching on
the exercise of First Amendment rights.
. President Obama has initiated a secret assassination program, has
publicly announced that he has given himself the power to include
Americans on the list of people to be assassinated, and has attempted to
assassinate at least one, Anwar al-Aulaqi.
. President Obama has maintained the power to secretly kidnap, imprison,
rendition, or torture, and he has formalized the power to lawlessly
imprison in an executive order. This also means the power to secretly
imprison. There are some 1,700 prisoners outside the rule of law in
Bagram alone.
. The Obama Administration is also busy going after reporters to
discover their sources and convening grand juries in order to target
journalists and news publishers.
. President Obama promised to reveal White House visitors' logs. He
didn't. In response to outrage over his refusal to reveal the names of
health insurance CEOs he had met with and cut deals with on the health
insurance reform bill, he announced that he would release the names
going forward, but not those in the past. And going forward he would
withhold names he chose to withhold. White House staff then began
regularly meeting lobbyists just off White House grounds in order to
avoid the visitors' logs.
. President Obama has sent representatives to aggressively pressure
Spain, England, and Germany to shut down investigations that could have
exposed the crimes of the Bush era, just as he has instructed the US DOJ
to avoid such matters. This includes his refusal to allow prosecutions
of the CIA for torture, following a public letter from 8 previous heads
of the CIA informing him that he had better not enforce those laws.
then, we get this one...
***Naked Capitalism *- It is obvious that Elizabeth Warren should head
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In the face of increasingly
vocal bank opposition to the notion of an effective bank watchdog for
consumers, she's done better than anyone anticipated. And despite the
Republican bluster about using a pro forma session to keep the Senate in
business to block a recess appointment, the Democrats could break that
maneuver if they wanted to.
So why does Team Obama try to hide its choice not to appoint her behind
silly "compromises" like its trial balloon of serving up the CFPB's
number two, Raj Date, as a candidate to lead the agency? The Republicans
have already said they will approve no one unless they can cut off
CFPB's air supply by controlling its budget. You can't negotiate with
someone who won't negotiate. Your options are to defy them or capitulate.
The failure of the Team Obama to move beyond this impasse is revealing.
It isn't merely a sign that the Administration is in bed with the
banksters. That's a given. We predicted that Warren would not get the job.
But what is astonishing is how she has managed to out maneuver them and
how Team Obama has failed for months to come up with responses. It isn't
as if this crowd feels any compunction to hide the contempt it has for
the idea of keeping prior promises. . .
*
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