classwarfare

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Monday, 4 February 2013

JSoc: Obama's secret assassins

Posted on 12:15 by Unknown
We reprint this piece from the British Guardian for our reader's interest.

JSoc: Obama's secret assassins

The president has a clandestine network targeting a 'kill list' justified by secret laws. How is that different than a death squad?

Naomi Wolf
guardian.co.uk
, Sunday 3 February 2013 09.00 EST
 
US navy Seals on a night mission in the Middle East

US Navy Seals on a night mission in the Middle East. Seal Team 6, which killed Osama bin Laden, is a secret elite unit that works closely with the CIA. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
The film Dirty Wars, which premiered at Sundance, can be viewed, as Amy Goodman sees it, as an important narrative of excesses in the global "war on terror". It is also a record of something scary for those of us at home – and uncovers the biggest story, I would say, in our nation's contemporary history.

Though they wisely refrain from drawing inferences, Scahill and Rowley have uncovered the facts of a new unaccountable power in America and the world that has the potential to shape domestic and international events in an unprecedented way. The film tracks the Joint Special Operations Command (JSoc), a network of highly-trained, completely unaccountable US assassins, armed with ever-expanding "kill lists". It was JSoc that ran the operation behind the Navy Seal team six that killed bin Laden.

Scahill and Rowley track this new model of US warfare that strikes at civilians and insurgents alike – in 70 countries. They interview former JSoc assassins, who are shell-shocked at how the "kill lists" they are given keep expanding, even as they eliminate more and more people.

Our conventional forces are subject to international laws of war: they are accountable for crimes in courts martial; and they run according to a clear chain of command. As much as the US military may fall short of these standards at times, it is a model of lawfulness compared with JSoc, which has far greater scope to undertake the commission of extra-legal operations – and unimaginable crimes.
JSoc morphs the secretive, unaccountable mercenary model of private military contracting, which Scahill identified in Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, into a hybrid with the firepower and intelligence backup of our full state resources. The Hill reports that JSoc is now seeking more "flexibility" to expand its operations globally.

JSoc operates outside the traditional chain of command; it reports directly to the president of the United States. In the words of Wired magazine:
"JSoc operates with practically no accountability."
Scahill calls JSoc the president's "paramilitary". Its budget, which may be in the billions, is secret.
What does it means for the president to have an unaccountable paramilitary force, which can assassinate anyone anywhere in the world? JSoc has already been sent to kill at least one US citizen – one who had been indicted for no crime, but was condemned for propagandizing for al-Qaida. Anwar al-Awlaki, on JSoc's "kill list" since 2010, was killed by CIA-controlled drone attack in September 2011; his teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki – also a US citizen – was killed by a US drone two weeks later.

This arrangement – where death squads roam under the sole control of the executive – is one definition of dictatorship. It now has the potential to threaten critics of the US anywhere in the world.
The film reveals some of these dangers: Scahill, writing in the Nation, reported that President Obama called Yemen's President Saleh in 2011 to express "concern" about jailed reporter Abdulelah Haider Shaye. US spokespeople have confirmed the US interest in keeping him in prison.

Shaye, a Yemeni journalist based in Sana'a, had a reputation for independent journalism through his neutral interviewing of al-Qaida operatives, and of critics of US policy such as Anwar al-Awlaki. Journalist colleagues in Yemen dismiss the notion of any terrorist affiliation: Shaye had worked for the Washington Post, ABC news, al-Jazeera, and other major media outlets.

Shaye went to al-Majala in Yemen, where a missile strike had killed a group that the US had called "al-Qaida". "What he discovered," reports Scahill, "were the remnants of Tomahawk cruise missiles and cluster bombs … some of them bearing the label 'Made in the USA', and distributed the photos to international media outlets."

Fourteen women and 21 children were killed. "Whether anyone actually active in al-Qaida was killed remains hotly contested." Shortly afterwards, Shaye was kidnapped and beaten by Yemeni security forces. In a trial that was criticized internationally by reporters' groups and human rights organizations, he was accused of terrorism. Shaye is currently serving a five-year sentence.
Scahill and Rowley got to the bars of Shaye's cell to interview him, before the camera goes dark (in almost every scene, they put their lives at risk). This might also bring to mind the fates of Sami al-Haj of al-Jazeera, also kidnapped, and sent to Guantánamo, and of Julian Assange, trapped in asylum in Ecuador's London embassy.

President Obama thus helped put a respected reporter in prison for reporting critically on JSoc's activities. The most disturbing issue of all, however, is the documentation of the "secret laws" now facilitating these abuses of American power: Scahill succeeds in getting Senator Ron Wyden, who sits on the Senate intelligence committee, to confirm the fact that there are secret legal opinions governing the use of drones in targeted assassinations that, he says, Americans would be "very surprised" to know about. This is not the first time Wyden has issued this warning.

In 2011, Wyden sought an amendment to the USA Patriot Act titled requiring the US government "to end practice of secretly interpreting law". Wyden warns that there is now a system of law beneath or behind the law that we can see and debate:
"It is impossible for Congress to hold an informed public debate on the Patriot Act when there is a significant gap between what most Americans believe the law says and what the government is using the law to do. In fact, I believe many members of Congress who have voted on this issue would be stunned to know how the Patriot Act is being interpreted and applied.
"Even secret operations need to be conducted within the bounds of established, publicly understood law. Any time there is a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the government secretly thinks the law says, I believe you have a serious problem."
I have often wondered, since I first wrote about America's slide toward fascism, what was driving it. I saw the symptoms but not the cause. Scahill's and Rowley's brave, transformational film reveals the prime movers at work. The US executive now has a network of secret laws, secret budgets, secret kill lists, and a well-funded, globally deployed army of secret teams of assassins. That is precisely the driving force working behind what we can see. Is fascism really too strong a word to describe it?
• This article originally referred to Scahill and Rowley's documentary as Secret Wars; this was amended to Dirty Wars at 5.20pm ET on 3 February. The phrase "US kill list" in the subhead was also amended to "kill list" in order to remove possible ambiguity.
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in imperialism, Obama, US foreign policy, US military | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Amtrak: Washington DC to Huntington, West Virginia
    A Poem by Kevin Higgins   At Union Station hope is a t-shirt on sale at seventy per cent off. Yesterday, all the bow-tied barristers gather...
  • The NSA, Snowden, spying on Americans, Brazilians and everyone else
    We reprint this article by Glenn Greenwald which includes the video . It is from the Guardian UK via Reader Supported News . The Charlie R...
  • Austerity USA Begins March 1st:
    We reprint this article for the interest of our readers. Facts For Working People is not affiliated with Workers' Action. To read more f...
  • Starvation, poverty and disease are market driven.
    by Richard Mellor Afscme Local 444, retired What a tragedy. A beautiful little boy who should be experiencing all the pleasures that a heal...
  • Kaiser cancelled from AFL-CIO convention
    A short CNA clip from Kaiser nurses.  The AFL-CIO convention was apparently ready to applaud kaiser as the model health care provider.  The ...
  • Remembering 911
  • A poem on the 74th Anniversary of Trotsky's murder
                                                                                  You Are The Old Man In The Blue House                        ...
  • Buffet and Lemann: two peas in pod
    Jorge Lemann: won't eat what he produces by Richard Mellor GED Afscme local 444, retired In a previous piece I commen...
  • Cambodians clash with cops over land grabs
    Like China, there are repeated clashes between authorities and the population over the government's seizure of land for developers. Ther...
  • Austerity hits troops as rations are cut
    The organizers of this blog have explained that US capitalism cannot afford to keep its massive military machine working at its present leve...

Categories

  • Afghanistan (4)
  • Africa (8)
  • Afscme 444 (1)
  • anti-war movement (1)
  • art (6)
  • asia (15)
  • austerity (29)
  • Australia (4)
  • auto industry (3)
  • bailout (10)
  • bangladesh (9)
  • banks (11)
  • BART (13)
  • body image (4)
  • bradley Manning (17)
  • Britain (22)
  • California (17)
  • california public sector (18)
  • Canada (6)
  • capitalism (44)
  • catholic church (10)
  • child abuse. (1)
  • China (2)
  • consciousness (3)
  • debt (3)
  • Democrats (4)
  • domestic violence (7)
  • drug industry (6)
  • economics (43)
  • education (9)
  • Egypt (5)
  • energy (7)
  • environment (12)
  • EU (18)
  • family (1)
  • financialization (1)
  • food production (7)
  • gay rights (2)
  • globalization (17)
  • greece (3)
  • gun rights (4)
  • health care (13)
  • homelessness (4)
  • housing (3)
  • hugo chavez (4)
  • human nature (6)
  • humor (4)
  • immigration (2)
  • imperialism (14)
  • india (4)
  • indigenous movement (4)
  • Internet (1)
  • iran (4)
  • Iraq (4)
  • ireland (22)
  • Israel/Palestine (13)
  • Italy (3)
  • Japan (7)
  • justice system (11)
  • labor (15)
  • Latin America (17)
  • marxism (52)
  • mass media (4)
  • mass transit (1)
  • Mexico (4)
  • middle east (24)
  • minimum wage (4)
  • movie reviews (1)
  • music (2)
  • nationalism (2)
  • NEA (1)
  • Nigeria (1)
  • non-union (11)
  • nuclear (3)
  • Oakland (5)
  • Obama (14)
  • occupy oakland (2)
  • occupy wall street (1)
  • oil industry (2)
  • OUSD (1)
  • Pakistan (3)
  • Pensions (2)
  • police brutality (6)
  • politicians (6)
  • politics (22)
  • pollution (11)
  • poverty (7)
  • prisons (8)
  • privatization (6)
  • profits (21)
  • protectionism (2)
  • public education (9)
  • public sector (15)
  • public workers (6)
  • racism (18)
  • rape (2)
  • Religion (10)
  • Russia (1)
  • San Leandro (2)
  • sexism (21)
  • sexual violence (2)
  • Snowden (7)
  • socialism (22)
  • soldiers (1)
  • solidarity (1)
  • South Africa (15)
  • Spain (2)
  • speculation (1)
  • sport (2)
  • strikes (35)
  • students (3)
  • surveillance (1)
  • Syria (9)
  • tax the rich (4)
  • taxes (1)
  • Teachers (6)
  • Team Concept (4)
  • terrorism (22)
  • the right (2)
  • Trayvon Martin (3)
  • turkey (3)
  • UAW (3)
  • unemployment (1)
  • union-busting (3)
  • unions (51)
  • US economy (22)
  • us elections (6)
  • US foreign policy (41)
  • US military (26)
  • veterans (1)
  • wall street criminals (13)
  • War (15)
  • wealth (9)
  • wikileaks (12)
  • women (26)
  • worker's party (2)
  • worker's struggle (65)
  • workers (44)
  • Workers International Network (1)
  • world economy (28)
  • youth (5)
  • Zionism (13)

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (410)
    • ►  September (21)
    • ►  August (54)
    • ►  July (55)
    • ►  June (43)
    • ►  May (41)
    • ►  April (49)
    • ►  March (56)
    • ▼  February (46)
      • Minneapolis Socialist candidate arrested
      • Crisis in the Vatican: Is Pope Benedict gay?
      • Austerity USA Begins March 1st:
      • Italy: Goodbye Monti; hello the three Bs!
      • Immigration: Obama goes where the imbecile Bush fe...
      • Global economy: Deleveraging and profitability again
      • Senator Julian Assange?
      • What the 1% Heard During Obama's State of the Unio...
      • How Wall Street Preys on Teacher Pensions
      • Support the Liverpool 47
      • Helicopter money and the Chicago plan
      • Huge General Strike against austerity in Greece
      • Oakland, CA: FBI foils another fake terror plot
      • Surviving a house fire and grateful for firefighters
      • Stan Goff on what it means to join the US military
      • Australian Jews shaken by the Ben Zygier affair.
      • Spanish airline workers battle cops; fight for jobs
      • Ireland: Magdalene Laundries, rape and forced labor
      • Obama to Pre-Schoolers: This Won't Hurt a Bit
      • Ecuador's balancing act on the oil pipeline
      • Japan, currency wars and the falling yen
      • Christopher Dorner: The Defector Who Went Out With...
      • Pope, Catholic Church and Capitalism
      • Capitalism cannot solve the global crisis, it is t...
      • Ireland: a la carte Catholicism and the secular ag...
      • Capitalism and food production: Flogging a dead horse
      • Catholic Church: Pope Benedict's resignation is an...
      • Bangladeshi workers brutal conditions: The market ...
      • A right Royal banking fiddle
      • Mining companies rape the land and rape the taxpayer
      • Ireland: Left wing Irish TD vindicated after polic...
      • South Africa: Fight against layoffs, nationalise t...
      • Catholic Church in LA riddled with serial rapists ...
      • Defend the USPS: No closures, no cuts no layoffs
      • Ireland: Bankers shift debt on to backs of Irish w...
      • Slave Labor in Dubai
      • Global Ecomomy: Japan and the race to the bottom
      • Amnesty for the undocumented, they've earned it.
      • Syria: More disaster awaits with US foreign policy
      • Ireland Meeting: Campaign Against Water and Househ...
      • JSoc: Obama's secret assassins
      • World Economy: More on the crawl
      • Julian Assange on War with Iran
      • Iran is not the problem in the Middle East. They ...
      • Protectionism nor free trade: no way out for workers
      • The never-ending banking story
    • ►  January (45)
  • ►  2012 (90)
    • ►  December (43)
    • ►  November (47)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile