‘State secrets’ invoked over case of American targeted for assassination

By Stephen C. Webster
Saturday, September 25th, 2010 -- 11:07 am

State secrets invoked over case of American targeted for assassinationIn a last-ditch effort to get a terrorism lawsuit dismissed, the Obama administration invoked a claim of "state secrets" on Friday, arguing that revealing details about efforts to capture or kill an American citizen charged with leading a terrorist group would endanger national security.

The suit, filed by civil liberties groups, charges that Anwar al-Aulaqi, an American citizen and Islamic cleric in Yemen, has been placed on a list of high-value targets the CIA would like to see dead.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights specifically charge that lacking threat of an imminent attack, efforts to kill al-Aulaqi amount to the targeted, "extrajudicial" assassination of a US citizen, which is illegal.

Attorneys for the groups want to see these efforts ended.

hyperlinks and videos live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m5d5...

The “emperor has no clothes” fact is that the new face of unlawful global imperialism is the old face of 20th Century imperialists. As critical mass of public recognition builds, this time, the public will reject their loveless and mass-murderous empire-building.

The two paper-thin lies the 21st Century fascists use to promote unlawful war is that Iran threatens to destroy Israel and Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Both are quickly proven as lies.

As documented in the links here (and from other viewpoints here, here, and here), Iran’s President Ahmadinejad never physically threatened Israel and all inspections of Iran’s legal nuclear energy and medicine has verified all nuclear material is accounted for.

hyperlinks live at source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~...

US-led forces added the murders of pregnant women to the recent murders of school children in Afghanistan. US military officials were forced to admit they lied in their report that Afghan “bad guys” murdered five civilians when Timesonline reporter Jerome Starkey went to the scene and documented that all evidence and witness testimony was that US-led forces murdered innocent civilians in a night raid. Unanimous testimony included Afghan government officials, police chiefs and survivors of the attack. The United Nations and New York Times investigated and corroborated Mr. Starkey’s reporting.

Note the NY Times misleading headline: "U.S. Is Reining In Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan" that is common is distract from the central facts of War Crimes on top of the lie of omission that the US armed attack and invasion of Afghanistan disobeyed two UN Security Council Resolutions and is an unlawful War of Aggression.

hyperlinks and videos live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m3d1...

The word “dictatorship” means law is whatever “leadership” dictates; literally the diction of the leader (leader = Fuhrer in German).

Senators McCain and Liebermann introduced the “Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010” (full bill here; italicized bold type is my addition):

"The bill asks the President to determine criteria for designating an individual as a "high-value detainee" if he/she: (1) poses a threat of an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within the U.S. or U.S. facilities abroad; (2) poses a threat to U.S. military personnel or U.S. military facilities; (3) potential intelligence value; (4) is a member of al Qaeda or a terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda or (5) such other matters as the President considers appropriate."

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m3d6...

Smedley Butler (and here) was the most honored man in Marine Corps history. He wrote and spoke that the purpose of US wars is millions and billions in profits for America’s leading “bankers, industrialists, and speculators.” War is a “racket:” a deception whereby its purpose of blood money from American taxpayers to “insiders” is always disguised as noble and necessary ventures to keep Americans propagandized into paying again and again.

General Butler in his summative book, War is a Racket, on the costs of war to ordinary Americans:

“This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations….

But the soldier pays the biggest part of the bill.

hyperlinks and video live here: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m3d5...

Derrick C. Crowe’s latest 3-minute video below compares President Obama’s rejection speech of peace (and here) to the widely popular Star Wars artistic presentation of a republic descending into fascism.

The strategy to rip constitutional restraint in the story was a false flag attack, which is a distinct strategy planned for operation by the US government to kill Americans, blame Iran, and launch a “defensive” war.

CameronFanSite’s Channel presents a 10 minute artistic explanation of how governments use false flag attacks to create public support to wage Wars of Aggression, also below.

Please let Mr. Obama’s lies in his speech sink in and touch your heart’s passion for justice. He said,

America has never fought a war against a democracy.

Oh? I previously explored this lie to explain three specific examples of US wars against democracies:

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m3d5...

Congressman Dennis Kucinich invoked a procedural rule to help protect Americans from endless war to compel members of Congress to debate and vote whether to continue US war in Afghanistan.

The war in Afghanistan is unlawful in Orwellian degree; tragic-comic in its violations of US war laws (useful analogy to well-understood laws for individual self-defense here). Although the laws of war are crystal-clear, complicit corporate media lies by omission and commission to explain what these laws have meant for 65 years and how they apply to unlawful US invasion of Afghanistan:

The US is the principle author of the UN Charter, a treaty that under the US Constitution has equal power with all US law that requires all nations to eliminate wars of choice.
The only lawful uses of war are self-defense upon armed attack by a nation’s government (or imminent threat of such) and/or authorization of the UN Security Council (UNSC).

hyperlinks and videos live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m3d3...

The American public is being played; duped into one unlawful War of Aggression after another. The criminal perpetrator of these war lies is a controlling faction of our own government. The evidence in this article will prove beyond any doubt that “war lies” is the accurate term; lies in Orwellian opposite of the verifiable facts, lies that cannot be reasonably construed as misinterpretations or well-intended mistakes.

These are what political historians reference as “Big Lies;” so massive and evil that ordinary citizens initially reject the objective evidence because they can’t imagine their leadership being literal psychopaths. Big Lies evoke sufficient cognitive dissonance for the public to embrace the Big Lie…but only for a time.

That time, now, is over.

“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d2...

Congressman Ron Paul spoke on the House floor for 5-minutes on US policy to assassinate US citizens at the dictate of the executive branch based on “secret evidence,” US policy of torture that includes American citizens and without legal recourse, US policy of rendition to secret prisons, and unlimited detention.

He concludes with “emperor has no clothes” obvious observation that these acts are unlawful.

Dr. Paul states with “emperor has no clothes” simple fact that the “leadership” of both Republican and Democratic parties uphold these policies despite their Orwellian opposition to our US Constitution that our government and military have oaths to support and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

The video is below.

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d2...

“The morons in Washington are pushing the envelope of nuclear war. The insane drive for American hegemony threatens life on earth. The American people, by accepting the lies and deceptions of "their" government, are facilitating this outcome.”

“Some other agenda is being served that we are not being told.” – Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts is one of the most respected conservative voices in the nation. He is the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

His latest article, “Road to Armageddon,” details the threat that unlawful US foreign policy is rapidly escalating into a climate to initiate World War III. Four paragraphs from his article:

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d2...

What can we conclude when our government tyrants threaten war with Iran because the tyrants refuse to sell Iran 1 gram of medical isotopes worth $75,000, and contrive Iran’s legal production of isotopes for nearly one million human beings’ medical procedures as a cause for war?

There are a few rational conclusions:
1.Tell the truth about what’s right in front of us with powerful factual accuracy.
2.Refuse cooperation with evil, and those with arrest powers to exercise them for those who issue unlawful orders.
3.Respectfully ask for the tyrants to surrender power.
4.Offer a choice to the tyrants to either gracefully accept a Truth and Reconciliation process to confess all crimes and return all stolen assets, or face criminal and civil prosecution.

Our military, law enforcement, and government leaders must take a leading role as they have the big guns and can cause political exposure and enforcement of “emperor has no clothes” obvious crimes.

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d2...

The yearly need of Iran for life-saving medical isotopes is less than one gram and costs Iran $75,000 to refine the fuel. Iran has stated they would prefer to buy the isotopes rather than produce them. The US could resolve the threat of war with Iran if President Obama made a speech today saying the US will allow Iran to produce it themselves under inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a legal right guaranteed by treaty among nations including the US and Iran, or by the US selling Iran the isotopes.

The US refusal to do so and the US corporate media to not report this simple solution is revealing of a sinful and deadly war agenda that follows the propaganda path that led to unlawful war with Afghanistan and Iraq. The propaganda is tragic-comic: all we have for peace is one "anonymous" report with a misleading headline to psychopathically appear the US is taking peaceful action with no substantiation.

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d2...

Iran will run-out of medical isotopes within a month; leaving nearly 850,000 patients without a critical tool for their diagnosis and treatment. Iran’s government repeated their request to buy or swap fuel (previous acceptance here), even though they are legally authorized to produce their own. The US-proposed delay for Iran to receive the enriched fuel after a wait of up to one year would kill Iranians in need of the treatment.

You would think that a Nobel Peace Prize winning President would jump at this opportunity to save people’s lives and ensure peace by accepting either option the Iranian government has peacefully offered.

But instead, Mr. Obama sent his minions to reject Iran. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:

"Time and patience is running out,” Iran will face “consequences,” and “they have no interest in building international confidence that their nuclear program is for peaceful means.”

Assistant Secretary of State Philip J. Crowley:

hyperlinks and videos live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d2...

Robert Greenwald, the creator of Brave New Films, testified to the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Defense about war profiteering. He planned to show a 4-minute excerpt from his film, “Iraq for Sale,” as a more powerful communication than his mere speaking but was blocked by a majority vote of those in favor of the Iraq war.

The powerful and revealing 4-minute video is below.

Following is a 3-minute CBS News story of then Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld admitting the Pentagon “lost” $2.3 trillion dollars:
That’s $23,000 for every US household,
or embezzling $1,000,000 from a military project 2,300,000 times,
or embezzling a million dollars a day for 6,300 years,
or embezzling over 600 million dollars a day, every day, for ten years.

Following that is a 4-minute video of President Eisenhower’s warning mixed with Rumsfeld’s Congressional testimony dancing around the Department of Defense (DOD) waste.

hyperlinks and videos live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d2...

The Dalai Lama confessed to receive CIA funds in their revolutionary attempts to split from China. As US and Israel lying rhetoric for war with Iran escalate and echoed by US corporate media, as Iran is considered a main source of oil for China, as WW3 is a real threat given that WW2 sprung from a series of smaller occupations cumulating with a false flag attack on Poland and WW1 sprung from a single political assassination in a context of competing empires, the “chess masters” behind the scenes of politics might have more in mind than a simple visit between President Obama and an exiled religious feudal-system divine monarch (and here).

In analysis, Webster Tarpley provides context in your choice of a brief 5-minute discussion and a longer 26-minute group analysis below.

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~...

Nobel economist Paul Krugman wrote the US economy is “doomed,” Obama “clueless,” and summarizes his analysis of President Obama’s economic leadership with simply:

Oh. My. God.

Mr. Krugman joins a growing list of characteristically dry economic experts expanding the margins of their self-expression to communicate to Americans that kleptocratic parasites have destroyed the US economy.

The good news is that the solutions are obvious, available right now, and elegantly simple to understand and implement.

Let’s start with understanding these solutions, provide a snapshot to professional economists’ horror of our economic destruction, and close with PuppetGov’s 8-minute video, “America’s controlled economic implosion” to add visual and artistic dimension to our understanding.

hyperlinks and video live at: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d2...

The good news is corporate media war propaganda is so easy to reveal and crush. Today’s version of CIA Operation Mockingbird, the US Senate Church Committee disclosure of over 400 CIA operatives within US corporate media to propagandize for war policies, is escalating their paper-thin lies of omission and commission to manipulate America into war with Iran.

The great news is millions of Americans recognize corporate media lies; especially after the confirmed lies they viciously and endlessly repeated for wars with Afghanistan and Iraq. Millions also authoritatively understand these wars are clearly unlawful (and here).

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~...

US “leadership” and their corporate media minions are pushing juvenile-level propaganda for war with Iran; lies that anyone can verify with a few moments’ attention. If you haven’t already confirmed the Orwellian-level disinformation, stop and read the above two links now.

Many people hypothesize the confirmed lies for wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, and a final war with Iran, is to control oil. Connected is the theory that US political and economic “masters” are so confident in their propaganda, and so correct in their conclusion that the critical mass of humanity is too feeble to stop them, that they brazenly move forward for global hegemony.

This article provides a different explanation of the facts; with heightened urgency to prevent war with Iran, as it is a planned step to begin a Third World War.

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d1...

The US war emperors have no clothes. Iran never threatened to destroy Israel. Iran is in full compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), including their use of nuclear medicine with isotopes. It was the US who initiated the UN Charter that limits war to the narrowest use of self-defense only, almost identical in law to the limits for you or me as individuals.

When will leadership emerge from the US military and/or US government to speak these truths that are objective facts for anyone and everyone to verify?

US military is trained to refuse unlawful orders for War Crimes, but not trained in the broader context of recognizing and refusing an unlawful war. It’s time for our military to stand for their declaration of brotherhood and halt further slaughter and misery, to honor their Oath of Enlistment to the US Constitution; to recognize as the late Pat Tillman: “These wars are so fu*king illegal,” and to end them now.

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d1...

The Non-Proliferation Treaty, initiated by the United States, is clear:

Article IV: 1. Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty.

hyperlinks live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d1...

After 45 years of service to the newly created United States, George Washington published a message to the American people; the summation of what he most wanted to contribute to Americans' understanding of defending our Constitutional government.

Washington's Farewell Address is considered so important that it is read in its entirety every year in the Senate, and has been read in one or both chambers of Congress every year since 1862.

The following three paragraphs give us context and his advice: guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

hyperlinks live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d1...

In our third consideration of Abraham Lincoln’s wisdom applied to current US wars (first and second):

A letter to his law partner:

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, — "I see no probability of the British invading us"; but he will say to you, "Be silent: I see it, if you don't."

hyperlinks live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d1...

Most people do not know that Abraham Lincoln is a hero for his acts as a freshman member of the House of Representatives in the Congress of 1847-1849. Lincoln demanded that the President of the US provide specific evidence justifying the US invading a foreign country, stating the obvious on the floor of Congress that the President’s claims of a defensive war were lies to propagandize an offensive war for territorial control against a weaker nation.

He did so despite the lack of support from most of his own political party. He demanded the facts despite his being painted by political opponents and the press as “unpatriotic.” The propaganda defeated Lincoln at his next election; his name slurred as “spotty Lincoln.”

We now know that Lincoln was correct that the US President had indeed lied about the cause of war.

hyperlinks live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d1...

Presidents Day weekend includes honoring the birthday of Abraham Lincoln for most Americans. He is considered among the top writers in our world’s history for eloquent and powerful precision. He is revered by Republicans as the father of their political Party. His commitment to the nation “of the people, by the people, for the people” is revered by all.

hyperlinks and videos live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d1...

Causing unlawful war upon the US is an attack upon our nation, consistent with US Constitution Article III Section 3:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

Causing war against the US is so egregious, it’s the only crime the Founders defined in the Constitution. An unlawful war is the supreme act of betrayal against our military, and a violent overthrow of the US government as we know it by our Constitution. It replaces American limited government under law with unchecked fascism.

The heart of this charge of treason is whether war with Iran would be obviously unlawful or open to a lawful interpretation. Understanding the arguments for war with Iran and the rules of war quickly get to the heart of this crucial issue.

The current two areas of rhetoric for war with Iran are obviously unlawful grounds because they are provable lies:

hyperlinks and videos live at source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~...

The only trial on the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King found the US government guilty of his murder. Corporate media did not headline this news, and history textbooks excise this essential understanding of Dr. King’s life; providing an excellent case study of what the US Senate Church Committee disclosed as an active US propaganda program to disinform the American public. For comparison, please consider the corporate media coverage to inform in every detail of O.J. Simpson’s trials.

King’s family and attorney, Dr. William Pepper, allege that Dr. King’s speech for peace, calling upon America to end the Vietnam War, Beyond Vietnam: A time to break silence, and his plan for a 500,000 camp-in for Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1968 were a threat to dominant and fascist political factions within US government and caused orders for his assassination.

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d7...

In November I documented current and historical evidence that the US “leadership” was considering “false flag” attack plans to kill Americans, plant evidence to blame Iran, and then launch a “defensive” attack upon Iran.

Former National Security Advisor and founding member of the Trilateral Commission, Zbigniew Brzezinski, warned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2007 of a false flag attack to begin war with Iran. He described a "plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran," which would include "some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a ‘defensive’ US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

hyperlinks live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d3...

The US Senate Church Committee disclosed in 1975 that more than over 400 government propagandists had infiltrated American corporate media to manipulate public opinion on key policies, including war. CIA Director William Colby testified that Operation Mockingbird had been operational since the late 1940s to control what was reported through American television, newspapers, and magazines. President Ford fired Colby after his testimony and replaced him with George H. W. Bush. Bush Sr. ended the CIA’s testimony, stating that there were no other programs of concern to disclose and promised that the CIA would no longer influence the media (for Bush Sr.’s lies to initiate the first war with Iraq, click here).

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d2...

John Hankey is the author of the following compelling analysis that considers if President Obama is under threat to comply with US military orders for supporting war escalation (and its funding). This is part two of two; for part one, click here.

John is the creator of the stunning and historically accurate documentary, "Dark Legacy: George Bush and the assassination of JFK." A 10-minute excerpt from the video is at the end of the article.

This documentary is the historical favorite of my history students and the single-best JFK assassination analysis that I’ve reviewed. “Dark Legacy” walks viewers through the independently verifiable evidence that has two-thirds to three-fourths of Americans conclude the US government story of President Kennedy's assassination is provably false (these polls include ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS).

hyperlinks and video live at source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner~...

I had previously reported that US citizens are being tortured by our own government when the executive branch says the magic word: "terrorist." Under the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA), such Americans can be detained forever without legal right of habeas corpus. If those Americans are brought to trial rather than detained and tortured at the whim of the tyrants, the US government has created an unconstitutional system of judgment and execution: the President/dictator slurring the American as “terrorist” also says who the judges are to determine guilt with available penalty of execution. These three military tribunal judges are allowed to accept “secret evidence” from the government that is unavailable for the defendant to view or challenge if two other words are said: “national security.”