Stephen Lendman

January 11, 2013 marked Guantánamo's 11th anniversary. On January 11, 2002, its first 20 prisoners arrived there. It's one of many US torture prisons globally.

US Law Prohibits Transferring Guantánamo Prisoners to America. FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) legislation proscribes it.

Most held there are innocent victims. They're not terrorists. They're lawlessly detained. Many remained for years uncharged and untried. Fundamental rights are denied. Seton Hall University Law Professor Mark Denebeaux analyzed unclassified government data. He got them through FOIA requests. They revealed what's vital to know. The vast majority of Guantánamo detainees weren't accused of hostile acts. Afghan bounty hunters seized around 95% of them. They sold them to US forces for $5,000 per claimed Taliban and $25,000 for alleged Al Qaeda members.

Evidence of criminality wasn’t sought. Washington wanted prisoners. It still does. Innocence or guilt didn't matter. It still doesn't. What George Bush began, Obama continues. It's institutionalized. Torture and other crimes against humanity reflect official US policy. On January 20, 2009, Obama became America's 44th president. He promised closure. On January 22, 2009, his Executive Order followed. It said:

"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to effect the appropriate disposition of individuals currently detained by the Department of Defense at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (Guantánamo) and promptly to close detention facilities at Guantánamo, consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice…" [He promised] "immediate review of all" detainees within 30 days and "humane standards of confinement."

He lied. He's a serial liar. He broke every major promise made. He's a moral coward. He's an unindicted war criminal. He belongs in prison, not government. He's got four more years to wage war on humanity. Expect him to take full advantage.

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Ray McGovern

Consortiumnews Exclusive: When President Obama’s national security nominees reach the Senate, the toughest challenge is expected against Chuck Hagel for Defense, but CIA Director-designee John Brennan has more to explain about his work over the past decade on the terror war’s “dark side,” says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

As Washington’s pundit class sees it, Defense Secretary-designee Chuck Hagel deserves a tough grilling over his hesitancy to go to war with Iran and his controversial detection of a pro-Israel lobby operating in the U.S. capital, but prospective CIA Director John Brennan should get only a few polite queries about his role helping to create and sustain Dick Cheney’s “dark side.”

During the upcoming confirmation hearings of these two nominees for President Barack Obama’s national security team, we all may get a revealing look into the upside-down world of Washington’s moral and geopolitical priorities, where too much skepticism about rushing to war is disqualifying and complicity in war crimes is okay, maybe even expected.

Still, there is at least a hope that Brennan’s confirmation hearing might provide an opening for the Senate Intelligence Committee to force out the secret legal justifications and the operational procedures for the lethal drone program that has expanded under Obama, including successfully targeting for death U.S. citizen and al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen.

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Andre Damon

Obama appointee Jacob Lew (C) and Julius Genachowski (R),
the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission attend
a special lighting ceremony for the National Hanukkah Menorah,
the world’s largest, on the Ellipse, just across from the White
House on the first night of the eight-day Jewish holiday. This
annual event is sponsored by American Friends of Lubavitch.

US President Barack Obama announced the nomination of current White House chief of staff Jacob Lew as treasury secretary Thursday, underscoring the administration’s commitment to slashing entitlements and its domination by Wall Street.

Lew, a longtime Washington operative and former Wall Street executive, helped negotiate cuts to Social Security with the Reagan administration in 1983, worked to slash social spending in the Clinton administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and served as the Obama administration’s point-man in budget-cutting negotiations with congressional Republicans.

Prior to joining the Obama administration in 2009, he earned millions of dollars as the chief operating officer of Citigroup’s Alternative Investments unit, which made bets against the housing market as it collapsed.

Nominating one of the Democrats most associated with deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare underscores the administration’s commitment to attacking these programs. “For all the talk out there about deficit reduction, making sure our books are balanced—this is the guy who did it,” Obama said at Lew’s nomination on Thursday afternoon.

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