Stephen Lendman

Straightaway in office, Obama fell from grace. His priorities revealed a Judas. He betrayed constituents who trusted him. Their hopes went unfulfilled. On January 20, Obama began term two.

Obama used Lincoln’s bible for his oath of office in a disgraceful
attempt to imbue the speech with a Lincolnesque aura.

■ He broke every major campaign promise made. He mocks legitimate governance. He lawlessly serves powerful monied interests. They own him.
■ He spurns peace. He's waging multiple direct and proxy wars. He's got new targets in mind. He supports some of the world's most ruthless despots.
■ He spends more on militarism than all other countries combined. He's done it when the only enemies America has are ones it invents.
■ He institutionalized tyranny. He targets dissent. He elevated abuse of power to a higher level. He imprisoned some of America's best and brightest. He's got others in mind.
■ He decides who'll live or die. His kill list chooses targets. He designated himself judge, jury and executioner.
■ He supports the worst of Israeli crimes of war, against humanity and genocide. They partner in ravaging one country after another.
■ He authorized indefinite detention without charge or trial. He approved doing it to Americans. He wants them held in military prisons out of sight and mind.
■ He promised to close Guantanamo. It's still open. He endorses torture by permitting it. He invents nonexistent security threats as justification.
■ He ignores political corruption at the highest levels.
■ He prioritizes serving Wall Street and other corporate favorites. He ignores popular needs. He's force-feeding austerity when stimulus is needed. He destroyed hard won labor rights.
■ He wants education made another business profit center. He rationed healthcare to enrich insurers, drug companies and large hospital chains.
■ He put bankers in charge of financial reform. It's a stealth system for global money control. They game the system for profit. Their business model is grand theft.
■ He increased poverty, unemployment, homelessness, hunger, and despair. He plans more of the same in term two.
■ He wants America's social contract destroyed. He wants ordinary people on their own sink or swim. He conspired with Republicans and key Democrats to assure it. He pretends otherwise. He conceals what too few understand.

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Ray McGovern

U.S. Defense Secretary Panetta speaks with Pope Benedict XVI
during an audience at the Vatican on Jan. 16, 2013.

Consortiumnews Exclusive: Leon Panetta returned to government in 2009 amid hopes he could cleanse the CIA where torture and politicized intelligence had brought the U.S. to new lows in world respect. Yet, after four years at CIA and Defense, it is Panetta who departs morally compromised, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, a practicing Catholic, sought a blessing on Wednesday from Pope Benedict XVI. Afterward Panetta reported that the Pope said, “Thank you for helping to keep the world safe” to which Panetta replied, “Pray for me.”

In seeking those prayers, Panetta knows better than the Pope what moral compromises have surrounded him during his four years inside the Obama administration, as CIA director overseeing the covert war against al-Qaeda and as Defense Secretary deploying the largest military on earth.

For me and others who initially had high hopes for Panetta, his performance in both jobs has been a bitter disappointment. Before accepting the CIA post, Panetta had criticized the moral and constitutional violations in George W. Bush’s “war on terror,” especially the use of torture.

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Philip Giraldi

Zionists are working overtime to steer US foreign policy in a
pro-Israel direction. - As always, it's all about Israel...

Something curious is taking place. The nomination of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense came under fire from the friends of Israel even before it was certain that President Barack Obama would name him to the post. Hagel demonstrably has no particular animus towards Israel but he, while senator, refused to kowtow to the Israel Lobby, failing to sign on to letters and position statements, saying that he was first and foremost a United States Senator, not a representative of a foreign power. He also favors negotiations with Iran to end the nuclear standoff, which critics immediately latched onto as a sign of weakness and a further indication that he did not have Israel’s back. Bill Kristol, head of the Emergency Committee for Israel, quickly piled on to the Hagel nomination, followed by the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin and Charles Krauthammer, convicted Iran contra felon Elliot Abrams, reliably liberal Rachel Maddow, Harvard’s own Israel firster Alan Dershowitz, Mitt Romney adviser Dan Senor, and Johns Hopkins’ Professor Eliot Cohen. Several critics, including the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka, accused Hagel of being anti-Semitic and Islamophobe Pamela Geller described him as a "Jew hater." Transplanted American now-living-in-Israel Caroline Glick somewhat more confusingly wrote that he "hates Jews that think that Jews have rights."

Major Jewish organizations including the Anti-Defamation League and The American Jewish Committee, quickly followed suit, with ADL’s Abe Foxman saying "the sentiments he’s [Hagel’s] expressed about the Jewish lobby border on anti-Semitism in the genre of professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt and former president Jimmy Carter" while the AJC’s David Harris added "We’re not in the opposition camp, we’re in the concerned camp. We’re going to count on the Senate to examine, as it must, key issues of concern."

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