White House pressures PJ Crowley to resign over Manning comments
The Obama administration today made commitment to prisoner abuse a central pillar of its policies. State Department spokesperson P. J. Crowley has abruptly resigned after intense pressure from a White House furious that he criticized the Defense Department’s abuse of Bradley Manning. With this action the Obama administration has signaled its continuity with the Bush administration program of abuse. Alas, there are fewer and fewer people of conscience, like Crowley, left in this administration. As Crowley said in a statement today:
The exercise of power in today’s challenging times and relentless media environment must be prudent and consistent with our laws and values.
These are not the sentiments of someone who can survive in the current lawless administration, just as such a person couldn’t survive in the lawless Bush administration. Those who believe in human rights have been driven out by Obama’s flunkies who think that the only reason to be in power are to get reelected while handing the country over to Wall Street and the military-intelligence establishment.