OBAMA GOVERNMENT = WAR CRIMES
Thursday, June 6, 2013 8:50
Susan Rice, Samantha Power, And Syria
With the President making the formal announcement this afternoon that he has
selected
U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to be his new National Security Adviser and
longtime adviser Samantha Power to be replace Rice at the United
Nations, speculation has turned to what impact these moves are likely to
have on the direction of foreign policy in President Obama’s final
term. Specifically, given the fact that both Rice and Power have a
reputation as advocating a foreign policy of intervention to prevent or
stop human rights violations, and that they were both heavily involved
in advocating for intervention in Libya in 2011, their selection raises
the question of what influence Rice and Power might have on U.S. policy
toward the civil war in Syria. To date, President Obama has displayed a
decidedly cautious approach toward the idea of even indirect
intervention in the form of arming the rebels, and it seems rather clear
that there has been very little support inside the Administration for
such intervention notwithstanding the fact that the President has at
various times drawn “red lines” for the Assad regime. Now, with two
advocates of what has been referred to as the “Responsibility To
Protect” Doctrine, one wonders if there’s a possibility that a policy
shift may be at hand.
Over at
Commentary, Max Boot is certainly
among those who hopes that there will be:
Considering that Power and to a lesser extent Rice have argued that
the U.S. has a “responsibility to protect” populations subject to
genocide or other war crimes, it would be disheartening indeed if the
administration in which they serve at increasingly senior levels were to
continue to do little as the list of atrocities in Syria pile up.
Especially when there is growing support in the region for action. Just
this week Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a Turkish academic and
diplomat who is head of the 57-country Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC), called for the
imposition of a no-fly zone in Syria. However much Turkey, Saudi
Arabia, and other regional allies would support such a step, they are
not going to impose a no-fly zone on their own. That depends on American
leadership, which so far has been conspicuously missing.
Obviously, Boot is among those that favors greater American involvement
in the Syrian civil war and he’s hoping that bringing Rice and Power
closer in to the President’s inner circle will influence the President
to take steps to seek that greater involvement notwithstanding the
obvious risks of doing so and the fact that the American people clearly
do not favor such a course of action. Based on what we know about the
two of them, it’s perhaps not an unfounded hope on his part. After all,
both have written and spoken extensively on the idea of using American
power to prevent and put an end to glaring human rights abuses even in
situations where American national interests are not directly at stake.
However, as Mark Landler notes at
The New York Times, Rice and Power
have been far more circumspect when it comes to the Syrian situation than their previous rhetoric might have predicted:
[A]s Mr. Obama and his aides have long argued, Libya is no Syria. The
first was a clear-cut case in which air power could prevent Col. Muammar
el-Qaddafi from killing thousands of rebels in their stronghold; the
second, a sectarian struggle, pits a regime with sophisticated air
defenses against rebels scattered throughout the country.
Neither Ms. Rice nor Ms. Power has spoken out publicly in favor of a
more aggressive American response to the blood bath in Syria, which is
perhaps not surprising, given Mr. Obama’s well-known views and their own
roles as rising stars in his administration.
Administration officials said that in the debate last summer about
whether to supply the rebels with arms – a proposal pushed by the
then-director of the Central Intelligence Agency, David H. Petraeus –
Ms. Rice sided with those who opposed it. Over time, however, officials
said, she has become more open to lethal aid, given the stalemate in the
civil war.
Gary Bass, a professor of politics and international affairs at
Princeton University, said that in formulating its Syria policy, the
administration would have to answer a basic question.
“Do you think of Syria as being a Rwanda or a Bosnia, where human
rights concerns trumped everything?” he said. “Or do you see it as more
like Iraq, where it’s not clear there’s a good side to get behind?”
There are other voices for stronger action, including Secretary of
State John Kerry. He may find common cause with Ms. Rice on Syria even
as he struggles to carve out an influential role in an administration
where decision-making resides at the White House.
Jeffrey Goldberg, meanwhile, notes that Rice in particular
has expressed considerable skepticism about direct U.S. involvement in Syria:
Rice is known as a liberal interventionist (as is the woman being
named to replace her at the UN, the writer and former National Security
Council staffer Samantha Power), but advocates of greater American
involvement in the Syrian civil war, the most acute problem Rice will
face in her new position, will be disappointed to learn that she isn’t
particularly optimistic about the effect that any U.S. action — such as
imposing a no-fly zone — will have on the war’s outcome.
Rice, like the president, seems focused on the possibility that the
downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime could mean a victory for
al-Qaeda-like groups that represent some of the strongest elements of
the Syrian opposition. The Obama administration is desperately seeking
to avoid the creation of terrorist havens in Syria, because they would
represent a direct national-security threat to the U.S. and would
require an armed American response.
The American experience in Libya — not the Benghazi attack, which was
searing in its own way — has also chastened Obama’s national-security
team: The intervention on behalf of rebels fighting the late, unlamented
dictator Muammar Qaddafi, may very well have saved thousands of
innocent lives, but the fallout from Qaddafi’s overthrow (the rise of
al-Qaeda-like groups, the spread of Libyan weapons across Africa, the
general misery and instability that now afflicts the country) has taught
Obama’s advisers, Rice included, important lessons about the
unpredictability of intervention. Politically, the administration has
seen no upside to the Libyan intervention — it was criticized for
recklessness by both Democrats and Republicans — and in a very political
White House, these domestic considerations often take precedence.
It’s possible, of course, that Rice and Power have simply just been
reflecting Administration policy in their previous comments, and that
they will become more forceful advocates of greater American involvement
in Syria once they are in positions where they have the ability to
actually influence policy to a far greater degree than before.
Furthermore, the fact that they both have a personal friendship with the
President arguably makes their ability to have a voice at the table, as
opposed to, say, John Kerry, that much greater. So perhaps Goldberg and
Landler will end up being proven wrong and we’ll see significant
changes in U.S. policy toward Syria once Rice and Power are in place, we
really can’t know until we get there.
In the end, though, that seems unlikely based on what we do know. As
noted, neither woman appears to have taken a strong pro-intervention
position regarding Syria when given the opportunity. Perhaps it is the
case that they share the view that seems to be prevalent in some
quarters that sees Syria not as another Libya (although the past two
years have shown that the Libyan intervention was far from a massive
success), but as potentially another Iraq. It certainly does seem to
have all the qualities of living up to that analogy. Like Iraq, Syria is
torn by ethnic divisions that are likely to explode in the event the
Assad regime falls, possibly bringing allies and enemies from
neighboring states in to the conflict along with them. Putting American
forces into the middle of that, or engaging in a policy that would
effectively make the United States or the West responsible for the
political future of Syria, a nation that was little more than the
creation of the French to begin with, would be as big a mistake in the
long run as the invasion of Iraq and our post-Saddam policy turned out
to be. For all the faults you can ascribe to him for foolishly drawing
“red lines” for Bashar Assad that clearly weren’t going to be enforced,
it seems apparent that President Obama recognizes these risks and that
he’s reluctant to get the nation involved in another potentially long
war after having gotten us out of Iraq and establishing the guide path
for our withdrawal from Afghanistan. From their public comments, it
would appear that Rice and Power share that view, as do other advisers
on the President’s foreign policy team.
Power should most certainly be questioned about her previous comments
about “Responsibility To Protect” and how it might apply to the Syrian
situation. The American people deserve to know what kind of advice the
President will be getting if she is confirmed. However, for the moment
at least, it doesn’t appears as if the selection of Rice and Power is
going to result in significant changes in the President’s policies in
Syria. Hopefully, that turns out to be true.
Photo by White House Photographer Pete Souza via White House Flickr Feed
Allen West compares Eric Holder to Al Qaeda
West (left) accused Holder of abusing his position. | John Shinkle/POLITICO
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is scarier than Ayman al-Zawahiri,
the leader of Al Qaeda — according to former Rep. Allen West.
In a fundraising email from Allen West Guardian Fund, West calls Holder the “bigger threat to our Republic.”
OBAMA GOVERNMENT = WAR CRIMES
Thursday, June 6, 2013 8:50
“Al Qaeda is a very serious and persistent threat, but I trust the
U.S. military to protect us from future attacks. I cannot say the same
about President Obama and his Justice Department,” West writes in the
email, quoting ancient philosopher Cicero, who posited that a nation
“cannot survive treason from within.”
(
PHOTOS: Eric Holder’s career)
West accuses Holder of abusing his power position as attorney general
and using it to “implement Obama’s radical transformation of America.”
He said that the recent scandals involving the IRS and the AP and Fox
News, as well as Benghazi, were proof of this.
“I can’t emphasize enough how critical your support is. I’ve been
warning for a long time that there may be a day we wake up and America
is no longer America. The more time Eric Holder spends as Barack Obama’s
right hand man, the closer we are to this day. We must stop this
dangerous duo today,” West ad
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2431258451001/
Recently, Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the House
Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the administration’s
sweeping surveillance of journalists with the Associated Press. In the
greatest attack on the free press in decades, the Justice Department
seized phone records for reporters and editors in at least three AP
offices as well as its office in the House of Representatives. Holder,
however, proceeded to claim absolute and blissful ignorance of the
investigation, even failing to recall when or how he recused himself.
Yet, this was only the latest attack on the news media under Holder’s
leadership. Despite his record, he expressed surprise at the hearing
that the head of the Republican National Committee had called for his
resignation. After all, Holder pointed out, he did nothing. That is, of
course, precisely the point. Unlike the head of the RNC, I am neither a
Republican nor conservative, and I believe Holder should be fired.
The ‘sin eater’
Holder’s refusal to accept responsibility for the AP investigation was
something of a change for the political insider. His value to President
Obama has been his absolute loyalty. Holder is what we call a “sin
eater” inside the Beltway — high-ranking associates who shield
presidents from responsibility for their actions. Richard Nixon had H.R.
Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Ronald Reagan had Oliver North and Robert
“Bud” McFarlane. George W. Bush had the ultimate sin eater: Dick
Cheney, who seemed to have an insatiable appetite for sins to eat.
This role can be traced to 18th century Europe, when families would
use a sin eater to clean the moral record of a dying person by eating
bread from the person’s chest and drinking ale passed over his body.
Back then, the ritual’s power was confined to removing minor sins.
For Obama, there has been no better sin eater than Holder. When the
president promised CIA employees early in his first term that they would
not be investigated for torture, it was the attorney general who
shielded officials from prosecution. When the Obama administration
decided it would expand secret and warrantless surveillance, it was
Holder who justified it. When the president wanted the authority to kill
any American he deemed a threat without charge or trial, it was Holder
who went public to announce the “kill list” policy.
Last week, the Justice Department confirmed that it was Holder who
personally approved the equally abusive search of Fox News correspondent
James Rosen’s e-mail and phone records in another story involving
leaked classified information. In the 2010 application for a secret
warrant, the Obama administration named Rosen as “an aider and abettor
and/or co-conspirator” to the leaking of classified materials. The
Justice Department even investigated Rosen’s parents’ telephone number,
and Holder was there to justify every attack on the news media.
Ignoble legacy
Yet, at this month’s hearing, the attorney general had had his fill.
Accordingly, Holder adopted an embarrassing mantra of “I have no
knowledge” and “I had no involvement” throughout the questioning. When
he was not reciting the equivalent to his name, rank and serial number,
he was implicating his aide, Deputy Attorney General James Cole. Cole,
it appears, is Holder’s sin eater. Holder was so busy denying
responsibility for today’s scandals, he began denying known facts about
older scandals. For example, Holder was asked about an earlier scandal
in his administration in the handling of the “Fast and Furious” program
where guns were allowed to be sold to criminal gangs. Holder insisted
that Ronald C. Machen Jr., the U.S. attorney for the District of
Columbia, was not told to decline the prosecution of Holder for contempt
of Congress after refusing to turn over key documents and that
“[Machen] made the determination about what he was going to do on his
own.” However, Holder’s deputy, Cole, wrote to Machen to inform him
(before the contempt citation even reached his office) that Main Justice
“has determined that the Attorney General’s response to the subpoena . .
. does not constitute a crime.”
In the end, Holder was the best witness against his continuing in
office. His insistence that he did nothing was a telling moment. The
attorney general has done little in his tenure to protect civil
liberties or the free press. Rather, Holder has supervised a
comprehensive erosion of privacy rights, press freedom and due process.
This ignoble legacy was made possible by Democrats who would look at
their shoes whenever the Obama administration was accused of
constitutional abuses.
On Thursday, Obama responded to the outcry over the AP and Fox
scandals by calling for an investigation by … you guessed it … Eric
Holder. He ordered Holder to meet with news media representatives to
hear their “concerns” and report back to him. He sent his old sin eater
for a confab with the very targets of the abusive surveillance. Such an
inquiry offers no reason to trust its conclusions.
The feeble response was the ultimate proof that these are Obama’s sins
despite his effort to feign ignorance. It did not matter that Holder is
the sin eater who has lost his stomach or that such mortal sins are not
so easily digested. Indeed, these sins should be fatal for any attorney
general.
Susan Rice to be new NSA, Samantha Power to replace her at U.N. – Glenn Thrush – POLITICO.com
Susan Rice to be new NSA, Samantha Power to replace her at U.N.
By GLENN THRUSH | 6/5/13 7:39 AM EDT Updated: 6/5/13 10:14 AM EDT
National Security Adviser Tom Donilon is stepping down after
four years on the job and will be replaced by United Nations Ambassador
Susan Rice — the latest in a series of defiant appointments likely to
rile the GOP and fire up the Democratic base.
Obama will nominate Samantha Power, an anti-genocide activist
and author who won a Pulitzer Prize for “A Problem from Hell: America
and the Age of Genocide,” as Rice’s replacement.
Continue Reading
The appointments of Rice and Power not only represent the
ascension of women to top roles on Obama’s national security team, but
the rise of two officials who have made human rights a priority — at a
time when the U.S. faces an agonizing decisions over Syria where
President Bashar al-Assad has killed tens of thousands of civlilans.
Obama wiill make the announcement Wednesday during a Rose
Garden announcement at which he will also name a replacement for Rice,
48. The U.N. ambassador had been a leading contender to replace Hillary
Clinton as secretary of state, but withdrew herself from consideration
in December after Republicans sharply criticized her public statements
following the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi.
People close to Obama expect Republicans on the Hill to
continue their anti-Rice drumbeat, but they have no authority to stop
her nomination — the position is one of the few at the senior level that
requires no Senate confirmation.
Power will have to be confirmed by the Senate, and her
hearings are likely to become a forum for criticism of Rice and Clinton,
officials predicted.
Obama is eager for that fight, and was embittered by the
attacks against Rice to an extent unmatched by nearly any other episode
in his fight-filled presidency.
Conservatives responded quickly — and negatively — to the Rice pick.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), one of the administration’s
harshest critics on the Benghazi attacks, Tweeted: “Judgement is key to
national security matters. That alone should disqualify Susan Rice from
her appointment. #benghazi #BadChoice.”
And the Drudge Report quickly posted a link to Rice’s
now-infamous appearances on Sunday talk shows last September, in which
she erroneously read talking points claiming the the terrorist attack
that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens was a spontaneous assault linked to
an anti-Islamic film produced in the U.S.
The picks were greeted with excitement among Democrats, who
were heartened by Obama’s willingness to promote two of the highest
profile women in the administration in the face of GOP opposition.
“Both are brilliant women with many years of foreign policy
experience and the strong trust of the president, so they will likely
have a lot of sway in their new positions,” said Neera Tanden, head of
the Center for American Progress, an influential Washington think-tank
with ties to the White House.
Donilon, 58, is a low-key veteran Washington insider known for his long work hours. A Foreign Policy report
earlier this year cited tensions between Donilon, a former Fannie Mae
executive with close ties to Vice President Joe Biden, and his one-time
deputy Denis McDonough, now Obama’s chief of staff.
An administration official, speaking last week, downplayed the
friction but conceded it was awkward for Donilon “to be working for a
guy who once worked for him.”
Donilon, who came into the national security job with less
experience than many of his predecessors in the job, will be largely be
remembered for his commitment to centering foreign policy decisions in
the West Wing and his quiet but forceful determination to keep U.S.
involvement in foreign conflicts to a minimum.
Rice, a former Clinton administration official, is likely to
retain Donilon’s policy of controlling decision-making — but has pushed
for a more muscular U.S. posture during recent crises, especially in
Libya.
Power, an Irish-born author on human rights and genocide,
served as an aide at the National Security Council as the senior
director for multilateral affairs and was named chair of the Atrocities
Prevention Board that Obama created last year. She is married to Cass
Sunstein, a Harvard professor who served in the administration as an
adviser on innovation and government streamlining.
The announcements come as Obama prepares for his first
face-to-face meeting with the new leader of China Xi Jinping to discuss a
variety of sensitive national security issues, including the growing
problem of cyber hacking — a sit-down that Donilon helped arrange.