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Obama Claims Openness–Most Secretive Administration In History (Picture)
President Obama claims to value “openness” as a core principle of democracy, but the truth is that his administration has been among the most secretive and manipulative in modern times, tailoring what the public hears about foreign crises to what serves his agenda, writes Robert Parry.
n disclosing the deaths of two Western hostages in a U.S. drone strike on an Al-Qaeda compound, President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he had ordered the declassification of the secret operation because “the United States is a democracy committed to openness in good times and in bad.”
But the reality of the past six years has been that his administration has enforced wildly excessive secrecy, selectively declassified material to mislead the American people, and failed to correct erroneous information on sensitive international issues.
This failure to trust the people with accurate information has arguably done great harm to U.S. democracy by promoting false narratives on a range of foreign conflicts. With all its talk about “public diplomacy” and “information warfare,” the Obama administration seems intent on using half-truths and falsehoods to herd the people into a misguided consensus rather than treating them like the true sovereigns of the Republic, as the Framers of the Constitution intended with the explicit phrase “We the People of the United States.”
For instance, the Obama administration rushed to judgments on pivotal international events – such as the Syrian-sarin case in 2013 and the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shoot-down over Ukraine in 2014 – and then refused to update those assessments as new evidence emerged changing how U.S. intelligence analysts understood what happened.
Instead of correcting or refining the record – and pursuing meaningful accountability against the perpetrators of these crimes – the Obama administration has left outdated, misleading accusations in the public domain, all the better to fit with some geopolitical goals, such as delegitimizing the Syrian and Russian governments. In other words, providing the American people with substantive updates on these atrocities and advancing the cause of justice take a back seat to keeping some geopolitical foe on the defensive.
In both the Syrian-sarin case and the MH-17 shoot-down, I’ve been told that U.S. intelligence analysts have not only refined their understanding of the events but – to a significant degree – reversed them. But the original assessments, which were released nine and five days after the events, respectively, were still being handed out to the press many months later. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “A Fact-Resistant Group Think on Syria” and “US Intel Stands Pat on MH-17 Shoot-down.”]
What is perhaps most troubling in both cases, however, is that the killings involved serious crimes against humanity and the perpetrators have not been identified and brought to justice. Whatever new evidence U.S. intelligence has collected could help track down who was responsible but that doesn’t appear to be a priority for President Obama. MOREHERE
Democracy = mob rule
Lies upon lies by a treasonous fraud.
Obama Claims Openness–Most Secretive Administration In History (Picture)
Voting Monkeys put the Previous Trash into Office, Voting Monkeys put the Obamanation into Office, the Obamanation Monkey was going to end the wars, (we have noe some 10 New Ones), stop the criminal spying on americans, the Obamanation was going to hand out Obamanation Phones and Free Health Care, going to and is Trying to Rip the Money out of the Rich and Pack the Pockets of some Crack Monkeys, but just how is all that actually working out for you in real life, how do you like that Flood of New Voters coming across the Mexican Borders.
You get to do it all again in 2016, and how do you thank that will work out for you then, (you really think you will Fix things Voting again for some other, (Jew Put Up Sack of Trash), those are the Only Ones You Can Vote For.
Guns Not Voting Created this Nation and Monkeys have Trashed it to the Sad Point Where Only Guns Can Fix It, (Sadly as fast as I put this down, or any one puts any thing down on a computer, the Obamanation’s FBI-CIA-NSA, Trash are reading it), Let Baltimore Burn with the rest until People are ready to actually Fix the Nation, Beginning With A Mass Hunting Trip To Washington DC, (if you have a better Idea Let Me Know. (Trapper).