OBAMA'S 6 WORST ATTACKS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES

PERHAPS THE CONCLUSION IS OVERSTATED, BUT THE ARTICLE IS WELL DOCUMENTED.  THESE ARE THE 6 WORST ATTACKS IF ONE INCLUDES THE AP SCANDAL.


FROM ALTERNET

5 Worst Obama Assaults on Civil Liberties Besides the AP scandal

The Obama era has been one of the worst for domestic civil liberties.

May 16, 2013  |  

 

Is anyone really surprised that Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Justice Department  followed the rules in seizing two months of telephone records from 20 Associated Press journalists to investigate a CIA leak aas he recused himself from a FBI investigation?

The Obama era has been one of the worst for domestic civil liberties. It has become the status quo for law enforcement at every level to spy on Americans. Los Angeles police  track tens of thousands of cars daily. Seattle police read text messages without search warrants. California police look at  old e-mails the same way. Internet companies say they will protect users’ privacy, but have policies that still give police what they want. 

Which brings us to the Justice Department’s  subpeona of the AP’s phone records for an investigation into who leaked details about a  failed terror attack to the country’s largest news organization. The DOJ informed the AP on Friday that it had obtained the phone records, creating an uproar in media  circles. But no one should be surprised.

“This administration is as untransparent as the Bush administration—if not more,” Dana Priest,  Washington Post investigative reporter  told the new released documentary, War on Whistleblowers, which traces how the Bush and Obama White Houses have declared war on a litany of national security and Pentagon leakers. “They have really tried very hard to prosecute people who they believe have leaked information.”

“It does have an intimidating effect—not just on leakers, but on the process, on us doing our job” said Michael Isikoff, NBC investigative reporter, told the filmmakers. “And I think the impact is the American public learns less and American democracy is poorer rather than richer as a result of these prosecutions.”

The Dismal Obama Years

Civil libertarians have had very few victories under Obama. In March, a federal District Court  blocked the FBI from ordering telecom companies to turn over customer data and blocked FBI gag orders on this domestic spying program, although the government will appeal. And last fall, a federal court also suspended a section of a major defense bill that gave the government permission to arrest people who were suspected of speaking with alleged terrorists, which included the journalists who sued. However, another federal court reinstated that provision pending appeal. 

Moreover, even Obama’s latest pledge to try to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been seen as disingenuous—and not because Republicans in Congress say they will  block that move—but because he hasn’t issued an executive order to do it. 

These developments underscore that Obama barely differs from the George W. Bush when it comes to the ‘War on Terrorism.’ While Obama has not continued some tactics used by his predecessor, such as CIA black sites and torture, he’s gone further than Bush with targeted assassinations and with expanding the domestic national security state.

 

Let’s list Obama’s assault on civil liberties including newest attack on whistleblowers.

 

1. War on whistleblowers. The seizure of AP phone records is just the latest twist in a deepening war on media whistleblowers. Obama has revived the century-old Espionage Act to prosecute more then double the number of whistleblowers than all prior presidents combined. And he has draped these actions in secrecy. For example, the DOJ told the AP last Friday that it had already taken the phone records with  one line in a letter.

 

2. War on domestic dissent. The Atlantic’s Wendy Kaminer, writinga powerful piece after Obama’s second inaugural said, “Kelly Clarkson’s musical paean to liberty seemed more sincere.” She  lists five areas where the Obama is worse that Bush on civil liberties. “They include, but are probably not limited to, summary detention and torture; the prosecution of whistleblowers; surveillance of peaceful protesters; the criminalization of journalism and peaceful  human-rights activism; and extensive  blacklisting that would have been the envy of Joe McCarthy; and  secrecy about a shadow legal system that makes the president's ‘We the people’ trope seem less inspirational than sarcastic.”