Barack Obama

President Obama: Repeal the AUFM

...All these issues remind us that the choices we make about war can impact – in sometimes unintended ways – the openness and freedom on which our way of life depends. And that is why I intend to engage Congress about the existing Authorization to Use Military Force, or AUMF, to determine how we can continue to fight terrorists without keeping America on a perpetual war-time footing.

The AUMF is now nearly twelve years old. The Afghan War is coming to an end. Core al Qaeda is a shell of its former self. Groups like AQAP must be dealt with, but in the years to come, not every collection of thugs that labels themselves al Qaeda will pose a credible threat to the United States. Unless we discipline our thinking and our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we don’t need to fight, or continue to grant Presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states. So I look forward to engaging Congress and the American people in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the AUMF’s mandate. And I will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further. Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. But this war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands.


http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/read-transcript-of-obamas-speech-on-counterterrorism-policy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022891567

Is it any wonder that the RW and their faux peacenik libertarian allies came down hard on this speech in every way they could to hurt Obama?

Obama places a brilliantly phrased dagger to the heart of the Bush administration in speech today

OBAMA:

In the 1990s, we lost Americans to terrorism at the World Trade Center; at our military facilities in Saudi Arabia; and at our Embassy in Kenya. These attacks were all deadly, and we learned that left unchecked, these threats can grow. But if dealt with smartly and proportionally, these threats need not rise to the level that we saw on the eve of 9/11.

on the eve of 9/11 alluding to the fact the previous administration was AWARE OF the threat, but its response to intel of an imminent threat was tragically inadequate.

The New Counterterror Policy (complete transcript):

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/5/23/155133/069

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022893201

GOP Sen: Obama’s Counterterrorism Speech A Victory For Terrorists

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) strongly criticized President Barack Obama's speech on counterterrorism on Thursday, in which he announced he will again seek to close down the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by requesting the Department of Defense designate a new site to hold military commissions in the United States.

“The President’s speech today will be viewed by terrorists as a victory," said Chambliss, who recently golfed with the president, in a statement. "Rather than continuing successful counterterrorism activities, we are changing course with no clear operational benefit. We knew five years ago that closing Guantanamo was a bad idea and would not work. Yet, today’s speech sends the message to Guantanamo detainees that if they harass the dedicated military personnel there enough, we will give in and send them home, even to Yemen. With the recidivism rate now at 28% and the increased threat from al Qaeda and its affiliates, including in Yemen, GITMO must stay open for business."

In a historic speech at National Defense University in Washington, Obama said he would seek to bring the era of global war on terror to an end by calling on limited drone warfare and the lifting of restrictions on detainee transfers from Guantanamo Bay.

"I am lifting the moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen, so we can review them on a case by case basis," Obama said. "To the greatest extent possible, we will transfer detainees who have been cleared to go to other countries."

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gop-sen-obamas-counterterrorism-speech-victory-for-terrorists

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014491251

Obama's Speech on Counter-Terrorism Raises Concerns Among Israeli Lawmakers

Israeli intelligence experts, defense mavens and foreign policy gurus should be poring over President Barack Obama’s address to the National Defense University by now. Many of them, one can safely posit, won’t like what they’re reading, in the text and between the lines.

And it’s not only because Obama, contrary to conventional wisdom in Israel, included the Israeli-Palestinian conflict among “the underlying grievances and conflicts that feed extremism from North Africa to South Asia.” Israelis have fought long and hard to counter the assertion that the conflict fuels or sustains Islamic extremism and the Arab Spring has only cemented their conviction.

But it will come as no surprise to most mavens that Obama, along with his vice president and secretaries of state and defense, is convinced that resolving Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians will go a long a way towards soothing Arab and Muslim resentment of, and enmity towards, the U.S. in particular and the West in general.

Rather it is Obama’s declaration of intent to bring the American “war on terror” to an end that may be a source of greater concern for Israeli policy makers, on a philosophical level at least. Obama’s view that there is no single global jihadist campaign that is being waged against America contradicts the prevailing outlook of most Israelis, inside the government and out. His conception that terrorists from Boston to Beirut to Baghdad to Benghazi, even if they are jihadi-inspired, are separate entities, rather than manifestations or even tentacles of a singular ideological central command, flies In the face of most Israelis’ view of the world. As it does for many U.S. Republicans.

Read more:

http://forward.com/articles/177367/obamas-speech-on-counter-terrorism-raises-concerns/#ixzz2UMrHr5Jr

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022902778

Note, it's likely none of those who say they will now vote for Rand Paul or the Green Party because of lofty principles and philosophy, after all these media poutrages, rec'd any of these. Most of those threads sank like a stone with a few catcalls and jeers added, with only the often called 'Obama apologists, asskissers, blind followers and authoritarian swooners' posting in support of changing our nation's policy to a more peaceful one.

And then is it any wonder that the only coverage the coordinated conservative media gave, which divided DU was the story of heckling Obama's attempt to inform the public:

Obama’s Counterterrorism Speech Interrupted By Heckler...(updated with full video)

President Barack Obama's speech Thursday at National Defense University was interrupted by a protestor, identified as Code Pink's Medea Benjamin.

Obama mostly allowed Benjamin to shout her criticisms, repeatedly thanking her.

"You should let me finish my sentence," Obama ultimately said.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/obamas-counterterrorism-speech-interrupted-by-heckler-video

Updated to add:

WATCH: Full Video Of Protestor Heckling Obama

Before he began to outline his proposals for the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba during a major counterterrorism speech Thursday at National Defense University, President Barack Obama was interrupted by a protestor, identified as Code Pink's Medea Benjamin, who shouted several criticisms before being escorted out.

"You are commander-in-chief. You can close Guantanamo today," Benjamin shouted, according to a White House pool report.

Obama repeatedly implored her to let him finish.

"You should let me finish my sentence," Obama said.

He later said he's "willing to cut the young lady who interrupted me some slack" because he was addressing issues that are "worth being passionate about." But minutes later, Benjamin interrupted the speech again, as the President stood at the podium and listened.



President Obama: Congress briefed on all drone strikes; supports additional oversight

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022891534

President Obama: Repeal the AUFM

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022891567

Obama on Gitmo: will appoint senior envoy, restart transfers, call on Congress to lift restrictions

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022891615

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022891704

How did Benjamin Medea and CODE PINK repay Obama's repeated support for her heckling and the view she was putting forth?

How about a little dripping irony from CODEPINK re Michelle Obama and heckler

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022953975

What will be remembered here at DU and in the public's mind? Only the heckling and fly by the seat of the pants reporting. Real news is not allowed in the USA.

The thead below recieved little attention, because no one wants to know that Obama is listening and acting on our concerns:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022891534

In the meantime, what should have been the focus was the actual text of Obama's speech at the National Defense University will get no attention:

READ: Text Of Obama’s Speech On Counterterrorism Policy As Prepared For Delivery

President Barack Obama made the case for his administration's counterrorism policy on Thursday at National Defense University in Washington. Full speech as prepared for delivery below:

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/read-transcript-of-obamas-speech-on-counterterrorism-policy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251307621

I was the first or third rec on most of those threads from a search, that those who claim to be so concerned didn't bother with. They only focus on bad reports, tossed out by libertarian heroes such as Greenwald, etc.

That's the ratfucking way to stop our getting momentum to end the AUMF, change surveillane and other policies and to divide the Democrats by using a Rand Paul loving activist like this:



She 'Stands With Rand,' to demoralize Democrats and energize Teabaggers. See her running buddies:

http://www.dronereport.net/top-10-voices-drone/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101664335#post7

It's the Koch method to reduce Democratic votes by co-opting liberal causes. The end result benefits the 1% and the Koches.

There are Infowars videos with her chatting away. It's a fusion of Democrats and Republicans who decided they had to go farther after disappointments with Clinton and then Bush. That is good. But all they've done in the end is fall for Koch brothers bait.

It's a bigger group than are commonly given credit for existing, but always furthers the Libertarian and corporatist goals by default, no matter how it's packaged. Toss a few anti-war crumbs, some weed and a few freedom rags to those who believe in those, done deal.

I don't call the Koch and other conservative machines stupid. That's a pat on the back we fool ourselves with. They've got the time and money to buy think tanks, and a lot of other things. All to get the public to agree with their ideal for the future.

At the tipping point, they can discard that circus and just get down to plain, unwrapped fascism. Public opinion will mean nothing as it doesn't mean anything in the third world, no one cares about lofty ideals when they're on the hunt for food, water and a place to live.

They are like the potter in the bible, they divide us, break us and make us over again if we let them to do it. It's hard to keep things in balance. Either direction we fall, they profit.

BTW, in most measurements that count, Julian Assange is a one-percenter. And would probably vote for this guy:



Who doesn't give a flying fuck about my rights!

Okay,