It’s likely they need no introduction or explanations of their proven credibility as dedicated and brave journalists.  If you seriously can’t afford to take the twenty-nine minutes to watch, here is a very abbreviated version.

On Feb. 3 at The Guardian, Naomi Wolf published ‘JSOC: Obama’s Secret Assassins’.  She writes that ‘The President has a clandestine network targeting a ‘kill list’ justified by secret laws. How is that different than a death squad?’  She praises ‘Dirty Wars’, and calls the shadow CIA/JSOC/mercenary armies operating with impunity and virtually no accountability ‘the biggest story in our nation’s contemporary history.

From the Guardian:

US news organisations are facing accusations of complicity after it emerged that they bowed to pressure from the Obama administration not to disclose the existence of a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia despite knowing about it for a year.

Glen Ford at Black Agenda Report ‘Fleets of Drones Descend on Africa’ lists far more drone bases on the continent than I’d known.

In the very heart of the African continent, the 17,000-man United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo wants to use U.S. drones to monitor armed groups in the region, where U.S. Special Forces are also operating. Those drones would be deployed under much the same UN Security Council language that NATO used to launch its war against Libya, in 2011, allowing “all necessary measures…to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack.”

At the same time, another section of the United Nations is about to launch an investigation into the legality of U.S. drone warfare in Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan. Thus, it is possible that the United Nations Security Council could wind up calling in American drones to attack people in the Congo region, while the U.N.’s special rapporteur for human rights and counterterrorism is investigating whether U.S. drone warfare violates international law.

How ironic.

And of course, now that President Obomba has felt a bit of heat from Ron Wyden and ten other Senators generated by his ‘white paper memo’, the White House says it will ‘share’ classified information to members of the Senate and House Intelligence committees as to his Office of Legal Counsel’s ‘interpretation of federal law that are binding on all executive branch agencies’.  Obomba doesn’t say ‘all of the legal twistings’ will be shown to them, however.

Oy; in reaction to the fairly strong kerfuffle generated by the ‘white paper’, according to AP:

Earlier Wednesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama was engaged in an internal process deliberation to determine how to balance the nation’s security needs with its values (sic). He said Obama was committed to providing more information to Congress, even as he refused to acknowledge whether the drone memo even existed.

Diane Feinstein’s apparently giddy as a schoolgirl about the news, but Holy Gatekeepers, Batman! Bring on the Next Senate Dog and Pony Show!  Feinstein has announced that no one will be allowed to testify against John Brennan at his Senate confirmation hearing today: he’ll be the only witness.  In reaction, Bruce Fein and Ralph Nader penned a letter to her.  From Corporate Crime Reporter:

“Brennan is unfit for office because he’s the brainchild behind unconstitutional and secret predator drone killings — both targeted and signature — in violation of due process,” Fein told Corporate Crime Reporter.

“What he’s doing is more egregious in the eyes of the law than the CIA assassination attempts revealed in Church hearings — Castro, Lumumba, Trujillo — that provoked an executive order prohibiting CIA assassinations,” Fein said.

“In secret organizations like the CIA, leaders unflaggingly devoted to the rule of law are urgently needed because customary checks and balances are at their low water mark.  Brennan cannot be trusted to adhere to rule of law.”

So naturally Our Emperor would triple down on Bush’s UE and nominate Brennan to head the CIA.

!cid_0F4F94D6-9577-4EE6-9473-9098751CB2BF

(by Anthony Freda via wendydavis @ flickr.com)

 

(C-span will broadcast Brennan’s hearing at 2:30 EST. ‘Several committee members are vowing to ask Brennan “tough questions” including questions on the use of American drones overseas and  the Obama administration’s drone strike program.’)

Please get this story out.  That ‘Dirty Wars’ may be in some theaters soon is monumental; when it’s available for sale or rent…spread it around.  We have to stop this if we can.  And we can, if there is the will do it.

 Every single empire, in its official discourse, has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort.

 ~ Edward Said