These excerpts from the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on the AUMF held on May 16 may be seen as  important  historically, imo.  Left unchecked, the testimony of these Defense officials will have signaled the basis of our foreign misadventures and the unitary executive unless outside forces stop them.  You may have read about their assertions, but watching may cement them in your minds forever; at least I hope so.

On May 2, Reuters had reported that ‘amid new security threats, some in Congress’ were discussing updating the AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force).  Reining it in a bit had been mentioned by a few Critters, as was the idea of giving Congress some input into the fact that those 60 words penned mere days after 9/11/2001 were being used to ‘justify U.S. counterterrorism efforts from the war in Afghanistan to warrantless wiretapping and drone strikes, all on orders of the White House’.

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(courtesy of DTNnews via flickr.com)

The International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School and the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law released a report in December entitled: Living Under Drones.  The UK charity Reprieve apparently requested the study in order to better serve the Pakistani people; researchers spent nine months doing interviews with locals on the ground, and examining reams of documents.  These are the lead sentence headings of their basic findings; recommendations are included, plus much, much more.

First, while civilian casualties are rarely acknowledged by the US government, there is significant evidence that US drone strikes have injured and killed civilians.

Second, US drone strike policies cause considerable and under-accounted-for harm to the daily lives of ordinary civilians, beyond death and physical injury.

Third, publicly available evidence that the strikes have made the US safer overall is ambiguous at best.

Fourth, current US targeted killings and drone strike practices undermine respect for the rule of law and international legal protections and may set dangerous precedents.

In light of these concerns, this report recommends that the US conduct a fundamental re-evaluation of current targeted killing practices, taking into account all available evidence, the concerns of various stakeholders, and the short and long-term costs and benefits.

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(by Anthony Freda, via wendydavis @ flickr.com)

It’s been my contention for a long time that one of the most serious impediments to positive, crucial change in American policies is the group still hanging onto Barack as still worth supporting, and their refusal to believe the truth of his advocacy of policies to aid the Elites, and his devotion to Empire and the MICC.   I further believe these supporters will be some of the least likely citizens to join in the massive resistance and civil disobedience that is crucial to effect beneficial change.  Tragically, in too many areas we have reached tipping points from which there may be no return without stopping the Oligarchical Machine, reversing course and building a new form of government: of the people, by the people, and for the people.

As many more Americans, and indeed folks around the globe awaken, we’re seeing that the massively funded and armed security forces protecting the status quo prove that the MOTUs aren’t about to willingly cede any amount of their control.  They are also proving how afraid they are of protestors, including Occupy; they are terrified of the truth getting out and abroad in this land, and will go to any lengths to prevent citizens from understanding that in this country, a government whose power lacks the consent of the governed is no longer valid.  But I digress.

Kevin Gosztola’s piece of June 2 narrated the vicious attacks on Jeremy Scahill by Liberals after his appearance on Chris Hayes’ program to discuss the NYT’s crazy puff piece on Obama’s ever-expanding drone-killing program. The tweets he published are alarming, imo; the 229- long comment thread was interesting, to say the least (I won’t say the most here.)  One was almost forced to wonder that Libruls who’d have no shown no mercy to a Republican committing the same evil, seem to be able to rationalize it all away, in what commenter hinted might amount to ‘a devolving morality’ (my words, not exactly his).

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