Obama's Letter: Spinning a Fictional Reality

Dear Mr. President,

Received you July 29 letter yesterday, one of the more outrageous spin jobs I’ve received yet. From the 2^nd paragraph: “My Administration is using every element of our national power to keep our country secure, prosperous, and free.” Secure? Your drone wars are the best recruiting tool Al Qaeda has: there are more militants in Yemen now than when we started our covert war there; our drone attacks in Pakistan have turned the Pakistanis against us—80% now view us as their enemy; your war in Afghanistan has turned large portions of that population against us—many rural areas live in fear of the American trained and directed Local Police, they view the Special Forces as no different than the Taliban and they see little if any improvement in their lives since our arrival. Al Qaida franchises pop up everywhere, our embassies in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia are closed this weekend because of terrorist threats and a worldwide alert has been issued to travelers. We’re no safer now than on 9/10. Prosperous? We’ve spent trillions on war and billions on surveillance while defunding food stamps and child health care, letting our cities go bankrupt, our social services shred and our citizens left to fend for themselves. It’s only the war profiteers and the 1% who prosper in America. Free? Freedom does not include indefinite detention and assassination without legal recourse. It does not include secret laws and findings, the suppression of information, and the persecution of whistleblowers. And freedom certainly does not include the invasion of privacy—PRISM, XKeyscore and other illegal NSA activity. From the 3^rd paragraph: “The war in Iraq is over.” The war in Iraq is over for us, not for them. There are bombings every day in Baghdad and elsewhere—each one worse than the Boston Marathon bombing—and July had the highest civilian casualty count in 5 years. “The number of our troops in harm’s way has been cut in half, and more will soon be coming home.” Playing with numbers: you doubled the number of troops and they’re now back to where they were before your surge. “As in Iraq, we are building an enduring partnership to strengthen Afghan sovereignty and stability…” Neither country is stable; Iraq is aligned with Iran not us and Karzai denounces us on a regular basis (while taking bags of cash from the CIA). Like Iraq, Afghanistan will quickly sink into chaos after we leave. Your letter spins a fictional reality, Mr. President. It just ain’t so.

Let Snowden Testify To Congress!

Dear Mr. President,

More revelations by the Guardian yesterday and today Snowden finally got out of the Moscow airport, granted asylum for a year. But as you say, power is patient and maybe power will wait a year and see what happens. If not, assassins are as plentiful in Russia as anywhere else and renditions still happen although it might be more difficult to grab Snowden off a street in Moscow than an Islamic cleric off a street in Milan. Snowden sparked the debate you said you wanted (but until yesterday when you called in leaders of both parties to lobby for the out-of-control unconstitutional NSA surveillance program, you never actually participated in the debate). Yesterday Sen. Leahy pinned down Clapper’s 2^nd in command, John Inglis, about the value of bulk data collection and those 54 plots averted because of it vanished—poof!—first to 13, then 2, then, maybe one. And the transparency you promised? Three “secret” documents released yesterday; the secret reauthorization by the secret FISA court for the NSA to keep collecting bulk phone records for another 3 months—docket number redacted—and 2 letters to Congress saying the NSA only looked at a tiny fraction of the data collected. Still no legal justification, criteria or rules. Other than spectacle and hot air, there’s not much information coming out of Congress. Legislators bluster, intelligence officials obfuscate, spin and lie and the only real information we get is from the Snowden documents. So here’s an idea: why not have Snowden testify before Congress? He’s the only one who actually knows what he’s talking about and willing to tell the truth. Let’s have a real debate! Oh, the latest revelation in the Guardian: the NSA has been funding the Brits’ surveillance program for years—more than $150 million over the past 3 years alone. The NSA calls the shots though, and we get access to a lot of phone calls and internet traffic we otherwise wouldn’t get, like maybe the Brits spy on Americans for the NSA because it’s illegal for the NSA to do that. But here’s what bothers me, Mr. President: the NSA gives hundreds of millions to the Brits to spy and spends billions on a surveillance program that has little or no value; the CIA delivers bags of cash to Karzai every month; the Pentagon just signed a $7 billion deal with Lockheed for 71 more problem-plagued F-35s—and yet, we have no money to help Detroit or Stockton or any of the 9 million underwater homeowners in America. What’s wrong with this picture?

XKeyscore: Stasi on Steroids

Dear Mr. President,

Yesterday Bradley Manning was convicted of espionage, theft and Computer Fraud and Abuse. Unclear about the latter, I looked it up. Sure enough, it’s a crime to intentionally access a computer and obtain information from any department or agency of the United States. Guilty as charged. But there’s also a section of the act that makes “distribution of malicious code” a crime. Stuxnet and Flame was code inserted into Iran’s computer systems to slow down their nuclear program. Isn’t that a crime or doesn’t it apply to the government? I looked up “espionage” in my dictionary: “The act or practice of spying or using spies to obtain secret information.” Manning was guilty of that, too: the videos documenting war crimes—the helicopter gunship pilots laughing as they gunned down innocent Iraqi civilians—was classified; so were the war logs that revealed a far different picture of the wars than the generals and politicians presented. Then, this morning, the Guardian revealed “XKeyscore,” the NSA program that collects nearly everything from everybody and allows any analyst to sift through it without a court order or oversight. Edward Snowden claimed he could have gone through your emails—including the content—had he wanted to. Rep. Rogers (R-MI) said Snowden was lying but it turns out Snowden was right; XKeyscore is Stasi on Steroids, a massive espionage program and a clear violation of the 4^th Amendment. Or doesn’t that apply either? And isn’t hacking into other countries’ computer networks, the G-20, the EU, the UN, a violation of the Espionage Act? Or is government above the law? In The Audacity of Hope you wrote: “the people’s instincts for fair play and common sense…” My instinct is that the government is not playing fair when it sends a whistleblower to prison for life and lets those who lie, torture, kill, violate the Constitution, domestic and international law and human rights go unpunished. Rep. Rogers and Rep. Ruppersberger (D-MD) issued a joint statement yesterday on Manning’s conviction: “Justice has been served today, Pfc. Manning harmed our national security, violated the public’s trust, and now stands convicted of multiple serious crimes.” Manning’s conviction for revealing war crimes and government malfeasance was not justice but a travesty of justice. The traitors are not the Mannings and Snowdens who reveal the truth but the Rogers and Ruppersbergers, the Feinsteins and Clappers who lie and cover up the crimes of our government.

Manning's Verdit on Kill List Tuesday a Warning to Snowden

Dear Mr. President,

It’s fitting that Bradley Manning’s verdict is read on Kill List Tuesday—as much justice in Manning’s trial as in your selection of those to be killed this week. The Manning verdict was a foregone conclusion months ago, maybe years ago. Guilty as charged on all counts (except the over-the-top aiding the enemy). 130 years. You’re putting that boy away for life, sending a clear message to any other Bradley Mannings out there that the consequences of exposing war crimes and government malfeasance is life in prison. The secret findings and secret memos justifying the assassination of both foreign and American citizens is not unlike the trial of Pfc Manning. Held in a military courtroom next to NSA headquarters at Ft. Meade, the judge had a reputation for handling—i.e., controlling—the press. Armed guards wanded, searched and intimidated the small press corps, isolated in a media center away from the courtroom, watching the trial on a video feed. There was little resemblance to a real court of law—no court transcripts, no recorded video or other court documents, and only 70 press credentials issued (more than 350 were requested). The photos of Manning being led to and from the courtroom tells the story. There’s one in today’s NYT (p. A12); he’s in handcuffs, a burly guard on each side, the top of his beret barely reaching the guards’ shoulders. As Kay Rudin, a sketch artist covering the trial says, “He is tiny…. He's literally the size of a 12-year-old. The tiniest little man is also the biggest in the room in several ways… Manning is surrounded by huge fullbacks who really hate him [because] he's also the smartest guy in the room.” (http://www.mendocinobeacon.com/localnews/ci_23729839/kay-rudin-local-activist-journalist-sues-feds-over) In the epilogue of Dreams from My Father, you make this statement: “The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power—and all too often seeks to explain, to those who do not, the ultimate wisdom and justness of their condition.” This seems to be your guiding principal as president—the manipulation of law to protect power and then explain the wisdom and justice of your power to those who have none. Stay safe, Edward Snowden, and out of reach of the American juggernaut for there is no justice in the land of the free or the home of the brave.

Bud Day, War Hero and Garry Davis, World Hero

Dear Mr. President,

Two obits in today’s NYT—“Col. Bud Day, Heroic Pilot in Vietnam War, Dies at 88” and “Garry Davis, ‘World Citizen’ and Peace Advocate, Is Dead at 91”—are a contrast in world view. Bud Day was a Marine in WW II, Garry Davis a bomber pilot. After the war, Day went to college, got a law degree and an officer’s commission in the Air Force Reserve. Davis, on the other hand, had an epiphany about war while on a bombing mission over Germany: “How many bombs had I dropped? How many men, women and children had I murdered? Wasn’t there another way?” In 1948, Davis walked into the American Embassy in Paris, renounced his citizenship and declared himself a citizen of the world. He believed that if there were no nation-states, there would be no wars. “The nation-state is a political fiction which perpetuates anarchy and is the breeding ground of war, Allegiance to a nation is a collective suicide pact.” In November 1948, he stormed into the UN General Assembly and proclaimed, “We, the people, want the peace which only a world government can give. The sovereign states you represent divide us and lead us to the abyss of total war.” For the rest of his life Davis remained stateless, advocated one world government and peace, and was arrested numerous times crossing borders with only a World Citizen passport. Bud Day, on the other hand, became a war hero. In 1951 he was recalled to active duty and flew a fighter-bomber, tracking Soviet planes off the coast of Japan. He volunteered for Vietnam and on August 26, 1967, Day’s F-100 was shot down over North Vietnam and he was captured. He spent 5 years in North Vietnamese prisons including the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ with John McCain and James Stockdale (Ross Perot’s running mate). He was tortured, beaten and starved but divulged only false information. He is among the most decorated American servicemen in history but was never promoted to general. After retirement he practiced law, campaigned for McCain (twice) and was active in the Swift Boat smear of John Kerry. Garry Davis’ movement has a million world citizens—Camus, Sartre, Schweitzer and Einstein among them—and has issued 2.5 million passports, birth and marriage certificates and ID cards. Last year Davis sent Julian Assange a world passport; a few weeks ago he sent one to Edward Snowden. But life is unfair: Garry Davis who worked all his life for peace never got a Nobel Peace Prize while a promoter of war, Kill Lists, drone strikes and indefinite detention did.

Holder’s Letter, Obama’s Grandfather

Dear Mr. President,

An article in today’s NYT (“U.S. Letter Says Leaker Won’t Face Death Penalty” p.A4) is shocking and surreal. Holder’s letter to his Russian counterpart assured him that the U.S. won’t torture or kill Edward Snowden if he’s returned, even if death penalty charges are added. Imagine. The U.S. Department of Justice assuring Russia that we won’t torture or kill a whistle blower who exposed his government’s criminal activity and violations of the Constitution! Think about that, Mr. President, how far we’ve fallen from even the low standards of the Bush era. Who can believe Holder’s promise not to torture Snowden? Not Manning; he was tortured in U.S. military prisons for almost a year. Not any of the Guantanamo prisoners or the ones in Abu Ghraib or Bagram who were beaten, brutalized and waterboarded. And try telling it to any of the estimated 30,000 prisoners in solitary confinement on any given day in U.S. prisons. But aside from torture, how many people believe Snowden would last long in a U.S. prison? Some mysterious ailment, a previously unknown heart condition, he stops breathing; a prison autopsy, he’s buried in a prison graveyard or dumped out to sea like bin Laden, end of story. Holder’s assurances ring hollow. Government officials are not to be trusted, not even you, Mr. President; your word isn’t worth a plugged nickel. In Dreams from My Father your paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango, was both feared and respected. Feared because he was mean and demanding but respected because he lived by a strict code of honor: to always do what he said he would do. Your aunt Zeituni tells you the story of a man who wanted to cross your grandfather’s land with a goat and your grandfather refused, “the goat will eat my plants.” But the man persisted and finally your grandfather said, “You can pass with your goat. But if even one leaf is harmed, then I will cut down your goat also.” Zeituni and your grandfather followed the man and sure enough, the goat soon started eating a plant. Whack! your grandfather killed the goat with his machete. “If I say I will do something, I must do it. Otherwise, how will people know that my word is true?” your grandfather said and the village council agreed, clearing him of charges. What happened in two generations? You are the opposite of Hussein Onyango; you say one thing and do another; you keep no promises, no vows, no pledges and no one believes you or trusts you. Your grandfather must be spinning in his grave.

Pelosi Fiddles While America (and the World) Burns

Dear Representative Pelosi,

I received your email letter Thursday thanking me for expressing my “support for the arts,” how “A great nation must invest in artistic and cultural development…” and how you have “fought to protect funding for the arts in San Francisco and across the country.” Yes, we need more funding for the arts, but I don’t recall writing a letter about it. Perhaps a mention in passing while decrying Congress’s slashing of funds for social services and infrastructure or the CIA’s monthly delivery of bags of cash to Karzai in Kabul or the spending of billions to kill and destroy in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere, but my letters are almost exclusively focused on the immoral, soul-destroying war of terror we’re waging around the globe and the destruction of democracy here at home—a surveillance state where the government operates in secrecy and everything is justified as critical to national security. Yes, I am for more funding of the arts, but I am vehemently opposed to the funding of wars and death, opposed to supporting corrupt and despotic regimes abroad, opposed to an expanding police state here at home, and I see you as part of the problem, Ms. Pelosi: complicit by voting against the Amash Amendment on Wednesday; complicit by calling Snowden a “criminal” last month but remaining silent on those like Clapper and Alexander who lied to Congress and the public; complicit by accusing Snowden of threatening to release information to Russia and China, an unfounded claim completely counter to the facts. But then, you have a long history of twisting truth and betraying trust. In 2002 you assented to torture; in 2006 you blocked a move to impeach Bush; in 2011 your insider trading was exposed; and in 2012 you agreed to put Medicare and Social Security on the table for cuts. During your time in office you’ve enabled the Executive to amass power and run roughshod over the rest of the world and our own citizens. I’m glad you fight to fund the arts but I’m distressed that you’ve done nothing to stop injustice and the abuse of power of this and the previous administration. I want an end to war, an end to drones, an end to illegal surveillance, an end to corporate control of government and I see you doing nothing about any of it. We need new legislators and a new president with a moral center, respect for law, the Constitution and human rights who will promote life not death. Write again when you have something to say on any of these issues.

cc: President Barack Obama