In the United States today, the federal government, and in particular, the president and the executive branch, have taken it upon themselves to decide who is to live and who is to die. This is being done in many cases openly, but much more under the cover of secrecy. It is being done “legally,” and it is being done to achieve political ends that favor the current official ruling class agenda.
The president and his official henchmen hold meetings behind closed doors to decide over coffee which unlucky souls around the world, including American citizens, should be targeted for elimination. The result of these meetings is an official “kill list,” and everyone on it, all without any benefit of due process, becomes a target for assassination. Barrack Obama, the president of the United States, has the final say as to who is going to die! This practice is nothing more than pre-meditated murder by fiat.
According to Wikipedia:
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign. These killings are often conducted in ways meant to ensure the secrecy of the killers’ identities, so as to avoid accountability.
Death squads are often, but not exclusively, associated with the violent political repression under dictatorships, totalitarian states and similar regimes. They typically have the tacit or express support of the state, as a whole or in part. Death squads may comprise a secret police force, paramilitary group or official government units with members drawn from the military or the police.
It is quite obvious that the United States government is fully and openly sanctioning death squads, and is practicing extrajudicial killings in order to advance its political agenda of perpetual war. This is being done officially, has been made “legal” by the government, and the assassinations are being carried out by the U.S. military, other government related agencies, including of course the CIA, and private contractors.
Let us consider some of those totalitarian rulers in history that have resorted to official murder as an everyday practice.
Joseph Stalin had death squads, which today would be similar to the military drone teams used to execute those targeted by the Obama administration. These death squads under Stalin’s orders were responsible in a short period of time for the deaths of over 7 million; 3 million of those were children. Eric Margolis wrote about these atrocities in his article, Stalin and the Ukrainian massacre. The U.S and others, including U.S. allies, knew of these mass killings, but turned their backs to this butchery. The official state orders given to the NKVD secret police were carried out without question.
Obviously, the U.S. kill teams have not reached the huge numbers of those murdered by Stalin, but the concept and mission are very much alike. And who is to say what will happen in the future given that this government has purchased 2 billion killing rounds of ammunition for domestic use, enough to kill each and every citizen 6 times.
Under Hitler during the preparations for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Einsatzgruppen, special mobile killing units, had the mission of “combating all anti-German elements in hostile country behind the troops in combat.” That meant targeting individuals and entire groups, including Jews and communists, for summary execution. They were the most cold blooded killers of the time. This is similar to what the Obama administration is doing with its kill list, and subsequent assassinations without benefit of any due process.
Death Squads have been prevalent in Central and South America for a long time, and many of those killing events were due to U.S. involvement, whether in support of brutal dictators, in its illegal war on (for) drugs, or for other political reasons. The CIA and U.S. military have been a part of and trained these squads since the 60s. Brazil, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, as well as many other countries, had sanctioned killing, and kill lists were used by those in power to target political enemies for extermination.
Although this is just a very short list indeed, it does put in context the company Obama is now keeping. Many if not most in this country will take offence with any comparison of Obama to brutal dictators of the past, but that will in the end be a fatal mistake on their part. Killing is killing, and murder is murder, regardless of who is doing it. When those in positions of power conduct secret meetings regularly so as to arbitrarily decide who is to be assassinated, then a heinous crime has been committed. Obama does not hide the fact that his office is sanctioning these murders, and recently NBC News has exposed a government memo, or White Paper that is titled “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa’ida or An Associated Force.”
This memo outlines the criteria that the White House uses in order to justify when it can target an American citizen for killing. The reasons stated are simply that any American in the world can be assassinated if they are (or thought to be?) either a senior operational leader of al Qaeda, or an associated force. This leaves open the option for the Obama administration to kill any American citizen it desires, all without any due process of law. In other words, official criminal murder, this no different than similar operations prosecuted by brutal dictators in the past!
The current preferred weapon of choice for the Obama administration’s assassinations is the unmanned aerial drone. Killer drones are currently being used by the United States military and CIA in many parts of the world, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, but they are most likely being used in many other countries as well. With worldwide killings to accomplish, there are no limits to drone deployment. To make matters much worse, 30,000 drones are expected to be in the skies of the United States by 2015, so that should make it much easier to target and assassinate American citizens who happen to end up on Obama’s kill list. Am I an “Associated Force” because I am critical of the U.S. government? Are you?
We now live in a country where the political class has totalitarian powers. With the stroke of a pen, the Obama administration now claims the “right” to detain indefinitely anyone on earth, including Americans. It claims the “right” to torture and rendition those who are being held against their will. And now, this heinous government is claiming the “right” to kill anyone in the world, including any American citizen, on the say so of one tyrant, and all without benefit of any due process.
Make no mistake, with this absolute power, and the complete control of the police and military, the Obama administration, and those who follow, will do whatever is necessary to protect and advance that power. In addition, the militarized police and the military itself, if given orders, will shoot Americans on sight!
When a president has unlimited power to arbitrarily kill anyone on earth, has the power of a military and paramilitary force, and has the power to send death squads anywhere he chooses to, all under an umbrella of “legality,” a totalitarian and tyrannical governing system is already in place. The next step domestically will be a substantial increase in police state tactics, and finally Martial Law!
Gary D. Barnett [send him mail] has been a financial advisor for 25 years, and now resides and works in Lewistown, Montana. Visit his website.
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