Barack Obama/Presidency

 Barack Obama/Presidency (US/Presidency)

Date	January 20, 2009 - January 20, 2017
Description	The Barack Obama administration

Barack Obama won the 2008 US Election defeating John McCain & was re-elected in November 2012, defeating Mitt Romney. Obama promised "change" in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. His presidency was noted for the rise of big tech, social media, revived russophobia and new wars in the Middle East although he promised no more Middle Eastern oil reliance.

The person Barack Obama

For the person Barack Obama and his activities before and after the presidency, see:

Full article: Barack Obama

Presidential Policies

'Obama: A Legacy of Ashes' a video by James Corbett. (archive on Altcensored)

As a loyal member of the US deep state, Obama has continued the deep state's policies of the militarisation of US Society by assisting the rollback of civil liberties, and ramping up the war on terror while continuing the unhampered mass surveillance. Nobel peace prize not withstanding, his foreign policy has been to escalate conflicts abroad and to try to reignite a new cold war. Bob Franken remarked in 2011 that “In spite of the promise of “Change you can believe in,” it looks like things are basically UNchanged” . While talking the talk of open government, his administration has been the most secretive in U.S. history.

"War on Terror"

Full article: “War on Terror”

Obama has continued the US government's policy of terrorising people both within the US and overseas. A couple of days before collecting his nobel peace prize, he announced a "surge" (i.e. an increase, what was referred to in the less image-conscious days of the Vietnam War as an "escalation") in troop numbers in the ongoing US invasion of Afghanistan.

Assassination

Full article: Assassination

Murder without pretense of judicial process has become a routine part of US foreign policy under Obama. Not long after becoming president, he arranged what senior US officials called "Terror Tuesdays" in which he personally selects people for assassination by drone strikes. Jeremy Scahill noted that "One of the enduring legacies of Obama's presidency is how he has normalised assassination as a central component of what is called America's national security policy" Obama is reported to have told his aides while discussing drone strikes that he’s "really good at killing people".

Guantanamo Bay detention camp

Full article: Guantanamo Bay detention camp

On 22 January 2009, Obama signed an order to suspend proceedings at the Guantanamo military commission for 120 days and shut down the detention facility that year. Wikipedia suggests that the prevention was hindered by an unnamed "military judge at Guantanamo" who on 29 January 2009 rejected the request in the case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. On 7 January 2011, President Obama signed the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, which, in part, placed restrictions on the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to the mainland or to foreign countries, thus effectively preventing the closure of the facility. In the 2014 National Defense Authorization Bill, a $69 million upgrade to the facility was proposed.

Nuclear Weapons

Obama has pledged to reduce the world’s stockpile of nuclear arms, whilst seeking to increase funding for nuclear weapons research. In 2010 he sought to expand the US nuclear budget and in October 2013, his Assistant Defense Secretary Madelyn Creedon told a panel in the U.S. House of Representatives that "modernization work of this kind is expensive, but there is no doubt that the investment ... is necessary", explaining why multi-billion dollar expenditure was needed to modernize the US nuclear arsenal in pursuit of President Barack Obama's goal of reducing it.

On 27 May 2016, speaking on the first visit by a US president to Hiroshima in Japan, Obama called for nations to reconsider the development of nuclear weapons and to roll back and “ultimately eliminate” them. He concluded:

“The world was forever changed here. But today, the children of this city will go through their day in peace. What a precious thing that is. It is worth protecting, and then extending to every child. That is the future we can choose. A future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not for the bomb of atomic warfare but as the start of our own moral awakening.”

Torture

Under Obama, public acceptance of torture is higher than it was under George W Bush in 2001. His admission that "we tortured some folks" has been followed by a marked absence of discussion about legal actions as a result - which are mandated by the United Nations Convention against Torture, to which the US has long been a signatory.

Military coup

At some point in 2012/2013 period chatter intensified on the Internet that a military coup was in the making against him. If that was true has never been substantiated, but he did reorganize the military at the highest levels and relocated about 200 generals and other high ranking military commanders.

David Hodges writes in 2013:

In the fall of 2012, it is now clear that President Obama survived an attempted military coup. My sources tell me, that Obama, is fully aware of the fact that key elements of the military want him gone as the President and, in response, Obama has secretly embedded his CIA operatives in various military command structures around the world by placing these operatives into executive command positions in order to help them prevent just such a military coup and these embedded forces have indeed served him well in the aftermath of Benghazi.

Often, these embedded operatives serve as the second-in-command. The sole purpose of Obama’s operatives is to keep watch on key military leaders and to prevent them from moving against the policies of the present administration.

The murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and his security detail at Benghazi was a flashpoint for an attempted military coup. What is interesting about the coup attempt, is that very divergent military forces have joined together to take down Obama’s presidency. At issue was the attempted rescue of Ambassador Stevens by two senior military command officers.

“Obama will not purge a civilian or political appointee because they have bought into Obama's ideology," - "The White House protects their own. That's why they stalled on the investigation into Fast and Furious, Benghazi and ObamaCare. He's intentionally weakening and gutting our military, Pentagon and reducing us as a superpower, and anyone in the ranks who disagrees or speaks out is being purged.”
Paul E. Vallely (2013) 

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