In case you missed them, here are some stories that may or may not make your blood boil. Democracy Now! reported last week on an FBI raid from last October, as details into the killing of Detroit Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah became available:
“A police autopsy report, finally released in February, shows Abdullah died from twenty-one gunshot wounds and was found with his wrists handcuffed. At least one of the gunshot wounds entered through Abdullah’s back.”
In a related story, just when you thought the Bush era was over, President Obama makes W proud. Obama has apparently implemented a Bush-conceived “presidential assassination program.” Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com elaborated on President Obama’s role and the apparent presence of “hit lists.” The executive now has the right to target and assassinate American citizens without due process of law, outside of battle, and only on the suspicion of criminal activity. Greenwald writes:
“. . . in Barack Obama’s America, the way guilt is determined for American citizens — and a death penalty imposed — is that the President, like the King he thinks he is, secretly decrees someone’s guilt as a Terrorist. He then dispatches his aides to run to America’s newspapers — cowardly hiding behind the shield of anonymity which they’re granted — to proclaim that the Guilty One shall be killed on sight because the Leader has decreed him to be a Terrorist. “
In other empire news, WikiLinks.org released military video this week showing US military forces killing plain clothes Iraqis and two Reuters reporters. Though several of the men appeared armed, the attack from an American Apache helicopter was unprovoked. The American soldiers heard on the video come off as trigger happy and looking for justification to shoot. The attack footage eventually shows the evisceration of an unmarked van which had arrived to rescue one of the wounded reporters. Inside the van were two young children. Upon realizing the children were in the van, one of the US soldiers over the radio blames the Iraqis for bringing the kids “into battle.” Two versions of the video are available at the link above. The following link is the shorter, edited version:
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ableman/351362491/
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