Obama and Human Rights (2)

We have seen thus far a troubling pattern of behavior in which top officials of the Obama administration have deliberately lied to the American people over the terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya which led to the death of Ambassador Stevens; seized the phone records of 20 Associated Press journalists in order to circumvent the confidentiality of their sources; prosecuted eight (8) of its ex-employees under the Espionage Act 1917 mostly for providing information to journalists; and targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status for extra scrutiny, placing their applications on hold for upwards of two years! In a supreme irony given the experiences of blacks in the evolution of US civil rights, the three dramatis personae at the core of these incidents, President Barack Obama, Attorney-General Eric Holder and former UN Ambassador, now National Security Adviser, Susan Rice are all African-Americans! Their actions appear to have systematically undermined civil rights, media freedom, liberty and dissent. So far the US and global media have condoned these abuses, perhaps because a “liberal” President sits in the White House creating the impression that liberalism is a label rather than a set of values and principles that should underlie policy and administration. The US media for instance, appears to have helped the administration downplay the gravity of the deception over Benghazi, and the almost deliberate tardiness in investigating the terrorist attack and bringing the perpetrators to justice. The media and rights groups have similarly shrugged off the IRS scandal, the persecution of journalist James Rosen and the seizure of AP phone records. Some may suspect that US and perhaps even Western liberals have been so enthused over their “victory” on gay rights that they are prepared to overlook any infractions of civil and media freedoms by their perceived ally, Obama. Indeed the only arena in which “human rights” have advanced in the US under Obama appears to be in respect of homosexual rights. It also does seem that the media will ignore any matter that could damage the Obama administration lest their conservative “enemies” benefit! The most shocking affront on privacy and civil rights, probably in the modern era (and possibly anywhere in the world!) has been the scale and depth of state-led surveillance and intrusion into private communications revealed by Edward Snowden, the fugitive, former NSA contractor now seeking refuge in Russia. You will recall that Snowden leaked information to Glenn Greenwald, a Guardian of UK columnist on the interception of US and European telecommunications data under a US program called PRISM and several others. Apparently the US with probably UK, Australian, New Zealand and French support and participation, targeted US citizens and allies, including NATO nations, the EU and other foreign countries in a complex web of spying operations to intercept internet and telephone conversations from over one billion users worldwide! The programs indiscriminately collected bulk information (so-called “meta data”) directly from central servers and internet backbones from telecommunications companies. These programs included PRISM under which the US National Security Agency (NSA) obtained direct access to servers from internet providers potentially providing them access to e-mails of millions of citizens and foreigners; Boundless Informant, a computer program that performs data collection; X-Keyscore deployed in Australia and New Zealand; Dropmire, which targeted foreign embassies and diplomats; Fairview, which targeted mobile phones especially text messages in foreign countries (such as Nigeria?), UPSTREAM and TEMPORA, which collected data directly from fiber optic cables and internet backbones; MAINWAY, which provided call records; MAINCORE which focused on financial records; Stellar Wind, through which data was mined; Echelon, which intercepted commercial satellite trunk communications; Turbulence, which included cyber-warfare capabilities, including targeting enemies with malware; and an Insider Threat Program, which presumably failed to detect leakers like Edward Snowden!!! In short the US government constructed a whole industry and infrastructure focused on invading and compromising private communications worldwide, based presumably on the need to detect and deter global terrorism. Of course the price its citizens and the rest of the world were required to pay was that in the absence of transparency about its activities, US security could as well use information obtained for any other purposes! Through these programs, the US is believed to have collected data from over 120 million US Verizon subscribers; bugged encrypted fax machines in EU embassies; hacked Chinese mobile phone companies and universities; spied on various EU diplomatic missions and offices; and spied on millions of e-mails and calls of Brazilians. I presume e-mails and phone calls of major Nigerian state officials couldn’t have escaped this vast spying web! And how have US liberals and media responded? Their posture has been a narrow focus on the travails of “leaker” Edward Snowden rather than illuminating the more fundamental debate on the continuing erosion of privacy and civil rights in pursuit of national security and vanquishing global terror. The irony is that this same US government’s main prescription for responding to “Boko Haram” terrorism in Nigeria was appeasement, poverty alleviation and regional empowerment!!! It is a historical tragedy that the erosion of civil liberties in the US is happening while a black American democrat sits in the White House. No doubt, one day a conservative, right wing White Republican will become president and inherit the vast police state that Obama, Susan Rice and Eric Holder helped create.