American President Barack Obama is once again, sorry. This time the boss of America’s intelligence community is woefully regretful WikiLeaks spilled the beans on NSA eavesdropping on Japan. By now the world community has to be wondering, “Is there anyone, friend or foe, that Obama has not spied upon?” Here’s a new take on what the motivations are for destroying America’s credibility.
The Obama administration promised America he would usher in an unprecedented level of openness and accountability in January of 2009 after having taken the oath of office. In a Presidential Memorandum entitled “Transparency and Open Government,” the American president directed the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies to:
“…use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate among themselves, across all levels of Government, and with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals in the private sector.”
So Apparently a Liar
Document number E9-1777 of the Federal Registry goes on to direct the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to take the necessary actions to help promote the “Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” It is appropriate right here to note, Barack Obama has more “openness” memorandums and actions in the Federal Registry than any president in history. His “openness” as the leader of the free world is only exceeded by his nature as a Nobel Peace laureate. NO! The sacrosanct truth of Barack Obama is anything but open, anything but peaceful.
My fellow citizens of Earth, not even The New York Times can continue to cover for Obama. Let’s deal here with his “peaceful” nature in international relations since early 2009. Shane Scott of the NYTs frames Obama’s “drone killing” so:
“By most accounts, hundreds of dangerous militants have, indeed, been killed by drones, including some high-ranking Qaeda figures. But for six years, when the heavy cloak of secrecy has occasionally been breached, the results of some strikes have often turned out to be deeply troubling.”
The author goes on to isolate this author’s greatest fear. According to Scott, Obama has often said to aides; “Let’s kill the people who are trying to kill us.” And this begs the most important question; “Who decides who our enemies are?” Truly, just who is trying to kill “us” in this world? Never before has a Nobel winner used the words, “kill, kill, kill” so frequently. Human Rights Watch has Barack Obama killing people from Afghanistan to Zambia, and a bunch of places in between. The level of killing is on the down-low most of the time, until someone finds out via a leak! This speech before the students of National Defense University, at Fort McNair in Washington takes us to the other threshold I wanted to discuss, that of misleading and even insulting the intelligence of the American people.
Speaking before the student body in May of 2013 Obama sidesteps responsibility for Guantanamo crimes, slithers past his part in international surveillance misdeeds, and firmly establishes his “holier art than” thou attitude on nearly everything. The pattern of evading blame by blaming “them” is never more evident than in this address, and I quote:
“From our use of drones to the detention of terrorist suspects, the decisions that we are making now will define the type of nation — and world — that we leave to our children.”
Are we to blindly accept his Mr. President? The man even goes so far as to quote Madison’s famous quote; “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” These are the strategies of a psychopath, or of an uneducated nincompoop one. America has been at war, for over 100 years. Make no mistake here, Barack Obama exhibits only the characteristics of the latest in a long line of warmongering liars. It’s the meter and gauge of warfare that’s the definitive point here. Now let’s move farther at Obama’s dagger into the heart of American credibility abroad, the betrayal of every friend. Let’s move past the mythological al Qaeda terror network, and into what Obama has done to our allies.
Sneaky Friends, Invisible Enemies
If you Google the headline “Obama says sorry to Japan over WikiLeaks claims of U.S. spying”, and the letter AFP, can you guess what search result you get? The exact article in question is broadcast across 120,000 media outlets from The New York Times to Deutsche Welle. That’s right, even the German news source “made for minds” parrots the mindless upchuck of the US State Department. But of course you already knew this. What you may not be aware of however, is the depths to which Barack Obama has gone to get intelligence on Japan. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told the AFP; “President Obama said he was very sorry… as the case caused a big debate in Japan.” According to the WikiLeaks website, documents from the NSA dated to as early as 2006 include a list of 35 telephone numbers the US agency may have used to spy on not only officials, but Japanese companies as well.
The report titled “Target Tokyo” frames a spying operation that may end up being worse than Obama spying on Germany’s Merkel, or France’s Hollande. The alleged eavesdropping was allegedly meant to the Japanese cabinet and Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi. Despite the watered down media on this subject, Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s complaint department simply has to be stressed to the full today. Among those individuals and organizations WikiLeaks says were singled out, were officials within the Japanese Central Bank, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, members of the Japanese Finance Ministry, the Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry, the Natural Gas Division of Mitsubishi, and the Petroleum Division of Mitsui. It is on these latter energy targets I would like to finalize my report.
Mr. Obama’s “transparent and accountable” government is anything but. WikiLeaks has shown time and again the dark underhandedness our leaders practice. This most recent revelation is just the icing on a poisoned American birthday cake. WikiLeaks publications have repeatedly show systematic mass spying conducted by US intelligence against the US-allied governments of Brazil “Bugging Brazil”, France“Espionnage Élysée” and Germany “The Euro Intercepts”; “All the Chancellor’s Men”. But given the ultra-sensative nature of US-Japan relations, this latest one could end in a détente catastrophe. Forget for a moment the governmental betrayal here, and focus on the economic and business facet. That’s right, you’ve arrived at the nitty-gritty of a truly “sorry” American epic in the annals of history. We’re led by a sorry lot of cheats.
WikiLeaks lists the Japanese companies they say the NSA had targeted for spying here. But think along with me here for a moment. Given all we know about the Washington elite, about situations like the Hillary Clinton private Email server and so on, what can be made of this level of spying on international corporations? Why is Obama so interested in Japanese natural gas, or Russian natural gas for the matter? Now we come to the “who,” and the “why” questions of this derision. We first must denote, the NSA seems to have prioritized Mitsubishi’s LNG operations above almost all other “intelligence” gathering needs. And as we know, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is at the root of many conflicts including the one in Ukraine, those in the Middle East, and with regard to the new Iran deals. What I am getting at is, intelligence at the “insider level” on such companies is most likely a new spectrum of warfare. Do I have your attention now?
Let’s assume for the moment that Mitsubishi investments, strategies, and other corporate intelligence is a prime target for US strategic operations AND useable intelligence for stock market manipulation. Just imagine your bank account power boosted by a good investment here, or a shortfall catastrophe there. What if the Russia energy engine were sabotaged by Ukraine unrest? Maybe Joe Biden’s son Hunter joining Burisma Oil Gas should have been investigated more closely? This Oil Price article speaks of both Burisma and Mitsubishi in the overall “gas” picture with Iran, Iraq, Ukraine, and the businesses aimed at investment and rewards therein. It’s not leap to assume Obama’s climate plan, which is largely precipitous on natural gas production and revenue, is a major stimulus for not only war, but for the bitter betrayal of ANY trust for the sake of profit. To further your knowledge of these things, review the stock prices of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co Inc. Just since the China markets collapsed, this company alone lost billions. How sensitive do you think they are to Washington “arm twisting” out in the open, much less manipulation from behind NSA firewalls?
Of course I am venturing into the realm of supposition too, for I do not have an NGO or State Department budget to gather Congressional watchdog evidence. Then again, I do not expect to get off easy by simply saying “sorry” every time my regime is involved in a scandal. Just why the masses cannot feel incensed over all this, over our loss of reputation, over the thousands dead on Obama’s account, I cannot fathom. What I can recall are his “sorry” exclamations at just the “wrong time” every time. Do you recall him joking about the Special Olympics? Maybe his chewing gum or fanny watching disturbs your sense of what America’s Commander in Chief should partake in? For me the things Obama apologizes for are not near as deadly as what he does not. And then there’s secrets even WikiLeaks does not know about.
Then there were the times Obama was not sorry, times where he casually uttered some obvious revelation. He often justifies America when a dark cloud of “transparency” looms overhead. “We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks.” Barack Obama sure has a sense, I’ll give him that. Back in June the American president apologized (symbolically) by throwing down some “suds” with Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel in the village of Kruen, in Southern Germany. What scares me the most in all this is not Barack Obama’s lunatic management of the western world, but the after effects of his presidency. By the time he is through we will still be in perpetual war, but our former allies and potential future ones will not trust us again for half a century. Of even worse, even honest commerce will be questionable! Maybe this is the ultimate goal? I shudder to think of that potential.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.