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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDirty Wars: Jeremy Scahill & Rick Rowley's New Film Exposes Hidden Truths of Covert U.S. Warfare
from Democracy Now!:
Dirty Wars: Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowleys New Film Exposes Hidden Truths of Covert U.S. Warfare
Premiering this week at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, the new documentary "Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield" follows investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill to Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen as he chases down the hidden truths behind Americas expanding covert wars. Were joined by Scahill and the films director, Rick Rowley, an independent journalist with Big Noise Films. "Were looking right now at a reality that President Obama has essentially extended the very policies that many of his supporters once opposed under President Bush," says Scahill, author of the bestseller "Blackwater: The Rise of the Worlds Most Powerful Mercenary Army" and a forthcoming book named after his film. "One of the things that humbles both of us is that when you arrive in a village in Afghanistan and knock on someones door, youre the first American theyve seen since the Americans that kicked that door in and killed half their family," Rowley says. "We promised them that we would do everything we could to make their stories be heard in the U.S. ... Finally were able to keep those promises."
........(snip)........
AMY GOODMAN: And I think its very appropriate to begin our four days of broadcasting here at Park City, on this day after the inauguration of President Obama, to begin with Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield.
Jeremy, talk about President Obamas first four years and where were going now. You got a chance to hear his inaugural address; what you thought of it?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, you know, I think if we look back at theat the first term of the Obama administration, what we saw was you had this very popular Democratic president that hadwho had campaigned, in terms of his broader rhetoric during the presidential campaign against John McCain, on the notion that he was going to transform the way that the U.S. conducted its foreign policy around the world. And, you know, he then proceeded to double down on some of the greatest excesses of the Bush administration. If you look at the use of the state secrets privilege; if you look at the way the Obama administration has expanded the drone wars; has empowered special operations forces, including from JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, to operate in countries where the United States is not at war; if you look at the way in which the Obama administration has essentially boxed Congress out of any effective oversight role of the covert aspects of U.S. foreign policy, what we really have is a president who has normalized, for many, many liberals in the United States, the policies that they once opposed under the Bush administration. And, you know, this really has been a war presidency.
And, you know, yesterday, as theas President Obamas talking about how we dont need a state of perpetual war, multiple U.S. drone strikes in Yemen, a country that were not at war with, where the U.S. has killed a tremendous number of civilians. Rick and I have spent a lot of time on the ground in Yemen. And, you know, to me, most disturbing about this is John Brennan, who really was the architect of this drone program and the expansion of the drone programthese guys are sitting around on Tuesdays at the White House in "Terror Tuesday" meetings, discussing whos going to live and whos going to die across the world. These guys have decided ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/22/dirty_wars_jeremy_scahill_and_rick
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Dirty Wars: Jeremy Scahill & Rick Rowley's New Film Exposes Hidden Truths of Covert U.S. Warfare (Original Post)
marmar
Jan 2013
OP
Hell Hath No Fury
(16,327 posts)1. Important info --
getting lost in the "afterglow".
Response to marmar (Original post)
Post removed
marmar
(77,097 posts)3. Please go away.