Flashback | How Team Obama Justifies the Killing of a 16-Year-Old American | The Atlantic

OCTOBER 24, 2012

Asked about the strike that killed him, a senior adviser to the president’s campaign suggests he should’ve “had a more responsible father.”

Cornered by reporters with video cameras, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to President Obama’s reelection campaign, attempted to defend the kill list that the Obama Administration uses to determine whose body should next be blown apart. American drone strikes have resulted in hundreds of dead innocents in the last four years, even as the program has killed a number of high-level al Qaeda terrorists. There are two remarkable things about the ensuing exchange, which eventually turns into a discussion about a dead 16-year-old kid.

First, it’s vital for the uninitiated to understand how Team Obama misleads when it talks about its drone program. Asked how their kill list can be justified, Gibbs replies that “When there are people who are trying to harm us, and have pledged to bring terror to these shores, we’ve taken that fight to them.” Since the kill list itself is secret, there’s no way to offer a specific counterexample. But we do know that U.S. drones are targeting people who’ve never pledged to carry out attacks in the United States. Take Pakistan, where the CIA kills some people without even knowing their identities. “As Obama nears the end of his term, officials said the kill list in Pakistan has slipped to fewer than 10 al-Qaeda targets, down from as many as two dozen,” the Washington Post reports. “The agency now aims many of its Predator strikes at the Haqqani network, which has been blamed for attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan.” The vast majority would never make their way to New York or Washington, D.C., and the Obama Administration would never agree to rules that permitted only the killing of threats to “the homeland.”

How Team Obama Justifies the Killing of a 16-Year-Old American | The Atlantic

Skip The Scoop | Seek Understanding

Facts Matter (May 19): Auditor Reveals Data Deleted From Election Machine Has Been Recovered

Show Me

Facts Matter (May 19): Auditor Reveals Data Deleted From Election Machine Has Been Recovered

Show Me

GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Vernon Jones Calls for ‘An Immediate Forensic Audit of the Georgia 2020 Election’

Show Me

AZ Senate Majority Whip Sonny Borrelli Shares His Observations On the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors: “They’re Very Disrespectful”

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded May 20, 2021 | Video: 47 Minutes 59 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded May 20, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 59 Seconds

Show Me

Afghanistan: Joint call for an immediate end to attacks against human rights defenders and need for protection and accountability

Show Me

Israeli Human Rights Group B’Tselem: Israel Is Committing War Crimes by Killing Civilians in Gaza

Show Me

Colorado to pay unemployed residents to get them to go back to work

Show Me

Biologically Male Sexual Predators Housed In Washington Female Prisons, Court Documents Show

Show Me

May 19, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 51 Minutes 49 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded May 19, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 32 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded May 19, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 15 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded May 19, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 59 Seconds

Show Me

The Media’s Matt Gaetz Source – Joel Greenberg – Just Pleaded Guilty to Making FALSE Pedophilia Allegations about His Opponents.

Show Me

Supreme Court Unanimously Rules Against Warrantless Gun Seizures

Show Me

Disturbing footage of Texas abduction shows alleged kidnapper taking 4-year-old

Show Me

More than 600,000 American kids ages 12 to 15 got Covid vaccines last week

Show Me

REPORT: Bill Gates Hoped Epstein Could Help Him Win Nobel Peace Prize

Show Me

Tlaib Confronts Biden on Israel, Saying Support Enables Crimes Against Palestinians

Show Me

May 18, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 53 Minutes 52 Seconds

Show Me

Biden Snatched War From the Jaws of Israel Peace Deals. Pence Explains How He Did It

Show Me

Officials Identify Slain Dallas 4-Year-Old as Cash Gernon, Suspect Being Held on $1.5 Million Bond

Show Me

Canada Will Need 75% Vaccination Before U.S. Border Reopens, Trudeau Suggests

Show Me

Amazon’s Ring Is Largest Civilian Surveillance Network U.S. Has Ever Seen + More

Show Me

Biden Wants to Surveil Soldier Social Media Pages, Use Private Firms to ‘Circumvent’ First Amendment

Show Me

AP’s Sally Buzbee Mired in Scandal as She Preps for Role as Washington Post Executive Editor

Show Me

Amnesty International wins Webby Award for multimedia tear gas project

Show Me

Arizona Senate Hearing on Maricopa County Audit and 2020 Election Issues – 4:00pm ET Livestream Links

Show Me

Michigan Judge Dismisses Antrim County Election Case

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded May 18, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 37 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded May 18, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 30 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 3 | Recorded May 18, 2021 | Video: 47 Minutes 58 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded May 18, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds

Show Me

May 17, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 53 Minutes 52 Seconds

Show Me

White House Defends ‘Quiet’ Diplomacy in Israel-Gaza Crisis

Show Me

Exclusive – Former Israeli Ambassador to U.N.: ‘I Would Expect from AP to Check Who Your Neighbors Are,’ IDF Warned Them Before Strike

Show Me

Parler Names George Farmer as CEO as It Returns to Apple’s App Store

Show Me

Arrest Made After Boy, 4, Found Slain on Dallas Street

Show Me

EXCLUSIVE: Republican ‘Team Effort’ Killed Bill To Stop Child Transgender Surgeries, ‘Texas GOP Needs A Housecleaning’

Show Me