The Silver Ribbon

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COULD THE REAL OBAMA STAND UP
[By Yvonne Ridley, The Canadian Charger, June 1, 2009]
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I wonder how many of you have woken up to the fact that America's latest leader
is really a political Houdini ... an illusionist on a presidential scale.

In front of our very eyes he has morphed from a gentle intellectual, and strong
defender of human rights into a war-mongering bully who sponsors targeted
assassinations and orders pre-emptive strikes with casual ease.

It took George W. Bush years before he dared to unveil his true intentions and
invade Iraq, displacing three million people in a war which cost the lives of
thousands of U.S. soldiers and the slaughter of countless civilians.

Whereas the smooth-talking Obama has achieved the same in just a few months
since he arrived in The White House by launching an illegal war on Pakistan ...
but he's using someone else's army instead of his own.

He is twice as clever as the previous White House incumbent and far, far more
deadly. Obama is quite possibly one of the world's most skillful manipulators
and his greatest illusion so far is fooling the public as well as the media.

While blatantly using Pakistan's army as a cheap source of military labor he
holds the country's leader Asif Ali Zadari in suspended animation, trapped
helplessly in an almost hypnotic state, induced by the promise of millions of
dollars and the support of the world's biggest military machine.

Of course we must lay some blame at Zadari's feet for allowing himself to be
used like a magician's assistant instead of acting with the dignity and honour
his office, country and people demand.

Obama is far more lethal than his predecessor - and yet his transformation from
Mr Nice Guy to something more sinister seems to have gone largely unnoticed by
the world's watching media which appears to be intoxicated by the powerful
charisma emanating from his rich, but smooth seductive tones.

He has already reneged on promises over closing down Guantanamo, ending military
tribunals and releasing to the public the entire archive of shame which captured
the torture and abuse of the previous administration's War on Terror in video
and film from 2001 onwards.

Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee remarked recently over one of his u-
turns: "President Obama has recently granted immunity to CIA agents ... if the
desire to get at what went wrong is so blatantly covered up under cover of
"national security concerns", there will be no end to this. And once again, the
warmongers will get away with another odious and criminal cover-up".



He has the power to make Guantanamo's vile prison disappear and for a few
glorious weeks human rights activists across the world waited with baited breath
for the cages of Cuba, Bagram and elsewhere to fly open.

Just how difficult is it for the media to dip into their own archives and remind
Obama about the pledges he made on the campaign trail and hold him to account?
His first promise on the White House website was that his administration would
be the most transparent in U.S. history. Sadly these grand statements have not
been followed through.

But this journalistic amnesia is all too convenient - what happened to his
determination to bring home all combat troops from Iraq within 18 months?

Is there no journalist from the White House lobby prepared to remind him of how
he said during televised presidential debates that getting Usama bin Ladin was
"our biggest national security priority"? Perhaps the hypnotic Obama Affect has
wiped their computer hard-drives and their memories but if you listen to his
very first TV interview as the Commander-in-Chief of America he said Usama was
more than a symbol.

His actual words were: "He’s also the operational leader of an organization that
is planning attacks against U.S. targets," adding that "capturing or killing bin
Ladin is a critical aspect of stamping out al-Qaida."

Having secured the votes from red neck territory by saying Obama will get Usama,
he now says that killing or capturing the al-Qaida chief is no longer necessary
to "meet our goal of protecting America."

However, American Armenians are not so gullible and quite a few were shocked out
of their trance following the U.S. President's recent visit to Turkey when he
executed with the greatest of ease yet another presidential flip flop.

"As President, I will recognize the Armenian genocide," he declared loud and
proud during his campaign, but when he arrived in Turkey he sort of muttered,
when asked about the hugely sensitive subject: "My views are on the record, and
everyone knows my views." And then he refused to elaborate and state them!

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant" said Obama before he took the keys to the
White House - may be that's why, when I watch the U.S. President perform under
the glare of the spotlights on the world stage, I can see something of the night
lurking around his presidential shadows.

There are a few of us who are immune to the charms of the new president. Like
me, they believe that the sheep's clothing has vanished and what we now have is
a dangerous wolf stalking the corridors of power on Capitol Hill.

Yes, there's a new act in the White House these days but while Harry Houdini
built his reputation performing death-defying escapes and magic tricks his
political Doppelganger is certainly the master of dark arts and mass illusion.

This president has gone from charming to harming and few have noticed.

* Journalist Yvonne Ridley is a patron of the human rights organization Cage
Prisoners at www.cageprisoners.com and a member of the RESPECT political party
as well as being a presenter of the weekly political show The Agenda on Press TV

** The Canadian Charger is Canada’s new national independent not-for-profit
multimedia interactive online magazine with 60 of Canada’s top experts, writers
and cartoonists: www.thecanadiancharger.com