Missing Martin Luther King, Jr.

Updated: Humanitarians charged with crime of saving lives on the border

By Brenda Norrell

Each day now, I miss Martin Luther King, Jr., more and more. Each time I hear of the increasing number of dead in Afghanistan, the torture continuing and the secret renditions continuing, I miss Martin Luther King.

When John McCain quickly conceded and faded into the background, I knew something was up. There was an agreement, or at least an understanding, that Obama would only give the minimum, only tread water, to keep the public placated. He would do as little as possible about making real change in America.

It began with the talk of the Obamas' search for a hairless dog when they moved into the White House. Then there was the frolicking in Paris. But it is the deception over the war that is the most telling.

To placate Americans, Obama moved the war to Afghanistan, but he did not end the war. The youths of America, considered the expendables, are still being sent there to die to keep the war machine going. Their blood provides the dollars for war profiteers, mercenaries and the US economy.

When it comes to holding Bush and Cheney responsible for torture and violating the Geneva Conventions, even a smooth smile won't be enough for Obama. If he fails to ensure that Bush and Cheney are held responsible for war crimes, Obama will have failed as a president.

On the border of Arizona and Mexico, the tactics of the Bush administration continue. Now, humanitarians placing water for migrants dying in the desert are being charged in court. Thirteen were arraigned on Sept. 2, 2009. This year has been one of the deadliest ever on the border of the United States and Mexico. So far more than 183 bodies of migrants have been recovered in southern Arizona this fiscal year. An increasing number of migrants are Indigenous women and children. They are Mayans and others desperate to survive as their ancestral lands are seized in Mexico and Central America.

I think now of Martin Luther King, his passion, commitment, focus and direction. What would he say about Obama's white cabinet, about the choice of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State.
This week, Obama went on a bike tour in the homeland of the Aquinnah Wampanoag and refused to meet with the Indian Nation. It is the type of refusal on ancestral homelands that Native Americans do not forget. It is the type of error people make when they become overly confident.

Meanwhile, it seems most Americans were terrified by the Bush administration and the fact that a mentally deficient person was president of the United States. Now it seems Obama may bore us to death.

But there is nothing boring about torture. There is nothing trite about youths giving their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan because of the lies of politicians. And when it comes to courtesy and honor, memories are long.

Most people are so relieved to have Bush and Cheney out of office, that they are afraid to criticize Obama. And that is exactly what all the power brokers are betting on -- that no one will notice that they have been duped.

References:

Obama declined Aquinnah Wampanoag meeting
Monday, August 31, 2009
http://www.indianz.com/
Filed Under: Politics President Barack Obama went on vacation in the homeland of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts but turned down a meeting with tribal leaders.

Obama and his family spent a week on Martha's Vineyard. The tribe's reservation is on the western part of the island.

During his vacation, Obama went on a bike tour in Aquinnah, the tribe's headquarters. Bettina Washington, the tribe's historic preservation officer, said he probably saw signs on the reservation that oppose Cape Wind, a controversial wind turbine project.

He had to ride by it twice," Washington told The Cape Cod Times.

Washington said the tribe wanted to share its culture and history with the Obama family, especially his two young daughters.

Get the Story:Wind messages blown to Obama (The Cape Cod Times 8/30)
August deadliest month of US in Afghanistan
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvWEqwq3CrRvaQCmt21MfoYhjZJQD9AC3PMO0

Guantanamo torture continues under Obama/by Jeremy Scahill
http://www.alternet.org/rights/140022/little_known_military_thug_squad_still_brutalizing_prisoners_at_gitmo_under_obama/?page=entire

US to probe CIA torture/Obama continues secret renditions
The US attorney-general has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of abuse by the CIA during interrogations.

Eric Holder's appointment of John Durham, a federal prosecutor, comes as a CIA report released on Monday revealed that US interrogators threatened to kill a suspect's children and sexually assault another suspect's mother.

The announcement of the investigation coincided with a White House admission that Barack Obama's government would continue the previous administration's practice of sending terrorism suspects to other countries for detention and interrogation. Read more ... http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/08/20098250592862929.html

Cash for blood for mercenaries: CACI
The protest against torture training at Fort Huachuca Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca includes the protest of CACI there, in Sierra Vista. Read more about CACI at Border Lines:

"One of the companies that has benefited from this privatization of intelligence is CACI International, a major defense contractor, which is also a major homeland security and intelligence contractor. CACI recently was in the business press because of its latest revolving door success. It has brought former U.S. Navy Secretary and former DOD deputy defense secretary in the Bush administration into the folds of its board of directors. (See: Pentagon Official Returns) from "Bigger and Badder than Blackwater"

Blackwater, the CIA and the assassinations
The news reveals the CIA hired Blackwater for assassinations. No real news there, but the question remains: Did the US hire Blackwater to assassinate blacks, or look the other way, during the assassinations on the streets of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina?

On the Danish documentary, 'Welcome to New Orleans,' white men on video tape said in 2005 that shooting blacks after Katrina was like hunting:

"MAN 1: You had to do what you had to do. You know? If you had to shoot somebody, you had to shoot somebody. That simple.

MAN 2: We had looters.
MAN 3: It was great!
MAN 4: It was great!
MAN 3: It was like pheasant season in South Dakota!"

Article: CIA hired Blackwater:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/08/cia-hired-blackwater-for-assassinations.html