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Jeremy Scahill: Obama’s Covert Wars Contradict His Rhetoric

The president continues to expand drone strikes and special operations, even as he decries the country’s war footing.

Press Room

January 22, 2013

Barack Obama condemned "perpetual war" in his inaugural speech Monday, even as he continues to wage covert wars around the world. Rather than reversing trends towards secrecy and militarization that started during the Bush administration, Obama instead has expanded drone attacks, continued to employ the states secrets privilege and allowed special forces to operate in countries where we are not at war, Nation Institute fellow Jeremy Scahill told Amy Goodman Tuesday on Democracy Now!

Scahill appeared on the show with director Rick Rowley to discuss their new film at the Sundance Film Festival, Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield, in which the two report from Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen.

Alec Luhn

Tom Hayden covers proposals to reform the drone program—and why Congress must push them through—in his latest article.

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