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October 10, 2010

Obama politicizes terror like Bush

That's the claim of the Guardian, saying the Obama Administration politicized terrorism issues with its recent travel alert about Americans going to Europe.

Glen Greenwald is a bit skeptical, but, let's see if this has legs.

Pakistan's ambassador to Britain claims it's the Obama Administration attempting to justify its surge in attacks not just by drones, but also by helicopters, inside Pakistan. Considering that Pakistan retaliated by temporarily closing the Khyber Pass route into Afghanistan, this claim could be seen as having legs right there.

And, here's a summary of the European stance:
By making it clear that the US drone strikes were pre-emptive, and were not in any way combating an imminent threat, European officials raised fresh questions – this time directly involving a British national – about the legality of the attacks, which could be viewed as assassinations.

Yes, a lot of this is anonymously sourced, which starts Greenwald's complaint, but no more than in a typical U.S. newspaper.

That said, Glenn seems to have reduced some of his original skepticism.

That's in part because NATO is willing to jump on the politicization bandwagon. Of course, "NATO" should be in scare quotes, since it's a U.S. admiral doing the jawing.

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