(ABC) In a network exclusive interview to air on Nightline tonight, we sat down this afternoon with White House senior adviser David Axelrod, the president’s closest aide, whose last day at the White House is today.
We talked about a number of issues in this exit interview, but perhaps most news-worthy were his comments on Egypt in which Axelrod suggested President Obama has for two years “directly confronted” the Egyptian president over human rights issues in order to get ahead of growing discontent among his people – a stronger characterization of President Obama’s discussions with Mubarak than we’ve so far heard from the White House.
Besides the literal meaning of human rights, it is also referred to due process. The hypocrisy of President Obama dictating about human rights and due process to other world leaders is stunning. We have a authoritarian government in the United States making the rule of law as it deemed fit. While other presidents kept themselves under the radar, Obama has demonstrated a transparency of a mild tyrant.
In the United States, human rights is protected under the court of law, but when the government wants something, they will take it. Throughout history, there are presidents who superseded the rule of law. During WWII, FDR had interment camps. During the Civil War, Abe Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus. On Oct. 17, 2006, President Bush signed a law suspending the right of habeas corpus to persons "determined by the United States" to be an "enemy combatant" in the Global War on Terror. Now, President Obama has his "presidential assassination program," whereby American citizens are targeted for killings far away from any battlefield, based exclusively on unchecked accusations by the Executive Branch that they're involved in Terrorism.
Also, President Obama announces detaining American citizens for future crimes that have not been committed.
Unsurprisingly, the abuse of executive power has been going on for many years. Fortunately, President Obama finally chimed in an actual fact. The United States government has for many years imprisoned Americans without due process. In fact, there is an American citizen named Martin Armstrong being jailed for many years in Fort Dix, New Jersey for contempt of court. In reality, Martin Armstrong has something the government wanted.
Martin Armstrong is a financial guru who creating a his own system to determined the timing of the markets and events. Martin Armstrong's model has dumbfounded many analysis. Martin Armstrong became an icon that the CIA and the federal government took notice and wanted the program. According to Armstrong's daughter Victoria Armstrong, "It took nearly 30 years for my dad to develop this model and his refusing to turn over its source code to the government is a big reason why he has been held in jail for over 7 years without a trial. His model was his life’s work and his passion that ultimately landed him in jail. Although it's great to hear people that have benefited from his insight, after seeing what has happened to him I wish he kept it to himself."
From an unofficial Martin Armstrong website, it says,
"Martin Armstrong is currently in prison. Indicted in 1999 on charges of defrauding Japanese investors. He was in jail for seven years for contempt of court before pleading guilty in 2007 to the fraud charge for which he received an additional five year prison term. Armstrong claims his legal problems started when he failed to play ball with "The Club". His imprisonment is one of the longest under a contempt of court order without a trial. Coincidentally, prior to his guilty plea, his final appeal for release (relating to indefinate imprisonment for contempt of court) was denied by (recently promoted) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
