Pressure Builds To Throw
Obama Out of Office Now!
by an EIR Team
June 11—Attorney General Eric Holder, who has flatly denied everything, stonewalled, and refused documents with respect to each and every previous crime of Barack Obama, was finally forced on June 8 to assign two Federal prosecutors to a criminal investigation of Obama Administration national security leaks, telling them to follow the investigation wherever it led in the Executive branch—that is, to the White House.
Holder's abrupt reversal on this, and the process that produced it, exemplify Lyndon LaRouche's contention June 10 that "a new trend has surfaced recently: Obama is on the edge of being finished." There is "not a buildup of Obama support, but a buildup to throw him out of office."
For the first time, the calls for investigation and prosecution come equally from Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and the House. Senior Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, took the lead, along with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). The two are working closely together in such a way as to scrupulously maintain the non-partisan nature, and thus the effectiveness, of the effort.
As if in a one-two punch, the announcement of the leaks investigation was followed on June 11 by the scheduling of a meeting of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the matter of citing Attorney General Holder in contempt of Congress, for having withheld documents in the investigation of the Fast and Furious scandal. The session will occur on June 20.
Although these leaks of classified information, as damaging as they might be, and the coverup of the Fast and Furious gunwalking[1] operation, seem to pale beside Obama's other crimes—such as violating the Constitution by launching a war unauthorized by Congress, and killing American citizens—they could well signal that a group of leading policymakers has finally decided that the narcissist Obama is such a clear and present danger to the Republic that he has to be removed. It is absolutely crucial that this occur prior to the November elections, in time to permit a worthy alternative candidate—not Mitt Romney—to emerge.
"Obama is on the edge of being finished," LaRouche said. The time to throw him out of office, by impeachment or under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, is now.
There's the smell of Watergate in the air, but, as LaRouche emphasized in a June 11 discussion, this issue should not be seen as one confined within U.S. national borders. London brought Obama to power, and it will weigh in on what happens to their tool. Thus, the fight to remove Obama, in order to create a future for the U.S. and the nation, has to be seen as a global fight against the British Empire, and waged accordingly.
Deadly Leaks
It is widely mooted in Washington circles, and confirmed by EIR sources, that not long ago, in the face of an increasingly desperate situation for his re-election campaign, President Obama adopted a new strategy of bragging about his so-called national security accomplishments. It was in this context that the New York Times published two major articles in late May on Obama's security policy, which featured both his personal fixation on supervising a "kill" list, and the alleged U.S. sponsorship of the Stuxnet computer virus, which temporarily crippled Iran's nuclear program. Sources for both of the articles were identified as current and former Administration officials.
The two leaks most at issue are the one concerning U.S. cyber-warfare against Iran (an Israeli spokesman has now rushed to take credit for Stuxnet), and the leak of the identity of a British-Saudi double-agent within al-Qaeda in Yemen. Interviewed on CBS's Face the Nation June 10, Senator Feinstein said that the two prosecutors' investigative teams had probably divided the work: "one for the Iranian situation and one for the Yemeni situation."
Coordinating with Feinstein on the same program, Representative Rogers said,
"I had eight senior case officers from a whole different set of programs in my committee just recently, and ... all the men and women at that table said this is devastating to them and makes their jobs so much significantly harder.... I know Senator Feinstein and I really want to get to the bottom of this, ... because we know that sources' lives are in danger and operations, importantly, going forward, are in danger. That is a serious blow to national security. So this should be done in a way that is fair and nonpartisan."
On June 11, new accusations about the leak were raised by Patrick Caddell, a prominent pollster politically linked to efforts on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Appearing on breitbart.com's "Victory Sessions," Caddell declared that Obama's National Security Advisor Tom Donilon was definitely the source of the leaks, because of his background as a political operative and known "leaker." Caddell reported that Donilon had been confronted by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates soon after the killing of Osama bin Laden—which the White House had made the subject of a "brag" campaign—and told that he had a communications strategy for him. According to David Sanger's just-released book, Confront and Conceal, Gates's strategy was simple: "Shut your f***in' mouth."
EIR's sources argue that Donilon can't be solely to blame; the onus is on Obama himself. Indeed Caddell noted in his interview that Obama is the person who could have stopped the New York Times' publications; his silence speaks volumes.
The Military Angle
It is noteworthy that the issue of the intelligence leaks jeopardizing national security is one which brings together JCS Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who are in revolt against Obama's drive for thermonuclear war, with both leading Democrats such as Feinstein, and with some Republicans. (Both the Senate and House committees also met June 7 with the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who is said to be outraged about the leaks.)
Feinstein has also discussed a joint hearing of the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees with the latter's chairman, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).
Contempt Decision Looms
The intelligence community is equally outraged by the Obama Administration's handling of the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal, which resulted in the killing of at least one Federal agent, in addition to hundreds of Mexicans, with "walked" guns.
On June 11, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) released a statement indicating that on June 20, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which he chairs, will convene to consider a report holding Attorney General Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to produce documents specified in the Committee's Oct. 12, 2011 subpoena in regard to Operation Fast and Furious. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) also released a statement indicating that the House leadership fully supports the vote to hold Holder in contempt, noting that
"the Justice Department is out of excuses. Either the Justice Department turns over the information requested, or Congress will have no choice but to move forward with holding the Attorney General in contempt for obstructing an ongoing investigation."
Issa's statement notes that the House Committee, working with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), has been investigating the operation for over a year and a half, and has turned up enough evidence, through whistleblowers and documents released, to reveal fundamental flaws in the operation, which Holder has had to admit. Yet, Issa writes, the Attorney General has balked at turning over documents subpoenaed on Oct. 12, 2011, specifically any documents created after Feb. 4 of that year, the day the Justice Department issued a false denial to Congress.
Issa argues: "The Obama Administration has not asserted Executive Privilege or any other valid privilege over these materials and it is unacceptable that the Department of Justice refuses to produce them. These documents pertain to Operation Fast and Furious, the claims of whistleblowers, and why it took the Department nearly a year to retract false denials of reckless tactics. The Justice Department's actions have obstructed the investigation. Congress has an obligation to investigate unanswered questions about attempts to smear whistleblowers, failures by Justice Department officials to be truthful and candid with the Congressional investigation, and the reasons for the significant delay in acknowledging reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious."
A Bipartisan Move?
Approval of a contempt citation takes only a majority vote in committee, and thus, unless the DoJ complies, as it still can, it will almost certainly pass the Republican-dominated Committee. Then it goes to the floor of the House, where, although Democrats have rushed to defend Holder and Obama in all previous hearings, it will intersect concerns about the other egregious behavior by the Administration.
It should also be recalled that, approximately one year ago, 31 Democrats wrote a letter to President Obama, asking him to cooperate with the investigation. In a statement June 11, Representative Issa declared that he expects that 31 Democrats will join the Congressional Republicans in finding Holder in contempt, if it comes to that. He added that he hopes Obama intervenes to get DoJ cooperation, saying,
"This is like Iran-Contra, like Watergate, and other embarrassments over the years. The major embarrassment is the delay in being honest and open about it."
While the 31 Democrats who acted in 2011 have since been quiet, it is clear that the "trend" has changed. Obama is on the verge of being finished, and some Democrats, like those acting on the leaks scandal, just might be impelled to act.
William Wertz, Tony Papert, Jeffrey Steinberg, and Nancy Spannaus contributed to this report.
[1] "Gunwalking" refers to the allegation that the ATF allowed guns to "walk"—to be bought by suspected arms traffickers on behalf of Mexican drug cartels.
