Name: Barack Hussein Obama II  

Born: August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, HI

Profession: Attorney, U.S. Senator

Obama Administration Position: 44th President of the United States

War Crime Charges:

• The Obama administration didn't prosecute any members of the Bush regime for any alleged war crimes, preferring to "look forward" rather than backward.  This provided a bridge for the continuation of many Bush administration war crimes to continue during the Obama administration and then continue and be expanded on during the subsequent Trump administration.  Obama refused to declassify the nearly 7,000-page torture report of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.

• In late 2009, Obama ordered a surge of U.S. troops into the ongoing illegitimate war on Afghanistan, a country which had not attacked the United States. This led to an immediate increase in civilian deaths.  For one example, U.S. military forces killed a family of five near the city of Gardez, Afghanistan on February 12, 2010. Eyewitness reports state that U.S. Special Forces killed them and then dug their bullets out of the women’s bodies to destroy evidence. U.S. officials have admitted that the family was killed in their home.  However, there were no consequences for those involved.

• A leaked video showed U.S. troops firing on an unarmed party in Iraq in 2007 and firing on those who attempted to rescue them. Despite the death of 12 Iraqi citizens, accompanied by a monstrous chatter recording in the cockpit, there were no charges against the U.S. soldiers because “they were under stress” and “must be supported.” Those who leaked the video were targeted as national security threats.

• Three reported suicides in Guantanamo in 2006 were likely homicides carried out by U.S. personnel.  No investigation was carried out.

• Obama claimed the right to assassinate U.S. citizens whom he suspected of terrorism. He ordered the assassination of a U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, with no trial or other judicial proceeding.

• The Obama Administration expanded the use of unmanned drone attacks. In 2013, the Obama administration promulgated a Presidential Policy Guidance for targeted killing "outside areas of active hostilities."  The guidance allows the targeting of a person who poses a "continuing, imminent threat" not just to "U.S. persons" but also to "another country's persons." A 2011 Department of Justice white paper, leaked in 2013, said a U.S. citizen could be killed even when there is no "clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future," a mockery of the "imminent threat" requirement. There is presumably an even lower bar for non-citizens. In addition, the guidance requires "near certainty that an identified HVT [high-value target] or other lawful terrorist target" is present before using lethal force. The Obama administration mounted "signature strikes" that don't necessarily target individuals, but rather all males of military age present in an area of suspicious activity.  Based on estimates of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, more than 10,000 people may have been killed by U.S. drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen since the U.S. drone war began in 2001.  The majority of these people were killed under the Obama Administration.  The total does not include those killed by U.S. drones in Libya, Syria, Iraq or the Philippines, all nations that came under attack during the Obama presidency.  The U.S. drone wars violate a variety of rights enumerated by the International Declaration of Human Rights and related international human rights law.

Post-Obama Administration Associations:

• The Obama Foundation, a nonprofit organization that oversees the creation of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, runs the My Brother's Keeper Alliance, a program Obama began while President, and operates a scholarship program through the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy

More Information:

10-2010 Crimes are Crimes No Matter Who Does Them