New book claims Obama told aides: 'I'm really good at killing people'

New book claims Obama told aides: 'I'm really good at killing people' HT: RussiaToday.

The quote comes from a new book called “Double Down,” by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heileman, which chronicles the inside story of the 2012 election. The Washington Post was the first outlet to expose the quote in its review of the book.

The White House has yet to comment on the alleged quote, but one of the president’s senior advisors, Dan Pfeiffer, rejected many of the book’s claims on ABC’s Sunday show “This Week.” The book also claims that Obama’s political team considered replacing Vice President Joe Biden with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the reelection campaign.

"The president is always frustrated about leaks," Pfeiffer said. "I haven't talked to him about this book. I haven't read it. He hasn't read it. But he hates leaks."

The revelation of the quote comes as the administration’s drone campaign is placed under increasing scrutiny. Since taking office in 2008, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, Obama has greatly expanded the use of drones and targeted killings in foreign nations. He oversaw the 2009 surge in Afghanistan, drone operations during NATO’s 2011 involvement in Libya, the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and the most recent strike that killed the Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London, the president has authorized 326 strikes in Pakistan alone. It also estimates that, since George W. Bush took office for his second term in 2004, the strikes have killed anywhere between 2,500 and 3,600 individuals, and that between 416 and 948 of those individuals were civilians.

The White House claims the number of civilians killed by drones is much lower than that, though it has declined to release its own number for national security reasons. The administration considers any “military-age males” within a strike zone to be combatants.

Civilian drone deaths came under the spotlight just recently in Washington, when a Pakistani school teacher and his family testified before Congress on the effects of the program on civilians. According to Amnesty International, the family’s grandmother was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2012, along with 18 other civilians.

 For his part, Obama has argued that the drone program is legal, and that it actually prevents the death of even more civilians at the hands of terrorists.
"Let us remember that the terrorists we are after target civilians, and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes," Obama said during a speech earlier this year.Hmmmm......Flashback 2012 :

WHITE HOUSE INSIDER: Barack Obama’s High Tech Snuff Films.

U.N. 'human rights council' threatens to send Israel to International Criminal Court for 'settlement activity'.

U.N. 'human rights council' threatens to send Israel to International Criminal Court for 'settlement activity'.HT: IsraelMatzav.

• They have nothing to say about 60,000 Syrians being murdered by the Assad regime. They have nothing to say about thousands of Iranians being tortured and murdered by the Khameni/Ahmadinejad regime.
• They have nothing to say about thousands of Egyptians and Sudanese being murdered by their respective governments. 
• And they have nothing to say about thousands of North Koreans being starved to death in their little gulag off the Sea of Japan.

But the United Nations' 'human rights council' is threatening to refer little Israel to the International Criminal Court for something called 'settlement activity.'
In the probe's conclusions, the mission’s report stated that Israel had an obligation under international law not to transfer its population into the Palestinian territories.

“The Rome Statute establishes the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction over the deportation or transfer, directly or indirectly, by the occupying Power of parts of its own population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory,” the report stated.

It added, “ratification of the Statute by Palestine may lead to accountability for gross violations of human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law and justice for victims.”
For this to happen. the imaginary state of 'Palestine' would first have to ratify the Rome Statute (how would they do that? Via the 'legislature' whose term expired four years ago?) so that they would become a 'state party' to the International Criminal Court treaty.
The full report may be found here. Did I mention that it includes 'east' Jerusalem?
This entire sordid tale can be traced back to the Obama administration's insistence of treating the 'human rights council' as something other than a kangaroo court. Read the full story here.