Jeremy Scahill on Barack Obama's 'Dirty Wars'

The prison at Guantanamo still operates, the drone attacks have escalated, American citizens are put on assassination lists and there's a secret CIA prison at a brand new compound in Mogadishu ... all of it says investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill on the watch of President Obama swept to power by an electorate that thought such practices were exclusive to his Republican predecessors. Today, the author of 'Dirty Wars' on how President Barack Obama has extended the Cheney/Bush notions of Executive Branch control, proxy players and limited oversight in the U.S. ongoing war on terror.

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"Has there been any legal review of the potential for lethal operations against US citizens? Its important for the American people to know when the president can kill an American citizen and when they cant. But its almost as though there are two laws in America and the American people would be extraordinarily surprised if they could see the difference between what they believe a law says and how it has actually been interpreted in secret." - US Senator Ron Wyden sounds a little surprised in the new documentary film Dirty Wars.

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill has travelled the globe to cover the covert US wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. He pursues those behind the secret operations to hunt down, capture or kill people believed to be enemies of the United States.

Jeremy Scahill's account of this secret war is detailed in the documentary film and in his latest book. Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield. Jeremy Scahill joined us from Seattle.

This segment was produced by The Current's Josh Bloch.

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