The expansion of the police state under the Obama Administration is alarming and belies a wholesale erosion of individual liberties. As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama made numerous promises that would have led to reducing the pernicious power of the police state in America; however the actions of his administration are in opposition to those promises. 

One such promise was candidate Obama’s pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and dismantle the military commissions within his first year in office. Candidate Obama promised, “As president, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions.”

Yet now, during Obama’s fourth year in office, the prison in Guantanamo Bay remains open and the military commissions persist, in violation of international human rights conventions.  

The Obama Administration has not renounced the use of torture, continues to operate secret prisons around the world, retains the use of extrajudicial kidnapping euphemistically called “extraordinary rendition,” and has ended a longstanding principled policy against assassinations.  President Obama contrived a secret “kill list.” Although widely discussed in the media, the program’s existence – as well as its alleged legal “justification” – are themselves kept secret.