Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, is a news analyst who often addresses worldwide audiences through new agencies and satellite television. He is a frequent lecturer as well on African and global affairs., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
To watch this interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, over Press TV World News, just click on the website below:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/20/304536/scandals-undermine-obama-admin/
Mon May 20, 2013 6:10PM GMT
Press TV has conducted an interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, about multiple scandals bracing the White House including the seizure of press phone records and an IRS scandal all under Obama’s watch.
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: A number of scandals has caused quite an eventful and tumultuous time for the US administration. Topping those scandals is the seizure and accession of phone records from the journalists of AP (Associated Press).
I’d like to get your thoughts on that and the reasons and justification by the administration in that regard.
Azikiwe: There is no reason, there are no justifications for such actions against Associated Press reporters.
This has been done in the past by successive administrations going all the way back at least until the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations during the late 1950s and early 1960s with the recording of conversations and also under the Nixon administration with the development of the so-called ‘enemies list’.
This of course continued right through the Bush administration and of course now under the Obama administration, which had pledged that it would take a more equitable and fair approach not only to professional groups, but also to the public in general here in the United States and this of course has proven to be totally false.
It is not just the Associated Press there are many organizations inside the United States that have faced the scrutiny of the United States government. It’s quite interesting that the administration last week spoke out and condemned the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative organizations.
The left wing organizations and other progressive groups including Islamic organizations have been targeted for a number of years here in the United States with scrutiny as well as for federal investigations and also prosecution. And all of these things are being done without any oversight.
I believe that this scandal involving the press freedoms and also the spying on Congressional members as well, which is also a story that came out in the British press just yesterday, is going to have a negative [impact] on the administration and particularly on the Justice Department.
Press TV: There is the AP case, there is the IRS scandal and also there is the Benghazi cover up. Would you say that the administration’s conduct with regards to these cases and incidences is in conflict and inconsistent to the ethics that the US administration usually touts as its strong point?
Azikiwe: Well it’s totally inconsistent with the stated policy aims of the Obama administration. The situation in Libya of course is a direct result of the external interference in Libyan affairs since 2011 and of course with the brutal assassination of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens last September 11th indicated the failure of US policy towards Libya.
Then of course in order to conceal the contradictions and the pitfalls in that policy they in fact attempted to distort the circumstances surrounding the death of Ambassador Stevens making it appear as if it was some type of spontaneous mob that had carried out these attacks against the US compound and its annex in Benghazi when in fact they already knew hours after the death of Ambassador Stevens that this was a coordinated attack that was carried out by over 100 armed combatants and it was clearly targeted at the U.S. compound and its annex.
The actual talking points that were put forward by UN Ambassador Susan Rice who was put forward to ‘take the fall’ for these attacks as opposed to former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, of course, was extremely disingenuous.
It’s quite interesting that Ambassador Rice still remains in the United Nations representing the United States diplomatically around the world, but at the same time it’s quite obvious that they distorted and
presented falsehoods to the American people and indeed to the world to conceal their failures in Libya.
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