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Snowden director Oliver Stone asks 'how many Muslim countries has Obama bombed?' in scathing criticism

'How many drone strikes have we used, killing how many people?'

Heather Saul
Wednesday 12 October 2016 17:23 BST
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(Getty)

Oliver Stone has issued a blistering attack on President Barack Obama’s legacy in the White House, questioning how many Muslim countries have been bombed under his watch during his two terms in office.

The director of the biopic about the fugitive NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been a vocal critic of the surveillance which has taken place under the Obama administration. In August, he accused Mr Obama of creating a global security surveillance state “way beyond East Germany's Stasi”.

This week, Stone, 70, accused Mr Obama of quietly transforming into “a better version of Bush” as soon as he became President, according to AFP.

“How many wars is America in informally without consent?," he was quoted as asking a press conference promoting the release of Snowden in Europe and Asia. “How many Muslim countries has Obama bombed? How many drone strikes have we used, killing how many people?”

The Nobel Peace Prize committee’s decision to award Mr Obama the prize in 2009 was shrouded in controversy. Mr Obama oversaw the first US air strikes launched in Syria in 2014 in a huge escalation of America’s military campaign against the Isis terror group. Six years after coming to office he had approved military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and Libya, becoming the Peace President to bomb seven countries in six years.

Mr Obama (AP)

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) estimates the Obama administration has launched more than 390 drone strikes in five years across Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia – eight times as many approved during the entire Bush Presidency.

Stone also urged US citizens to be less apathetic towards the revelations from Snowden’s whistleblowing, warning they had been lulled into a false sense of security about the existence of their human freedoms.

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