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Obama Pledges To End Torture To Help ‘Regain America’s Moral Stature In The World’
Think Progress —
In recent weeks, there has been rampant media speculation that President Barack Obama would back off his campaign pledges to end torture.
The Wall Street Journal recently wrote, “President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies.” In addition, some in the blogosphere have raised concerns about the fact that a key intelligence adviser to Obama has supported the Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation techniques.
Tonight, in his interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, Obama bluntly and directly clarified his incoming ...
Obama Pledges To End Torture To Help ?Regain America?s Moral Stature In The World?
The Hollywood Liberal —
Obama Pledges To End Torture To Help ?Regain America?s Moral Stature In The World? In recent weeks, there has been rampant media speculation that President Barack Obama would back off his campaign pledges to end torture. The Wall Street Journal recently wrote, “President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies.” In addition, some in the blogosphere have raised concerns about the fact that a key […] In recent weeks, there has been rampant media speculation that President Barack Obama would back off his campaign pledges to end torture. The Wall Street Journal recently ...
John Brennan: Change We Cannot Believe In
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
The good news from last night's 60 Minutes interview is that Obama has clearly committed himself to ending the torture policy of Bush and Cheney. But that clarity will sadly be in doubt if Marc is right and John Brennan becomes the next CIA Director: Brennan's long association George Tenet and with the CIA during the first few years of the Bush administration may give civil liberties advocates and Congressional Democrats some pause; it is not clear to what degree Brennan participated in or was read into many of the intelligence community's controversial ...
Obama: No Torture, No Gitmo
Matthew Yglesias —
There’s been some talk of Barack Obama possibly backsliding on campaign promises to close Guantanamo Bay and stop torture. Talking to CBS News last night, however, Obama clearly reiterated both commitments:
Good on both counts. I don’t think it can be emphasized enough how critical it is to our relationship with Europe to make a clean break with the Bush-era policies on these issues. Doing so will hardly change the fact that the US and Europe have somewhat divergent interests and perspectives on the world, but it’ll left the air of ...
Obama’s Firm But Nuanced Positions On GITMO And “Torture”
Nice Deb —
Here’s what Obama said on 60 minutes last night:
Sounds pretty firm and decisive. And oh-so moral.
But what are his surrogates saying? Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has been keeping an eye on that for us. On the Interrogation front, it seems that Obama may be ...
Obama: I Will End Torture
TalkLeft —
Here is Obama on 60 minutes giving the unequivocal answer we wanted to hear: A response to this has been 'Bush said we do not torture.' My reply - Barack Obama is not George Bush. I could not ask for a better answer. By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only ...
Obama: No More Torture, No More Guantanamo
Open Left - Front Page —
It's as clear a statement as we're going to get. Obama will end torture and will shut down Guantanamo. There are a lot of questions and concerns that Glenn Greenwald has put forward with characteristic vigor, and I suspect that there will be a massive fight over this as the Pentagon tries to challenge Obama over spending, Iraq, torture, etc.
How Obama handles the national security state will be a fascinating episode to watch, but these are tentatively positive signs.
Judge Orders Five of Six "Boumediene" Detainees Freed
Daily Kos —
In another stinging rebuke of the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror, a U.S. District Court Judge has ordered that five Algerian detainees be released. SCOTUSblog has some analysis: U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, in the first ruling to carry out the Supreme Court’s June decision on detainees’ rights, ordered the federal government to release five Guantanamo Bay detainees "forthwith." The judge found, however, that the government had justified the continued imprisonment of a sixth detainee, Belkacem ben Sayah. The judge, in an unusual added comment, suggested to ...
Potemkin Justice: BushCo Stage-Managing Gitmo To Tie Obama’s Hands?
Firedoglake —
Some odd doings at Gitmo yesterday. Potential guilty pleas, then orders for two mental competency exams, then no pleas at all. So what's up? Plenty.
Last night, I spoke with Anthony Romero of ACLU, who spent the day in Gitmo observing proceedings. When asked whether the ...
