Surely it is not reasonable for Obama to be expected to close Guantanamo right away. He has started the process right away as one of his first acts. That seems significant enough especially in contrast to Bush.
While it may be that some coercive techniques will be re-introduced in the manual it is up to the left to keep a vigilant eye on this. At least Obama has specifically outlawed some such as waterboarding.
What bothered me is that the new intelligence chief refuses to admit that waterboarding is torture. Obama should think again about appointing someone such as that..
cheers, k hanly
Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
--- On Fri, 1/23/09, John Gulick <john_gulick at hotmail.com> wrote:
> From: John Gulick <john_gulick at hotmail.com>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Waterboarding etc.
> To: "lbo-talk" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Cc: john_gulick at hotmail.com
> Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 3:00 PM
> Ken Hanly says:
>
> At least Obama moved right away to close Guantanamo and
> stop the military tribunals
> and also to clearly disallow waterboarding and a number of
> other coercive techniques...
>
> JG replies:
>
> Jeez, Ken, why toss your hard-earned skepticism overboard
> now?
>
> Per usual, with his public statements (and now policy
> initiatives) aimed at hopeful liberals,
> this one was riddled with escape clauses, exemptions, fine
> print, and waivers, and weasel
> words.
>
> 1) Moving RIGHT AWAY to close Guantanamo... in ONE YEAR.
> You know, setting up
> a process to set up a proces to begin a process.
>
> 2) There is a strong possibility that special, draconian
> "national security courts" will be
> established inside the civilian legal system to try the
> Guantanamo detainees... that is, if
> they are to be tried at all. Some may be held indefinitely
> in stateside military brigs.
>
> 3) If I understand it correctly, the Army Field Manual may
> be revised to incorporate new
> "extreme interrogation techniques"... after a
> review process hidden from the public (at the
> behest of Obama's nominated national intelligence
> director).
>
> Also, did anyone notice that in his speech to State
> Department functionaries, Obama used
> the phrase "twilight struggle" to describe the
> "war on terror" (TM)? Yeah, I know, it's just
> words, but words cribbed straight from the neo-con Cold War
> playbook. Even from a self-
> interested point of view, it is really dumb for Obama to
> use such framing, because it just
> gives the right wing the ammunition it needs to fire away
> at Obama's piddly "reforms" (what
> do you call a reform so insignificant that it scarcely
> merits the title?).
>
>
>
>
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