Troubling signs from Obama’s Administration (ACLU Blog of Rights)

[chill_wind]

February 20th, 2009
Posted by Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 1:37 pm
Close Guantanamo, Government Secrecy, Torture & Abuse
Troubling signs from Obama’s Administration

On his first day in office, President Obama moved our nation miles ahead on the road to restoring its fundamental values by signing executive orders to close Guantanamo, halt the military commissions and end torture.

The ACLU, like millions of people the world over, cheered. The orders were an important first step toward restoring an America we can be proud of again. But we’re not there yet, and there are some troubling signs that can’t be ignored.

Upon close reading, the executive orders contained worrisome ambiguities. While they halted the military commissions, they left open the possibility of their revival in some form. They also banned torture but left open the future possibility for the CIA to use interrogation techniques not found in the Army Field Manual, the basis for legal interrogations by the military.

Knowing that our freshly minted president put together these orders with lightning speed, we took cautious note, but remained hopeful that once clarification came, so would reassurance.

This was not the first cause for concern. There had been others, like the retention of Defense Secretary Robert Gates. We couldn’t help but wonder whether the “new Gates” had experienced a Road to Damascus conversion and was capable of adopting the new president’s ideals. Our worries intensified when John Brennan was appointed Deputy National Security Adviser after being shot down for CIA Director because of his problematic civil liberties record. But while we took cautious note of these appointments, we decided to leave speculation aside.

Then came some increasingly troubling developments.

some highlights:

http://blog.aclu.org/2009/02/20/troubling-signs-from-obamas-administration/#more-4156

[Why Syzygy]

1. Any financial support I make

now goes to ACLU, and possibly DFA. I'm so done donating to *Democrats*.

[Occam Bandage]

2. Without concern, ACLU has no reason to exist.

Sure, Obama hasn't actually done anything bad yet, and in fact he's done plenty of great things for their agenda, but who would donate if they said the tea leaves all looked good?

[chill_wind]

4. Yeah. Cause no one should get paid for

defending the The Bill of Rights, The U.S. Constitution and victims of human Rights violations under The Geneva War Conventions. What with the government's great late record, and all.

[Occam Bandage]

7. I didn't say they shouldn't try to maximize their revenue. Of course they should.

At the same time, citizens should be aware that interest groups have it in their own interest to claim "ominous signs" in the absence of any actual bad news for their cause. Nobody donates if they see smooth sailing ahead, so every cloud must be seen a storm cloud if they want to stay viable. The ACLU has a valuable voice, to be sure, but at the same time it would be just as foolish to trust them implicitly as it would be to trust Obama implicitly. Everyone has their own self-promoting agenda; the trick is sorting that from the facts.

[liberalsince1968]

3. I am cutting Obama NO slack on this...either he very soon makes it UNAMBIGUOUSLY clear that

his administration will NOT tolerate torture in any way, shape or form and will be OPEN about it - or I cease to support him. It's that simple. I will NOT compromise on this issue. Obama is already a disappointment where this is concerned - how much worse is he going to get? And why would any liberal democrat support him in this? THAT is the question.

Thank God for the ACLU and Glenn Greenwald.

[Occam Bandage]

8. He has. "Hey, look, there might be some loopholes that might maybe let someone torture later"

is not the kind of thing over which anyone ought supply or reject their support.

My criteria on torture: Has he stopped it? Has he instituted safeguards to prevent its reappearance? Will those safeguards hold? The answers so far are yes, yes, and probably but it's too early to say for certain.

[Egnever]

5. Sorry but the ACLU lost all credibility with me with the FISA fiasco

The Boldfaced spin they put on that issue will leave me forever distrustful of them. I appreciate some of the things they do but it doesn't give them license to make things up.

Oh my they found loopholes in the legislation calling for an end to torture! Oh noes! that must mean Obama really thinks we should torture people right?

Fuck off ACLU!

[biopowertoday]

6. The ACLU is right to voice theses troubling issues.