"It's smart change, dangerously overdue."

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/22/AR2009052201894.html?sub=AR

Obama's 'None Of the Above' Terror Policy

By Ruth Marcus
Sunday, May 24, 2009

snip//

Indeed, the president's stumbles have been more in the execution than in policy. He risked (and lost) a congressional vote on funding to close the Guantanamo Bay prison before laying the necessary groundwork. He resisted (but only after seeming to open the door to) forming an independent commission to examine interrogation policies; this could have avoided the current distracting drip-drip-drip of information about who knew what when about waterboarding and whether it worked. He was for releasing the photos of detainee abuse before he was against it.

On the merits, though, Obama has mostly called it right. My disagreements concern, in the scheme of things, relatively minor issues -- the reaffirmation of a broad state secrets privilege and the about-face on releasing the photos -- and these are judgment calls the president made on the basis of more information, by definition, than the rest of us have.

Some of the issues that Obama dealt with in his thoughtful speech on Thursday -- how to handle closing Guantanamo, whether to release memos or photographs of abuse -- were messes left for him by the Bush administration. For example, Guantanamo would have been a perfect place to hold detainees and avoid the current outbreak of not-in-my-backyardism were it not for the fact that the Bush administration chose the base not for its remoteness but for its -- or so it thought -- lawlessness.

Had the Bush administration put in place basic elements of due process and fairness from the start, had it not been so determined to exalt executive power at the expense of coequal branches, Guantanamo would not be the toxic symbol it has become. Had the Bush administration not tainted evidence with its "enhanced interrogation techniques," perhaps more detainees -- and the most dangerous of them -- could be tried and convicted.

snip//

More important, where Bush resisted any encroachments on executive power, Obama welcomes sharing power and responsibility. "Our goal is not to avoid a legitimate legal framework. In our constitutional system, prolonged detention should not be the decision of any one man," he said. "If and when we determine that the United States must hold individuals to keep them from carrying out an act of war, we will do so within a system that involves judicial and congressional oversight."

That's not glitzy rhetoric cloaking the same old policy. It's smart change, dangerously overdue.

[lostnotforgotten]

1. Is It "Smart Change" For Mr. "O" To Ignore The Constitution And Not Prosecute For Torture?

eom

[babylonsister]

2. OK. You tell me.

When Holder gets the green light to go after these thugs, what will you bitch about next?

[lostnotforgotten]

4. Last Week We Learned That Mr. "O" Said Explicitly That That would Not Happen

Seems the decision has been made. Holder's hands are tied.

[babylonsister]

5. Oh, goody, so you can complain til infinity!!1!

I think Senator Whitehouse and others might have other ideas. The fat lady hasn't sung. And luckily, President Obama does have a habit of weighing things, listening to opinions, and even occasionally changing his mind.

I hope you're proved wrong.

And PS, ultimately, it's not the president's decision. Executive vs. judiciary? You might want to keep that in mind.

[bvar22]

7. Ultimately, it IS the decision of the Executive Branch (White House).

The "judiciary" can NOT prosecute.
Neither can Congress.

[Usrename]

16. He could close Gitmo if he wants to.

If your dog made a mess in your livingroom, would you wait a year to begin cleaning it up? It's beyond being an embarassment, it's a disgrace.

I don't know why he wants to continue with the Bush agenda. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. He doesn't even seem to notice that anything is wrong.

[Vincardog]

6. Mr Holder does not need the green light to go after these thugs The LAW gives him the responsibility

[bvar22]

8. In THEORY, that is how it is supposed to work, but

...do you really believe that Holder will "go after" the Torturers and War Criminals without Obama's approval?

The longer the White House delays appointing an Independent Prosecutor, the more it looks like they are protecting Torturers and War Criminals.

[Vincardog]

11. Check: The longer the White House delays appointing an Independent Prosecutor, the more

they are protecting Torturers and War Criminals.
The belief that DOJ works for the President is part of the problem with the illegal dim son's mis-administration. Do you want to continue that fallacy?

[bvar22]

12. NO.

Like the ACLU, I would prefer the appointment of a legitimate Independent Prosecutor.
Let the chips fall where they may.
THAT is how our system is supposed to work.

[truedelphi]

14. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly!

The law gives Holder and Obama by proxie, the responsibility!

[BeFree]

3. Of course not

But the fat lady hasn't sung yet, has she?

Instead what we see is the Cheney singing. Think of all this as American Idol. And soon enough people get to vote for who they want to listen to as the show goes on.

'Course they voted in the preliminary round, and guess who's in the lead?

[Honeycombe8]

9. Okay, now, Mr. Grumpy. This post was meant to be positive, I think.

Now post something positive. We've seen enuf of your posts being negative. You DO support the current administration in SOMETHING don't you? Anything at all?

[CreekDog]

13. Mr. O?

why should i even take you seriously?

[Cha]

15. You shouldn't. Their

insults beg for attention but not substance.

[Phx_Dem]

18. Your statement shows clearly that you have no idea what you're talking

about or what President Obama is doing with regards to Gitmo or torture. Here's a thought. Read and learn.

And what's with all the quotations? "O?" Lame.

[Honeycombe8]

10. There has been a change in direction in most areas. The big ship is turning.

As O said, this is not a speed boat.

The big ship is turning to go in a different direction. It may not go in a totally opposite direction on all issues, but it's IS opposite on some issues, and maybe 90 degrees on others. But we're headed in a different direction, for certain.

[jeanpalmer]

17. Most of these issues

like torture are just symptoms of the larger problem that grips our country -- militarism. Until we have a president who's willing to confront that disease head on, we'll keep having the symptoms.

Obama had a chance to move us in that direction, by ending the wars and start the defunding of the MIC. That would have been a bold act that would have represented real change. And it would have set us on the right course. But he has chosen not to do that.