( – promoted by buhdydharma )
“This Betrayal of American Values Is Unnecessary”
With those words, on September 28, 2006, Senator Barack Obama concluded a speech on the floor of the US Senate in reaction to Senate passage of S. 3930, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, one of the most heinous and hated pieces of legislation ever put forward by the Bush Administration, which approved US torture of detainees and stripped Constitutional rights away from detainees.
Senator Obama decried the placement of politics over human rights, and rightfully condemned S. 3930.
“This is NOT how a serious Administration would approach the problem of terrorism,” thundered Senator Barack Obama last week on the floor of the US Senate, after it passed Bush Administration-supported S. 3930, Military Commissions Act of 2006, which approved US torture of detainees and stripped Constitutional rights away from detainees.
“And the sad part about all of this is that this betrayal of American values is unnecessary,” Senator Obama continued.
“We could’ve drafted a bipartisan, well-structured bill that provided adequate due process through the military courts, had an effective review process that would’ve prevented frivolous lawsuits being filed and kept lawyers from clogging our courts, but upheld the basic ideals that have made this country great.”
On November 04, 2008 Senator Obama was elected President of the United States, an election that was in large part repudiation of George Bush’s unholy tactics in prosecuting his “war on terror”.
Since the election Obama has begun putting together his administrative team of advisors.
His intelligence-transition team is led by former National Counterterrorism Center chief John Brennan and former CIA intelligence-analysis director Jami Miscik.
A Wall Street Journal article Tuesday, November 11, 2008 titled Intelligence Policy to Stay Largely Intact describes new developments in the evolution of Obama’s thinking since the election:
Former National Counterterrorism Center chief John Brennan, leader of Obama’s intelligence-transition team.Mr. Obama is being advised largely by a group of intelligence professionals, including some who have supported Republicans, and centrist former officials in the Clinton administration. They say he is likely to fill key intelligence posts with pragmatists.
“He’s going to take a very centrist approach to these issues,” said Roger Cressey, a former counterterrorism official in the Clinton and Bush administrations. “Whenever an administration swings too far on the spectrum left or right, we end up getting ourselves in big trouble.”
On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama criticized many of President George W. Bush’s counterterrorism policies. He condemned Mr. Bush for promoting “excessive secrecy, indefinite detention, warrantless wiretapping and ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ like simulated drowning that qualify as torture through any careful measure of the law or appeal to human decency.”
As a candidate, Mr. Obama said the CIA’s interrogation program should adhere to the same rules that apply to the military, which would prohibit the use of techniques such as waterboarding. He has also said the program should be investigated.
Yet he more recently voted for a White House-backed law to expand eavesdropping powers for the National Security Agency. Mr. Obama said he opposed providing legal immunity to telecommunications companies that aided warrantless surveillance, but ultimately voted for the bill, which included an immunity provision.
The new president could take a similar approach to revising the rules for CIA interrogations, said one current government official familiar with the transition. Upon review, Mr. Obama may decide he wants to keep the road open in certain cases for the CIA to use techniques not approved by the military, but with much greater oversight.
The intelligence-transition team is led by former National Counterterrorism Center chief John Brennan and former CIA intelligence-analysis director Jami Miscik
Brennan has to go
Hat tip to Armando/Big Tent Democrat @ TakLeft: Obama Transition Team “Clarifies” Position On Torture: He May Be For It
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Now that’s change you can fucking believe in…
be a critical story to follow.
From this article, I would just note that it is an unnamed source speculating on what Obama might do. If it was a named source, I’d give it a lot more weight. But I would think that there are all kinds of subterranean efforts going on to put pressure on the new administration. We need to remember the kind of unnamed “sources” that Judy Miller used and at least keep a skeptical eye open.
But ever since learning Rahm Emanuel is chief of staff, I have been speechless.
Your Lady Liberty says it all.
In the middle of the world wide Obamagasm, voices of dissent are lost in the winds of adulation. I had hope, for a day or two, but now with all the appointments pointing in the direction of more of the same, WTF is there to do?
In his first press conference, Emanuel didn’t even mention Iraq, just bi-partism, reconciliation, ad naseum; oh and all the feel good stuff of course, health care, economy, environment.
Do the Elites really have the power to turn him this fast or were we all taken for a long and (probably) fatal ride by the Great Orator? Did we all want to believe so badly that we decieved ourselves? I guess the question is moot.
We got what we got. At least there is no Palin standing in line.
at every rumor. I hope this is not the case, perhaps some of the people who are already in positions are included in this process because it is a transition team. He cannot do it all at once, it is a huge transition as these bastards have wormed their way into all segments of the federal government. Read this today which made me back off a little and anyway I’m burned out with outrage need to store it up for the real if needed.
Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Spokesperson Stephanie Cutter…..
The fact that disinformation is creeping out is not terribly surprising. With literally thousands of journalists attempting to ferret out snippets of news from what appears to be a highly disciplined and tight-lipped transition team, half-true rumors and innuendo can be easily magnified beyond their importance.
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…that doesn’t look good.
So, Obama won’t go to the G20 economic summit starting tomorrow. He doesn’t want to make it look like the US has 2 presidents at the same time.
He has appointed 2 members of his transition team to attend: Madeleine Albright and Jim Leach. Jim Leach,
Republican from Iowa, endorsed Obama before the DNC Convention. I guess that’s all it takes.
But I can’t forget that he is the Leach of the “Gramm, Leach, Bliley Act of 1999, the act which repealed the firewall protections of the 1933 Glass Steagall Act. That repeal made it possible for the financials to indulge in the orgy of greed which has destroyed and is destroying the economy.
Not a good sign, imo!
at it there are skeletons in every closet. Obama may need to keep these people on during transition in order to untangle the mess they have made. The bodies are buried all over and he needs their help to unearth them if nothing else. Heard a rumor that Rahmn will only serve two years and then wants to go back to the senate. HMMM maybe he need an asshole to help untangle and move them out….
actual appointments of people it sounds like will be setting the stage for what/how things get done. From TPM: Obama-Biden Transition Team Announces Agency Review Team Leads for Departments of Treasury, State and Defense.