WALL STREET JOURNAL– The Obama Administration this week released its predecessor’s post-9/11 legal memoranda in the name of “transparency,” producing another round of feel-good Bush criticism. Anyone interested in President Obama’s actual executive-power policies, however, should look at his position on warrantless wiretapping. Dick Cheney must be smiling. In a federal lawsuit, the Obama legal team is arguing that judges … Read More
RAW STORY– In a stunning departure from his rhetoric on Guantánamo Bay prison, President Barack Obama signaled Friday he will continue Bush Administration policy with regard to detainees held at a US airbase in Afghanistan, saying they have no right to challenge their detentions in US courts — and denying them legal status altogether. “This Court’s Order of January 22, … Read More
RAW STORY– In a brief filed Thursday evening, Obama Justice Department lawyers extended many of the same arguments made by Bush attorneys — that top government officials have qualified immunity from prosecution and that Guantanamo detainees do not have constitutional rights to due process. The Department of Justice has asserted that a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming the rights of Guantanamo … Read More
LA TIMES– The CIA’s secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba. But even while dismantling these programs, President Obama left intact an equally controversial counter-terrorism tool. Under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority … Read More
NATION– We should remember what it felt like one year ago, as the ability to recall it emotionally will pass and it is an emotional memory as much as anything else. It was a moment rare in a democracy’s history. The feeling was palpable–to supporters and opponents alike–that something important had happened. America had elected, the young candidate promised, a … Read More
