Big Fat Story
US policy covering interrogations, rendition, and detention of suspected terrorists is mostly decided by executive order, and President Obama has made the most sweeping and immediate changes in these areas as a result. Within hours of taking office, he ordered a freeze on military trials in Guantanamo Bay, likely putting a permanent end to the tribunals that Bush put in place after 9/11 to try terror suspects. In an even more dramatic move the next day, he reversed years’ worth of Bush detainee policies, including those allowing the CIA to torture suspects and hide detainees in secret prisons, and ordered that Gitmo be closed within a year. Now comes the hard part—figuring out what to do with the infamous detention center's 245 prisoners, who will likely prove difficult to prosecute as well as tough to pass off to other countries.
Photo: T. McCoy, U.S. Navy / AP Photo
Package is already advancing in the House, but so are bank losses.
Obama's inaugural address struck some as a buzzkill, but it was certainly in line with the times. The economy is in yet another crisis as the financial institutions that power it threatens to fail en masse. Jobs are disappearing at rates unseen in modern history and all eyes are on Obama as to whether his promises to put Americans back to work are the real deal. In his first days in office, key components of Obama's $825 billion stimulus package advanced in the House in line with his plan to fast track the legislation and start spending money on "shovel ready" projects immediately. Meanwhile, the new rash of bank losses have forced the Obama team to get to work on a possible second round of bailout legislation in the hopes of freeing credit and pulling major financial institutions away from the edge of bankruptcy. Obama's speech frequently alluded to Franklin Roosevelt's Depression-era address—whether he will be judged in the same light as greats like FDR will depend largely on how he weathers the economic storm.
It was the centerpiece of Obama's campaign—a 16-month plan for US forces to leave Iraq. Now it's becoming a reality. The commander in chief met with top military leaders on Wednesday, including General David Petraeus, and laid out their new mission: end the war and bring the troops home. While Obama did not order them to immediately start the withdrawal, his national security team is now crafting a plan for exiting the conflict that they will present to the president for his approval. The president also ordered a comprehensive review of policy in Afghanistan, where he has said in the past that additional resources are needed to prevent the deteriorating situation there from becoming an Iraq-like collapse.
Photo: Jonathan Ernst / Getty Images
THE FIRST 100 HOURS
Forget 100 Days. By Saturday afternoon, Obama will have already hit his first milestone—100 hours in office. In a head-spinning week he closed Gitmo, fired up the stimulus package, worked the phones in the Middle East, and took an oath or two. But the problems are quickly mounting. By Benjamin Sarlin.
Overhauls for lobbying and transparency already scotched one appointment.
Obama's brief tenure as a lawmaker in Illinois and in Washington, DC was highlighted by his success in strengthening ethics laws in both legislatures. So it's probably not too surprising that the President's opening moves included sweeping changes to White House rules governing lobbying and transparency. In his first public act in office, Obama put a freeze on pay raises for White House staff making over $100,000 and banned anyone who serves in the administration from lobbying the executive branch for the entire duration of his presidency. The rules are so strict that they're already creating problems for Obama: one of his Pentagon appointees is now ineligible to serve. As for transparency, Obama reversed a Bush executive order that gave the president the ability block records from their time in the White House, opening up both the previous administration and Obama to new levels of scrutiny. Finally, he also issued a memo directing the executive branch to err on the side of the public in FOIA requests. The president's ethics talk is proving to be much more than loose campaign talk.
Photo: Charles Dharapak / AP Photo
It was a comical case of nerves at inauguration day when Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the wording of the presidential oath, causing himself and President Obama to stumble their way through the awkward swearing-in ceremony. Not too comical, however, as the President decided the situation was at least serious enough to merit another swearing-in the next day. "The bad news for the [reporters] is there's 12 more balls," he joked after taking the second oath. If there's one thing Obama learned on the campaign, it's that there's no end to conspiracy theory seeking nuts on the Internet, with the loony birth certificate crowd being Exhibit A. It was therefore probably best not to give them yet another opening with which to challenge his legitimacy ("He didn't take the oath right!") and put the whole issue to rest.
Photo: Pete Souza, White House, Rapport Press / Newscom
John McCain may have lost the election, but in a way he won a greater prize—not having to broker an Arab-Israeli peace deal. No such luck for Barack Obama, who called up Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and Jordan's King Abdullah on Wednesday "to communicate his commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term, and to express his hope for their continued cooperation and leadership," according to spokesman Robert Gibbs. Israel timed the end of its 22-day Gaza operation to coincide with the inauguration, leaving Obama to deal with the aftermath and help maintain a fledgling ceasefire while his predecessor. Bringing all sides together—including both Hamas and Fatah on the Palestinian side—and reaching a consensus should be the challenge of a lifetime for Obama's likely new Mideast envoy, former Senator George Mitchell.
Photo: Victor R. Caivano / AP Photo
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Lets close Gitmo before we even have a plan as to what to do with the terrorist's. Grrrrreat plan!! I say we load them up in a plane and fly it into a vacant building somewhere.
There are men in Guantanamo who have been found innocent even by the ridiculous court system in place there, innocent civilians who were captured by mistake and have now been held for as much as seven years. The number of innocent civilians is contestable (since there is no sanctioned system of trial there) but it numbers in the hundreds are not out of the question.
Before you get all excited about your charming little "kill 'em all" approach, why don't we take the startling approach of actually determining which of the detainees are guilty of terrorist acts?
How about sending the occupants of Gitmo to Crawford? Not much going on there now.
Let us hope that President Obama truely brings a even-handed approach to US mediation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, unlike every administration before him. A little fairness can go a long way in solving that problem.
motrbotr --
Regarding the Gitmo detainees.....the Bush bunch dropped flyers from airplanes over Afghanistan, offering monetary rewards for terror suspects. People were turning in their relatives and business competitors by the busload.
Many detainees don't have a clue why they're locked up, and neither do many of their jailers or military lawyers.
Do your homework before suggesting the wholesale mass murder of these forgotten souls.
Yes some are guilty, many are not.
That will be sorted out when we finally shine some light on that hell-hole.
nobozos, agreed.
For those who believe this order is akin to releasing terrorists in our small-town neighborhoods, keep in mind: the biggest mistake the administration could make right now would be to close the prison in a stupid, dangerous way. The political fallout from such a mistake would be devastating, perhaps even impeachable (fortunately, Roberts and Obama got the 'protect and defend' part of the oath correct.) The important thing will be to sort out what to do with each detainee, on an individual basis, and I am certain that everyone involved in this effort will be determined to get this right.
GITMO's not exactly "closed." Obama still hasn't dealt with where to move the dangerous detainees nor where they should be tried. And there is still the question of whether there will be exceptions to that CIA interrogation manual.
There was a reason for GITMO, and it hasn't gone away.
Gitmo was like getting arrested in Mexico in the early 70's and wondering if you would ever be heard of again.Hollywood has made many movies of American citizens in Thailand ,Turkey and any spot in the golden triangle good luck showing your passport and getting a call home...
More like eat your passport and claim being from Greenland or Canada..
Close Gitmo?
And you ask what do we do with the detainee's?
Well give this a thought, and also think about all the hardened criminals we already have in our US Prisons too.
Build a huge ass prison wall out in the middle of the California desert, place all detainee's and hardened criminals in there, give them each a knife and let them kill one another.
The last man standing put a bullet right in the middle of his forehead right between the eyes!
Problem solved!
Financial expenditures also resolved!
Bottom line, savings to the taxpayer!!!
Thank you.
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