Obama Gives GTMO One Year, Forces CIA to Follow Army Field Manual
Just now in a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, where red apples were displayed in a large bowl, Obama followed through with two of his campaign promises: He signed an order mandating that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be closed within a year. He also ordered that all agencies of Government (read: the CIA) abide by the interrogation rules prescribed by the Army Field Manual. "We believe that we can abide by a rule that says we don't torture," Obama said, surrounded by retired military leaders who opposed President Bush's enhanced interrogation techniques. "We are not -- as I said in the Inauguration -- going to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals."
UPDATE: At a background briefing happening now, a senior administration official explains that a task force will be set up to review the issue of extraordinary rendition, and also to review the possibility of developing a separate interrogation policy for intelligence agencies. The possibility of a separate interrogation policy for intelligence agencies was recently floated by Dianne Feinstein, the new Democratic head of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
FURTHER UPDATE: The official just made clear that any separate interrogation policy would not allow "different techniques" from the Army Field Manual. "We need a protocal that may be more appropriate for the intelligence scenario than for the battlefield scenario," the official said. "That doesn't mean reintroducing techniques that are inconsistent with the Army Field Manual." The briefing is still ongoing. Will update as appropriate.
ANOTHER UPDATE: While Obama studies the rendition policy, renditions may continue, the official says. But there will be limits. "There is not going to be rendition to any country that engages in torture," the official said.
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THANK YOU
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Adults in charge. Finally.
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Much much bigger story than the gotcha post earlier MS.
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Break out the polish. Let's put a little bit of the shine back on our principles.
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Did Joe Klein see this?
TICE: The National Security Agency had access to all Americans' communications — faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications. And it didn't matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made any foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications. […] But an organization that was collected on were U.S. news organizations and reporters and journalists.
OLBERMANN: To what purpose? I mean, is there a file somewhere full of every e-mail sent by all the reporters at the “New York Times?” Is there a recording somewhere of every conversation I had with my little nephew in upstate New York? Is it like that?
TICE: If it was involved in this specific avenue of collection, it would be everything. Yes. It would be everything.
Makes you wonder about John Kerry's 2004 campaign phone calls.
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Somewhere Joe Scarborough is pissing his pants.
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MS -- I can't help but wonder if your inclusion of the shiny red apples visual was less about providing us with context and more about an allusion to apples for the teacher whose lesson about our ideal allows us to once again hold our heads high.
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"Somewhere Joe Scarborough is pissing his pants."
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Joe is too busy trying to convince his viewers that no one really knows and Mika his lovely side kick is going..that's an issue is not written down any where. -
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Let's not start blowing each other just yet. As others have noted, the AFM has modified sufficiently to permit practices that, in the aggregate amount to torture. Don't get me wrong. A good message has been sent. But the devil is in the details.
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It's not luck we haven't been attacked since 9/11. Way to go appeaser in chief. Let the terrorists go, or at least lock em up in every libs back yard.
" Obama won, I want my mortgage and gas paid...where's my check"
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Didn't take the man long to start driving the truck out of the ditch, did it?
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Somewhere Joe Scarborough is pissing his pants.
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sg, that could be said about almost any time of the day. -
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It's not luck we haven't been attacked since 9/11
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Ah but we HAVE been attacked - details.
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Apparently Joe Scarborough isn't the only one with bladder control problems. -
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I read that Obama was also going to go back and expand what interrogation techniques will be allowed in the Army Field Manual. So while this is a good start, I am waiting to see if there will be changes made to the AFM and what those changes will be.
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chips --
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We haven't been attacked, unless you count insider attacks (anthrax) or if by "we" you omit the rest of the world, including Spain, London, Bali and Mumbai. Let's give this a try: living by our own values instead of those of terrorists and dictators. My guess is that no approach will be 100% effective, in which case I'd prefer the ones that leave us with some moral authority in the world. -
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ilikechips,
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Not torturing people is appeasement? I thought it was the law.
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Bush hasn't made us any safer. Between the war in Iraq and Gitmo, Bush has converted more people to terrorism than Osama Bin Laden could have ever hoped for in his wettest dreams.
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Independent investigation?
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http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/22/levin-torture-holder/ -
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Wait, does this mean 9/11 didn't change everything? Because I specifically remember that it did. Change everything.
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ilikechips
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You just keep on keeping on, I love your spunk! lol -
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While Obama studies the rendition policy, renditions may continue, the official says.
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It would seem that every opinion you have needs to be revisited once you have sufficient security clearance to know what's really been going on.... -
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chips (laughing and pointing)
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Paul D
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I don't recall Obama ever speaking out against rendition except in the cases where it was for torture(as we have all been reminded Clinton was the one who started renditions in the first place). And this quote is pretty consistent if you ask me.
."There is not going to be rendition to any country that engages in torture," the official said.
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Check out The Pips behind Gladys.
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Re the garbage post prior to this...will you be spending the rest of the afternoon transcribing RNC emails and talking points for future posts, or will you be busy writing a post about the NSA eavesdropping on journalists?
- michaelscherer My favorite newish piece of political rhetoric in Obama's speech today: "waxing political." Sort of like waxing lyrical, except not. - 4 hours ago
- michaelscherer RT @ron_fournier: Did he say 15 years? President Obama's exit strategy gets a Karzai twist: http://bit.ly/6Lm9Q5 - 4 hours ago
- michaelscherer Sketchy santas RT @aterkel: ha - http://bit.ly/5SFqaG - 8 hours ago
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