Not that that’s a huge surprise, just that it’s nice to see him recognize the importance of being able to take interrogation a step further in a life-or-death scenario. You know, even if he did use the same policy to hit the Bush Administration and win the election over.
Simply amazing how quickly The One’s policies change when he’s hit by reality. Rhetoric is easy. Governing is a different ballgame.
For Obama, who repeatedly insisted during the 2008 presidential campaign and the transition period that “America doesn’t torture,” a classified loophole would allow him to back up his vow to end harsh interrogations while retaining a full range of presidential options in conducting the war against terrorism.
The proposed loophole, which could come in the form of a classified annex to the manual, would satisfy intelligence experts who fear that an outright ban of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques would limit the government in obtaining threat information that could save American lives. It would also preserve Obama’s flexibility to authorize any interrogation tactics he might deem necessary for national security.
However, such a move would frustrate Senate Democrats and human rights, retired military and religious groups that have pressed for a government-wide prohibition on methods they describe as torture…
“That would not be good,” said the Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. “We don’t need to be able to torture and we don’t need to engage in any interrogation techniques that are not humane. And unless we have absolute clarity that these interrogation techniques will not be used, they are not going to be able to say that.”
So he’s not really going to end the policy of enhanced interrogation; he’s just going to use it quietly. If he can manage to keep it under wraps from enough people, he can have the country believe the practice has been ended on his watch while he reaps the benefits its continuation provides. People will figure that the nation can be kept equally safe through the comfort-for-terrorist-first approach, though the secret continuation was really getting the job done.
Exit question: This makes Obama everything the left labeled Bush when he waterboarded terrorists, right? Fascist, war criminal, etc..
Exit answer: Of course not. Most of the “outrage” was really partisan-driven fauxrage. The problem wasn’t that the methods were being used, but rather that George Bush was the one using them. The One’s continuation will spawn nuances/apologies faster than you can say “hypocrite”.
It’s like change….but different.
17. January 2009 at 9:18 am
If a rich capitalist banker refuses to write subprime, nothing-down, no income check loans to borrowers with no credit, you can bet Obama will get out the water board in a Chicago minute.
Now that Obama has heard how effective water boarding is, you can bet his internal security force equal in size and equipment to the US military will also be well trained in the technique.
Infrastructure will include local water boarding facilities under Obama’s new constitution, the law of the proletariat.
Whether water boarding is good or not depends on who is doing it, obviously. Obama does it good, Dick Cheney does it bad. What could be more clear.