http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123448807524880329.html
President Obama has done a masterful job disguising his Administration's growing antiterror maturity, but this week produced further evidence that he is erring on the side of keeping the country safe rather than appeasing the political left. The Justice Department filed to dismiss a federal appeals case involving rendition, embracing an argument developed by . . . the Bush Administration.
In other words, the anti-antiterror lobby is being exposed as more radical than its putative banner carrier. As Mr. Obama is learning, the left's exertions to disarm the country's counterterrorism arsenal are as dangerous now as they were prior to his election.
In this closely watched case, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the flight-logistics outfit Jeppesen DataPlan in 2007 on behalf of Binyam Mohamed and four other Guantanamo detainees. The argument was that the Boeing subsidiary was complicit in arranging flights for rendition, a policy that transfers certain terror prisoners seized abroad to other countries for interrogation. Mohamed and his compatriots claim they are the victims of torture overseas.
The Bush Administration argued the case should be dismissed because open proceedings could damage national security by disclosing state secrets. A lower court agreed. Most everyone expected the Obama Justice Department to dump the secrecy line when the case came up for review before the left-leaning Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, apparently including the Ninth Circuit.
The Obama Administration says it will invoke the state secrets privilege more sparingly than its predecessor. But it is really admitting that lifting the hood on classified intelligence-gathering would let terrorists know what to expect, and to shift their operations to avoid detection. Perhaps the Obama team has also stumbled upon the larger game behind lawsuits like the one against Jeppesen -- which is to intimidate private companies into refusing to cooperate with the government on national security.
The left has failed to achieve its policy ambitions through Congress or by directly challenging the government in court. So the latest tactic is suing third parties such as Jeppesen -- note that the ACLU is not suing here to win Mohamed's release -- to hamstring the executive branch via the courts. These companies thought they were doing their patriotic duty by lending a hand.
Originally posted by generalissimoI think Obama's anti terror policy has less to do with "pleasing" anyone, and more to do with undermining terrorism using all available tools. The left wing in America, despite there good intentions, need to understand that some secrecy is necessary to make anti terror tools, such as spy activity, work. America's right wing needs to understand that America does not have the resources to police the entire world like Bush and Co. was trying to do, and that America must become less arrogent, and make a better effort to work with the world community in this area. Anti terror policy in America can be a difficult balancing act, one in which Obama seems to be doing well with. 😏
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123448807524880329.html
President Obama has done a masterful job disguising his Administration's growing antiterror maturity, but this week produced further evidence that he is erring on the side of keeping the country safe rather than appeasing the political left. The Justice Department filed to dismiss a federal app the courts. These companies thought they were doing their patriotic duty by lending a hand.
Originally posted by PinkFloydEvery administration since the Carter administration has been right wing conservative. The distinction between left and right in the US is completely artificial and has little bearing on actual politics.
There's a left all right: it's currently called the legislative and the executive branch of the US Government. The last true conservative in office here was Ronald Reagan.
Originally posted by SushillI don't think there's a problem with watching closely what Obama does, we should be critical from the very start, and the same should have been done with GWBush.
It is a good thing president Obama is already in office for ... how many days again? Jeez little Franco give the guy some slack!