Obama Orders Closure of CIA’s Secret Prisons
January 23rd, 2009When I read Obama’s executive order to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, I just laughed the thing off as window dressing on a network of an unknown number of secret CIA prisons and torture facilities. In short, I felt that it was so ridiculous that I didn’t even bother mentioning it.
Now, however, we have another executive order, ENSURING LAWFUL INTERROGATIONS, which includes the following:
Sec. 4. Prohibition of Certain Detention Facilities, and Red Cross Access to Detained Individuals.
(a) CIA Detention. The CIA shall close as expeditiously as possible any detention facilities that it currently operates and shall not operate any such detention facility in the future.
(b) International Committee of the Red Cross Access to Detained Individuals. All departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall provide the International Committee of the Red Cross with notification of, and timely access to, any individual detained in any armed conflict in the custody or under the effective control of an officer, employee, or other agent of the United States Government or detained within a facility owned, operated, or controlled by a department or agency of the United States Government, consistent with Department of Defense regulations and policies.
Don’t get me wrong, don’t put words in my mouth, don’t get too happy, BUT, this is a very big deal. This is a substantive, positive development.
Now, the tendency of people in desperate situations is to think that any positive development means that the crisis is over, nothing more to see here, let’s go buy a new iPod, etc. This is what the Obama Cult is doing now. Obviously, that’s dumb. I must, however, acknowledge substantive positive developments when they occur. Since I expected no substantially positive developments out of the Obama regime at all, this is a welcome development, and after just a couple of days.
Of course, Obama’s spy choice won’t call waterboarding torture, but… look, at a minimum the latest executive order is something I definitely wasn’t expecting.
Like trading, however, one countertrend crank doesn’t mean a reversal of the larger trend. Maybe the Obama regime will require much more sophisticated analysis and discernment than the familiar one-way, race-to-the-bottom paradigm of the Bush era (which covers the years from 1981 to the first couple of weeks of 2009, in my opinion). This will make my work much more interesting, which I welcome.
The fact that even I see this as a noteworthy positive development should be an indication of just how far off the rails the U.S. has gone. WooHoo! The U.S. is closing its secret torture facilities! WooHoo! Yes, it’s good news. But the much more disturbing issue remains the fact that it was allowed to happen in the first place, when it was obviously the work of Machiavellian people who were mostly despised. If no resistance was offered under those circumstances, what would the new regime be able to accomplish for the dark side with Obama’s cult of personality status and the sycophantic Hollywood myth makers practically experiencing glossolalia over the prospect of serving it???
Holy shit. I don’t want to think about it.
Here’s my question: why even bother keeping them open anymore? Hardly any of them matter anymore, do they? And any that do are still hidden.
I think this is a liberal Democrat feel-good, throw-away concession. Whether Obama knows it or not…
Even if this is just a honeymoon-kiss-on-the-cheek, it is a curiously pleasant sensation to see something fundamentally and substantively positive happen for just once. I certainly can’t imagine either of the Clintons doing something along these lines were they in same position with the same circumstances.
Here’s another question: How effective is torture as a means of gathering intelligence? I’m under the impression that it’s not actually that effective (although I’m happy for someone to prove otherwise). Maybe Obama is under the same impression though, maybe he thinks there are better ways to spend his intelligence dollars.
I see it as a potential win-win-win situation for Obama. Save the world from torture, get great PR, AND get better intelligence.
It’s a win, but an obvious one that will keep his (obama’s) own ass out of jail in the long run. It is a crime, in us law as well as international law, to torture and deny the red cross access. As Obama was a lawyer specializing in the constitution (I believe) I’m sure he is well aware of that (whether bush/cheney ever get prosecuted is another matter).
The area which I will be judging his performance on is universal health care. I believe this is the solution to the us financial woes as well, take health care expenses of the books of us companies and you have instantly improved all their balance sheets in a very substantial way. Since the gov. owns aig, we should mandate that they will be the new insurance of all health care in america.
Will this happen? My guess is of course no. It’s my running hypothesis that the only issues which the dems and repubs divide themselves on is health care for the dems, and abortion (morality plays) for the repubs. Neither party will ever deliver on the goods because to do so would eliminate their reason to exist. The repubs. had 8 years to ban abortion, never touched it. The last dem. to take on health care was hillary, and her handling of it made sure we haven’t talked about it again since.
As always I hope I’m wrong but I doubt we will see a universal plan out of obama. If he does pass one, he will have my life long support. I will drink the Kool-aid!
Sorry about the long rant..good day all.
@ Aaron:
Torture isn’t really about extracting information. If somebody did those things to me, I’m sure I would tell them whatever I was under the impression they wanted to hear, and I would do so even if I knew jack-squat in terms of useful information. No, torture is about breaking the spirits and wills of the individuals the torturer has in captivity and instilling fear in potential captives. Aspiring to such goals, however, can also seriously backfire on those who employ torture.
@ scarletfire:
If the new administration attempts to enact some form of universal health-care coverage, it won’t be a single-payer system. Reading Obama’s own campaign literature from his website would have told you that. At this point, it seems unlikely that the Federal Government or the state governments could afford putting a single-payer system into place anyway.
Loveandlight,
Of course your correct, the egyptian god that is obama wants to insure the children first, add to the insurance rolls that all ready exist. I was trying to state what would win me over to the obama cult, and even doing what his campaign proposed would help (maybe- I’m not sure working with the ins. companies is the way to go) but unlikely to pass for the reason you state, lack of money. (Which is the reason they will use)
I think the tarp and fed action with the banks shows there is money to be had, just that the money will be used incorrectly in trying to shore up the banks (which will fail regardless) when universal health care would shore up all businesses (and individuals) that have health care costs. Besides being,imho, the moral and economically more efficient thing to do. Our current system is incredibly expensive while delivering sub standard care, mostly to profit the health insurance companies (who then mismanage the money).
Cryptogon praising a sitting American President? Surely, a sigh of the end-times! 😉
My 2cents: best case scenario, Obama might actually be what his Democratic fan-base has been claiming all along: someone who knows that going “full-frontal” against the bad guys is political suicide — not to mention extremely ineffective in the current political climate — and has instead has crafted a strategy of “pick your battles, and placate your enemies as you prepare for your next battle”. A stealth-warrior instead of an overt warrior, if you will. For me the real test will be in foreign policy, and from what he’s said, he’s pretty much completely on board with the permanent occupation of Afghanistan, which is obviously about geopolitical positioning and not the “cover story” of terrorism. 🙁
In any case, I will try and cheer the good things he does, without forgetting how far to the Right we’ve come in the last 8…28…58 years.
oops, of course that should have read “sign of the end-times”… or should it…? 😀