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roachboy · 01-22-2009, 05:08 PM

the guardian thinks that smell comes from torching the bush people's "war on terror"...

Quote:

Obama shuts network of CIA 'ghost prisons'
• Rendition and torture to be barred
• Terror fight 'must not breach ideals'

* Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
* The Guardian, Friday 23 January 2009

Barack Obama embarked on the wholesale deconstruction of George Bush's war on terror, shutting down the CIA's secret prison network, banning torture and rendition, and calling for a new set of rules for detainees.

"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," the order from Obama said.

The president's decision to shut down the CIA's clandestine interrogation centres, or "black sites", went far beyond the widely anticipated move to wind down the Guantánamo Bay detention centre.

Obama carried on his demolition of the legal apparatus Bush set up for al-Qaida suspects by outlawing waterboarding and other coercive interrogation methods, and banning rendition.

The president, who surrounded himself with retired military officers in the White House signing ceremony, said his decision to scrap the Bush legal apparatus would improve America's national security and enhance its standing in the world.

"The message that we are sending the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly and we are going to do so effectively and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals," Obama said.

In a sign of the sweeping rejection of the legal standards set by Bush officials, officials briefing reporters at the White House yesterday said the new administration would not be guided by any of the opinions on torture and detainees issued by the Bush justice department after 9/11.

Instead, Obama renewed America's commitment to the Geneva convention on the treatment of detainees. All detainees would be registered by the International Committee for the Red Cross, in another departure of past practice under the Bush administration.

The orders from Obama brought a largely positive reaction from human rights organisations, military officers and the intelligence community.

A group of 16 retired admirals and generals, in a meeting organised by Human Rights First, said the move would restore America's moral authority in the world, and strengthen its national security. "President Obama has rejected the false choice between national security and our ideals. Our nation will be stronger for it," the former military officials said.

As expected, Obama made good on his campaign promise to shut down Guantánamo, issuing an executive order to close the camp within the year.

Obama instructed the attorney general, the secretaries of defence, state, homeland security and intelligence officials to review the intelligence and information on each detainee and to determine whether they can be transferred to their home countries for release, or put on trial. He also called for a review on the treatment of the estimated 245 prisoners at Guantánamo to be completed within 30 days.

The second executive order renews America's commitment to the Geneva convention on the treatment of detainees. It compels the CIA and other agencies to follow the US army field manual on interrogations, which bars such techniques as waterboarding.

Obama also directed a taskforce to study and report back within 180 days on whether new guidelines were required for intelligence officials, beyond those set down by the military.

However, the administration official was adamant that the review was not intended as a back door to reinstate torture. "There is not a secret annexe that allows us to bring enhanced interrogation techniques back," the official said.

The final order mandates a review of the case of Ali Saleh Khalah al-Marri, a Qatari, who is the only so-called enemy combatant held on US soil. He has been held since December 2001 in a naval brig in Charleston, South Carolina.

Obama shuts network of CIA 'ghost prisons' | World news | The Guardian

there's a shift with reference to israel and palestine, but it's not yet obvious how much of one--enough to torch the bush "policy" of total acqueiscence to the israeli right, but not enough to quite make sense at this point.

bit by bit, what the bush administration did not set on fire itself is being set on fire.

but that doesn't resolve much about the debacle they left behind.