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Observers of differing political stripes are stunned by how much of the Bush national security agenda is being adopted by this new Democratic government.
Victor Davis Hanson (National Review) offers a partial list:
"The Patriot Act, wiretaps, e-mail intercepts, military tribunals, Predator drone attacks, Iraq (i.e., slowing the withdrawal), Afghanistan (i.e., the surge) -- and now Guantanamo."
Jack Goldsmith (The New Republic) adds:
rendition -- turning over terrorists seized abroad to foreign countries; state secrets -- claiming them in court to quash legal proceedings on rendition and other erstwhile barbarisms; and the denial of habeas corpus -- to detainees in Afghanistan's Bagram prison, indistinguishable logically and morally from Guantanamo.
An unnamed and dismayed human rights advocate, on legalizing indefinite detention of alleged terrorists (in the New York Times, May 21):
"We were able to hold it off with George Bush. The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning."
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
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