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Difficult Choices Await New President On Guantanamo, Intelligence Policies
wsj.com ^ | NOVEMBER 6, 2008 | JESS BRAVIN and SIOBHAN GORMAN

Posted on 11/05/2008 11:50:42 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe

As a senator and candidate, Mr. Obama voted and campaigned against some of the Bush administration's most aggressive surveillance, detention and interrogation policies, including the secret prison network run by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Obama administration will "take an immediate interest in what's actually going on there," said Prof. Laurence Tribe, who once taught Mr. Obama at Harvard Law School and now is among his legal advisers. "I'm certain that a rather bright light would be turned to Guantanamo right away."

Still, closing the offshore prison -- as Mr. Obama pledged to do -- will require a series of decisions on vexing issues such as the prisoners who have been approved for release, but whom no other country is willing to accept. ....

Mr. Obama has also supported increased oversight of the secret CIA detention program and efforts to restrict the CIA to interrogation techniques used by the military, which would prohibit waterboarding.

When it comes to domestic security, Mr. Obama has said he would end the Bush administration's preference for conducting surveillance outside of court oversight. He said he would ask his attorney general to conduct a comprehensive review of domestic surveillance and would appoint a senior adviser for domestic intelligence. ....

The American Civil Liberties Union has already assembled a proposal urging Mr. Obama to issue three executive orders on his first day on the job. The orders would close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, "cease and prohibit the use of torture and abuse" in CIA interrogations, and end the practice of sending detainees to countries that conduct harsher interrogations than are allowable under U.S. law.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: bho2008; gitmo
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1 posted on 11/05/2008 11:50:42 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe

BS - Democrat’s don’t make difficult choices anymore. They whine about the problems until it falls in their lap. Then they screw it up and blame Republicans.

And the best part is, the People buy right into it.


2 posted on 11/05/2008 11:53:25 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Democracy, two wolves and one sheep deciding what's for dinner.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

This is where my antennas go up. I see the word “difficult”, that means he has no clue what to do with this. However, can’t allow this water boarding to go on, so close Gitmo, give those prisoners without home countries a visa, some subsidy and let ‘em stay in Noo Yawk for as long as they want. Problem solved, right? Right?


3 posted on 11/05/2008 11:55:42 PM PST by bergmeid
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Hey WSJ, why didn’t you print this article BEFORE the election?

If Hussein had had to address Guantanamo during the debate he would have looked like a stuttering fool.


4 posted on 11/05/2008 11:56:20 PM PST by BigBobber
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To: Tailgunner Joe

No problem, the Mediascum and the Demagogues have just proved that they know how to be a lot tougher on “Joe the Plumber” than on any terrorists.

We don’t need any more counter-terrorism b/c they’ve found a better way to expend staff and resources.

No surveillance for terrorists but they can rake through every detail in JTP’s private life b/c it serves their partisan interests.


5 posted on 11/06/2008 12:09:59 AM PST by Enchante (Mediascum subjected Joe the Plumber to stuff we're not allowed to do to terrorists!!)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Actually this is going to be kind of fun. Too bad real people are involved... Obama got a free ride on the responsibility of keeping the country safe in the real world prior to the election. Now it in his lap and he can't simply say “present”. When he's forced to deal with reality as detailed by the security briefings coming his way his base, which is in la-la land, will get very angry with him for failing to undo anything Bush. He won't be able to satisfy both. And he's going to get the hard cold reality of people dying because of what he does and says. The times of the "peace dividend" that Clinton got to frolic through are long gone.
6 posted on 11/06/2008 12:21:23 AM PST by DB
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Laurence Tribe? Laurence Tribe is a legal adviser to Obama?

Dear God, help us.


7 posted on 11/06/2008 12:22:11 AM PST by Jezebelle (Our tax dollars are paying the ACLU to sue the Christ out of us.)
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To: BigBobber

Why didn’t McCain or one of the conservative talking heads bring it up? Why didn’t O’Reilly ask Obama about it? Hey! Why didn’t the MSM ask him about it?


8 posted on 11/06/2008 12:28:33 AM PST by Jezebelle (Our tax dollars are paying the ACLU to sue the Christ out of us.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Welcome to the new reality, moonbat country. God help us all. Pray for our troops.


9 posted on 11/06/2008 12:31:49 AM PST by gpapa
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To: Tailgunner Joe

They’ll all be offered teaching jobs at American universities where they can spend the rest of their days denouncing America and getting paid for it, just like terrorist Bill Ayers.


10 posted on 11/06/2008 12:47:30 AM PST by death2tyrants
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To: Jezebelle

McCain also pledged to close Guantanamo. There are problems associated with shutting it down but it is nowhere near worth the problems it has caused us.


11 posted on 11/06/2008 1:05:31 AM PST by MARTIAL MONK (I'm waiting for the POP! It's gonna be a BIG one.)
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To: Kickass Conservative
I saw 57 million Americans stand up to be counted on November 4.

They are the people who get it.

The rest of the people who live in our Republic are Sheeple.

Hell, several million of them are something straight out of Jonestown.

12 posted on 11/06/2008 1:05:45 AM PST by Prole (Please pray for the families of Chris and Channon. May God always watch over them.)
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To: MARTIAL MONK

Really? What problems has it caused us?


13 posted on 11/06/2008 1:07:11 AM PST by Jezebelle (Our tax dollars are paying the ACLU to sue the Christ out of us.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

He will have a couple of thorny issues. First, he will start getting REAL intelligence briefings, and he will see what we are up against, and how often GWB thwarted attacks against us. Second, he will know that if he screws that up, HE will be blamed for it, and rightly so. Maybe not by the MSM, but certainly by History and those who write it.


14 posted on 11/06/2008 1:12:47 AM PST by Republic of Texas (Socialism Always Fails)
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To: MARTIAL MONK

Hey, dufuss. What problems?

The left tried to destroy victory over terrorism.

troll.


15 posted on 11/06/2008 1:30:53 AM PST by ChiMark
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To: Jezebelle
The military doesn't want it. It gives them and the United States a blackeye all over the world.

The world, especially Europe, has focused on it as a symbol of abuses of human rights by this country. The stories and the image are false but that doesn't really matter, the world is set to believe them. It is far easier and more effective to dismantle the camp than to deal with inflamed opinion around the globe.

I can think of at least one other instance where this country did something, at the moment seemingly justified, which has engrained itself into the public psyche to the point that it affects individual and public perceptions of the United States here in this country and also in every classroom in every country of the world.

Care to hazard a guess what it was? Hint: Name the 3 great sins of this country and you will find it.

16 posted on 11/06/2008 1:31:59 AM PST by MARTIAL MONK (I'm waiting for the POP! It's gonna be a BIG one.)
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To: ChiMark
Peter Pace is a leftist?

Mike Mullen is a leftist?

Robert Gates is a leftist?

Or are you a moron?

17 posted on 11/06/2008 1:41:25 AM PST by MARTIAL MONK (I'm waiting for the POP! It's gonna be a BIG one.)
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To: Kickass Conservative

And, Man, they got the man for the job, didn’t they! I will tell them to go choke on their choice.


18 posted on 11/06/2008 1:51:36 AM PST by DooDahhhh (AMEN)
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To: MARTIAL MONK

Are you a Brit?


19 posted on 11/06/2008 2:01:20 AM PST by Jezebelle (Our tax dollars are paying the ACLU to sue the Christ out of us.)
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To: Jezebelle
Are you a Brit?

Hardly. American farm boy, gone to seed in the big city.

20 posted on 11/06/2008 2:06:13 AM PST by MARTIAL MONK (I'm waiting for the POP! It's gonna be a BIG one.)
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