[Peace-discuss] Greenwald on Obama

[E. Wayne Johnson]

C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> What are you compelled to, by this?
compassion.
>
> "...Obama's ... devotion, first and foremost, to perpetuating rather 
> than challenging how the Washington establishment functions...
>
> "...Obama ... stated that he will not close Guantanamo in the first 
> 100 days of his presidency ... [and that we] need some new system -- 
> most likely a so-called new 'national security court' -- that 
> 'relaxes' due process safeguards so that we can continue to imprison 
> people indefinitely even though we're unable to obtain an actual 
> conviction in an actual court of law.
>
> "...Obama ... does not want to pursue prosecutions for high-level 
> lawbreakers in the Bush administration...
>
> "...Obama ... can't very well place someone in a high-ranking position 
> who explicitly advocates rendition and enhanced interrogation tactics 
> and then simultaneously lead the way in criminally investigating those 
> who authorized those same tactics."
>
> --Glenn Greenwald <http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/11-11>
>
>
> Brussel wrote:
>> Glen Greenwald notes, compellingly,
>>
>> …I've been saying since the election that it makes little sense to 
>> try to
>> guess what Obama is going to do until he actually does it.   That's 
>> especially true now, since we'll all have the actual evidence very 
>> shortly,
>> and trying to guess by divining the predictive meaning of his 
>> appointments or
>> prior statements seems fruitless.  Moreover, anonymous reports about 
>> what
>> Obama is "likely" to do are particularly unreliable. I still believe 
>> that,
>> but Obama's interview today with George Stephanopoulos provides the most
>> compelling -- and most alarming -- evidence yet that all of the 
>> "centrist"
>> and "post-partisan" chatter from Obama's supporters will mean what it
>> typically means:  devotion, first and foremost, to perpetuating 
>> rather than
>> challenging how the Washington establishment functions.
>>
>> As Talk Left's Jeralyn Merritt documents, Obama today rather clearly 
>> stated
>> that he will not close Guantanamo in the first 100 days of his 
>> presidency.
>> He recited the standard Jack Goldsmith/Brookings Institution 
>> condescending
>> excuse that closing Guantanamo is "more difficult than people realize."
>> Specifically, Obama argued, we cannot release detainees whom we're 
>> unable to
>> convict in a court of law because the evidence against them is 
>> "tainted" as a
>> result of our having tortured them, and therefore need some new 
>> system --
>> most likely a so-called new "national security court" -- that 
>> "relaxes" due
>> process safeguards so that we can continue to imprison people 
>> indefinitely
>> even though we're unable to obtain an actual conviction in an actual 
>> court of
>>  law.
>>
>> Worst of all, Obama (in response to Stephanopoulos' asking him about 
>> the number one highest-voted question on Change.gov, first submitted 
>> by Bob Fertik) all but said that he does not want to pursue 
>> prosecutions for high-level lawbreakers in the Bush administration, 
>> twice repeating the standard Beltway mantra that "we need to look 
>> forward as opposed to looking
>> backwards" and "my instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure 
>> that
>> moving forward we are doing the right thing."  Obama didn't 
>> categorically
>> rule out prosecutions -- he paid passing lip service to the pretty 
>> idea that
>> "nobody is above the law," implied Eric Holder would have some role 
>> in making
>> these decisions, and said "we're going to be looking at past 
>> practices" --
>> but he clearly intended to convey his emphatic view that he opposes
>> "past-looking" investigations.  In the U.S., high political officials 
>> aren't
>> investigated, let alone held accountable, for lawbreaking, and that 
>> is rather
>> clearly something Obama has no intention of changing.
>>
>> In fairness, Obama has long made clear that this is the approach he 
>> intends
>> to take to governing.  After all, this is someone who, upon arriving 
>> in the
>> Senate, sought out Joe Lieberman as his mentor, supported Lieberman 
>> over Ned
>> Lamont in the primary, campaigned for Blue Dogs against progressive
>> challengers, and has long paid homage to the Beltway centrism and
>> post-partisan religion.  And you can't very well place someone in a
>> high-ranking position who explicitly advocates rendition and enhanced
>> interrogation tactics and then simultaneously lead the way in criminally
>> investigating those who authorized those same tactics.
>>
>> So Obama can't be fairly criticized for hiding his devotion to this 
>> approach.
>> But whatever else one wants to say about it, one cannot call it 
>> "new."  This
>> is what Democrats have been told for decades they must do and they've 
>> spent
>> decades enthusiastically complying.
>>
>>
>> © 2009 Salon.com
>>
>> Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights 
>> litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times 
>> Bestselling
>> book "How Would a Patriot Act?," a critique of the Bush 
>> administration's use
>> of executive power, released in May 2006. His second book, "A Tragic 
>> Legacy",
>> examines the Bush 
>> legacy._______________________________________________ Peace-discuss 
>> mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net 
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