the first line of the ABC news link you posted states the following, “President Barack Obama will sign three executive orders Thursday to close the detainee camp at the Guantanamo Bay military facility within a year and to establish new rules and guidelines on interrogation methods…” Posted exactly 387 days ago, January 21, 2009.

The executive orders signed by Obama more than a year ago have not established a fixed date for closing down Guantanamo, in fact, last May Congress rejected Obama’s authority to shut down the prison unilaterally.

http://www.juancole.com/2009/05/what-to-do-about-guantanamo.html

Despite continued international outcry, the issue seems to have disappeared from Obama’s national agenda. The point is, much like a definitive policy in Afghanistan (besides a Bush-esque escalation), a Middle East Peace agreement, or even a permanent ambassador to Syria, a solution to Guantanamo is simply one of the many rallying cries from the campaign that has fizzled out during the President’s first year in office. In my opinion I think that the president finds it easier to denounce Iran’s nuclear medical isotope project than work toward any sustainable reform at home… but maybe thats another discussion.

Kevin is correct to point out that Obama (and every other American citizen with a moral compass tuned slightly to the left of Atila the Hun) demanded that the Bush administration release photos of Abu Ghraib torture victims. I tip my hat to the junior senator of two and a half years ago. TODAY, Obama’s policy, as we saw in the justice dept’s recent statement to the ninth circuit court of appeals, is to hide behind the Bush administration’s policy of the “state secret exemption.” That is, to do everything in its power to forestall the release of court documents that could damage national security, including affidavits relating to torture cases or the CIA’s “extraordinary renditions” program.

And about the so-called reforms of the Army Field Manual that determines what IS and ISNT considered torture, Matthew Alexander of the Times wrote a short op ed a couple weeks ago that talks about the loopholes in the new Field Manual

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/opinion/21alexander.html?scp=1&sq=torture%E2%80%99s%20loopholes&st=cse

As Alexander points out, the current policies do not meet the Geneva Accords, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, or various statutes of international law. Check out some of Alexander’s examples of what passes for “humane treatment” of prisoners (for example, the loophole on sleep deprivation), then imagine those very prisoners who upon release file an ACLU suit against the US govt and are turned away because the location of the underground bunker in which they were kept in stress positions for twenty hours at a time is considered high level security information that could possibly hurt the US govt’s war on terror. Obama’s policies (or his callow approach to enforcing reform) allow this type of injustice.

I would ask you this Kevin, are things really “So drastically different. So completely different”…?

Here’s to Change We Can Believe in…

In the past, the US has “brought criminal charges against government officials who developed and implemented a program almost identical to the CIA’s extraordinary renditions program. Some of the authors of that system received the death sentence. Others got sentences in the range of 7 to 10 years imprisonment. That is to say, the crime is an extremely serious one. It is exempted from the application of statutes of limitation, and it is also a crime of universal jurisdiction, meaning that any nation may exercise criminal jurisdiction to prosecute the offenders.”

This is not about “state secrets.” Its about denying people due process to bring claims against their oppressors – I dont care if the “oppressing” happened in a Sahara prison or a basement in Zagreb, its a question of American salaried government workers torturing people… This is an absolute stain on our national consciousness. Ending torture and and prosecuting the people who allowed it was a campaign promise meant to rally the Left – it now stands as an example of a policy issue that the Obama has administration has sidelined for political expediency (see the recent silencing of prosecution against the perpetrators of the “Guatanamo suicides”)

I currently live in Damascus, Syria – part of, what, the Axis of Evil? – and I can say this: president Asad of Syria only wishes he had Obama’s lawyers to keep his torture victims quiet…

Here’s to Change We Can Believe in…

-Obama has ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison. The Bush adminisrtation opened it.

see: abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Terrorism/story?id=6693079&page=1

-Obama wanted to release photos of detainees abused throughout the Bush administration.

see:beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/story/obama_will_release_photos_of_abused_us_detainees…

-Obama has ordered the end to previously routine torture tactics.

see: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/136526.php

-After reading these articles, email for the next group.

Have you forgotten this quckly how things were? So drastically different. So completely different.

But as a white person I am ALWAYS “unburdened by the weight of history, statistics, or stigma”… and I should never, ever forget that.

Great writing. Thanks for keeping me honest. And thanks for your service.

i want to read your companion piece, ericka!