World-News

Agence France-Presse

05/28/09

US President Barack Obama’s record on changing the counter-terror policies of his predecessor has been ‘mixed,’ said a report by international human rights watchdog Amnesty International. ‘On counter-terrorism detention policies … the record of the new administration has been mixed,’ the rights group said in its annual report to be released on Thursday. Highlighting the ‘widespread expectation of change’ brought by Obama’s swearing-in in January following eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency, Amnesty said ‘early promise and initial important steps to redress violations have been followed by limited action’...

http://tinyurl.com/qsnmhw



War: What is it good for?

Reason
by Jacob Sullum

05/27/09

‘Apparently using the word war where terrorists are concerned is starting to feel a bit dated,’ former Vice President Dick Cheney complained in his speech at the American Enterprise Institute last week. Although he implied that the Obama administration showed weakness by using ‘euphemisms that suggest we’re no longer engaged in a war,; he added that ‘these are just words, and in the end it’s the policies that matter.’ But as President Obama showed in the speech he delivered the same day, he still clings to the language of war when discussing terrorism. Like his predecessor, he uses such rhetoric selectively, to justify departures from standard legal procedures when they prove to be inconvenient...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/133712.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Amnesty+International
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=terrorism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=anti-terror
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=counter-terror
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detention
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=what+change
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jacob+Sullum