Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
l. As for terrorism, Obama certainly wasn't following the Bush playbook.
-spence
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ThinkProgress Sept. 2011
Ex-CIA Lawyer: Obama Has Changed ‘Virtually Nothing’ From Bush’s Counter-Terror Policies | The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a report yesterday on the erosion of civil liberties in the post-9/11 era, which concluded that the Obama administration has continued many of the controversial policies of the Bush administration. Covering the ACLU report, the progressive radio show Democracy Now! interviewed former top Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) lawyer John Rizzo. The Obama administration had changed “virtually nothing with respect to existing CIA programs and operations,” Rizzo said. “Authorities were continued that were originally granted by President Bush beginning shortly after 9/11. Those were all picked up, reviewed and endorsed by the Obama administration.”
Progressive News Daily
August 26, 2011
Obama’s Illegal Assaults
How once-controversial ‘war on terror’ tactics became the new normal
BY Glenn Greenwald
Barack Obama has continued virtually all of George W. Bush and #^&#^&#^&#^& Cheney’s once-controversial terrorism and civil liberties policies, a fact now recognized across the political spectrum. Even the right wing acknowledges these policies have continued under the Obama presidency, which is interesting, because for decades Republicans have made political hay by accusing Democrats of being weak on national security (or “soft on terrorism” in this age of terror).
This premise that the Obama administration has reversed the terror policies is wrong. The new administration has copied most of the Bush program, has expanded some of it and has narrowed only a bit.
All of the Obama changes have been at the level of packaging, argumentation, symbol and rhetoric. -Jack Goldsmith