Obama Coming Up Short on Civil Liberties

Is he delivering or not? That seems to be a dividing line right now among democrats and liberals. Is President Obama delivering on the change promised during the campaign? The answer to that depends in part on what you thought he meant by change. Other contributing factors to your view probably include the time frame he has had to operate in, the conditions of the media, the general lameness of the senate, and your own level of idealism versus pragmatism. For instance, i am not going to be satisfied with the end result of HCR, im not going to get the same choice members of congress get. democrats should stop saying that i will. Of course i really didnt have expectations that i would so i dont take that too hard. Civil Liberties on the other hand, i was really expecting better.

A diary currently on the rec list includes this,

President Obama's second core campaign promise was to make government more transparent and accountable, to rebuild a sacred trust that had been seriously eroded. And he has delivered. He closed the revolving door, forbidding anyone who works in his administration from lobbying when they leave their jobs. For the first time in history, names of visitors to the White House will be released, so every American can see which interests and individuals are visiting their government. And the groundbreaking website recovery.gov is allowing Americans to trace every dollar spent and every job created or saved from the recovery act, adding a level of transparency never before seen.

I think that this overstates the magnitude of the actions. I am however willing to grant that he has done some things to increase transparency in some areas. However our capital is generally the color of tar on a whole host of issues including the tarp money and many of the fed's practices. Let's not pretend that everything in washington is exposed to sunlight at this point. Lobbying still exists. Shady back room deals still happen. Beyond this stuff though i feel like part of this campaign promise of openness and sunlight was a reformed legal policy dealing with civil liberties.

There are several key aspects of civil liberties policy that i understood from candidate obama were going to be addressed. I dont think they are disputable. The first is the closure of Gitmo. Next is the end of the military commissions for trying terror suspects. Finally, the end of the extreme use of the state secrets privilege to toss out uncomfortable lawsuits that resulted from Bush Era abuses.

None of those things are happening nor do they look to happening any time soon. There seems to be some movement on DADT which is a policy that candidate Obama was in favor of repealing. It gets talked about without any action. The repeal of that program would most likely buy Obama more credit with those critical of him. Part of the problem is that he really doesnt have a great starting deposit. Almost immediately, he started off badly with the state secrets issue and the military commissions.

In early February, he had an opportunity to back up campaign rhetoric and make a break with Bush on state secrets.

Obama Administration Maintains Bush Position on 'Extraordinary Rendition' Lawsuit

The Obama Administration today announced that it would keep the same position as the Bush Administration in the lawsuit Mohamed et al v Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.

A source inside of the Ninth U.S. District Court tells ABC News that a representative of the Justice Department stood up to say that its position hasn't changed, that new administration stands behind arguments that previous administration made, with no ambiguity at all. The DOJ lawyer said the entire subject matter remains a state secret.

This is not going to please civil libertarians and human rights activists who had hoped the Obama administration would allow the lawsuit to proceed.

It hasnt improved with time either,

Attorney General Eric Holder says a lawsuit in San Francisco over warrantless wiretapping threatens to expose ongoing intelligence work and must be thrown out.

In making the argument, the Obama administration agreed with the Bush administration's position on the case but insists it came to the decision differently. A civil liberties group criticized the move Friday as a retreat from promises President Barack Obama made as a candidate.

Holder's effort to stop the lawsuit marks the first time the administration has tried to invoke the state secrets privilege under a new policy it launched last month designed to make such a legal argument more difficult.

In addition the administration took a hard line on the media shield law demanding that the national security arguments be removed from the balancing test used to determine if compulsion of sources is required.

President Obama has also declined to eliminate the military commission as an available forum for the trial of accused terror suspects.

Looking at the steps he has taken, the tinkering made, and the lack of action im not happy. I dont think president Obama is doing a good job here and i do not believe he is delivering on the change he offered in the campaign. I understand he has only had nine months but these are actions taken in the wrong direction not simple inaction. There is no argument that the President has lacked opportunity he has simply not delivered.

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Who needs rights anyway?

I often wonder if people who claim not to be bothered by the government spying on them 24/7 would hold those views if the government actually spied on them then threw them in prison without revealing that the evidence to do so was from the spying. I imagine that they would be rather unhappy to have that evidence, that could clear their name withheld. Too far-fetched? Not so.

A Congressional oversight panel plans to ask the National Security Agency to start an investigation into new evidence that the agency illegally wiretapped a Muslim scholar in Northern Virginia and concealed the eavesdropping during a 2005 trial in which the scholar was convicted on terrorism charges.
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Prosecutors described Mr. Timimi as the spiritual mentor to a group of young men in Northern Virginia who were convicted of giving material support in Kashmir to Lashkar-e-Taiba — the separatist group blamed by the Indian authorities for the recent attacks in Mumbai. Several of the Northern Virginia men had received paramilitary training in Pakistan, apparently at the urging of Mr. Timimi, but there was no evidence that they had taken part in any terrorist attacks.

Mr. Timimi’s lawyers maintain that the N.S.A., without acquiring court-approved warrants, used the eavesdropping operation approved by President Bush weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks to wiretap his communications, and that the interceptions might include evidence that would point to his innocence in what they regard as a free-speech case. They charge that the government has intentionally withheld that material despite repeated requests.

If this man is such a bad guy and the evidence was so strong what prevented the government from tapping the phone and going to the court afterward and getting the warrant? Why cut corners and taint evidence? The eavesdropping operation was actually put into place before Sept 11 but that's beside the point. The point is that this is simply lazy and an unnecessary infringement on our rights. It offends the basic tenants of justice.

The right to have the evidence that is going to be presented against you and the governments evidence that may exonerate you is essential in any fair and just judicial system. The Times article goes on to suggest that there is a strong chance that the government did in fact hold out on evidence of eavesdropping. This is serious misconduct on the governments part. It is this type of misconduct that leads to putting the bad guys back out on the street or preventing their trial. It hurts our country.

Cases like this one reinforce the need to fully explore the perfidy of the Bush admin and examine in depth everything that went on in regards to law enforcement and antiterror operations. The number of abuses will probably be legion. So far the most commonly advanced plan is for a commission that lets everyone know what went on but provides no actual consequences for those involved and lets us move on with no real pain or accountability. Even this though is a point of contention and will probably never happen because of dem spinelessness.

Some Democrats have called on Mr. Obama to establish an independent commission that would examine the wiretapping program, interrogation tactics used on prisoners, and other tactics used by the government in its campaign against terrorism since the 2001 attacks.

Republicans in Congress who support the N.S.A. program say that Democrats have been too eager to investigate issues that have long been resolved.

Nothing to see here. All in the past. The idea that these issues have long been resolved is a farce. I wish the times had actually gotten people on the record instead of simply hanging their hat on the generic "some demorats" and "republicans in congress". Names and actual quotes of these people. Law makers should not be giving anonymous quotes on this stuff, especially if they simply want to sweep it under the rug.

The point of the times article was to talk about the NSA Inspector General launching his own investigation into the matter. forgive me if im not overconfident in that report. I have never been a fan of the intra-agency investigation system. i prefer to have independent investigators to avoid any possible attempts by the agency to cover its misdeeds. independent investigation and actual prosecutions are the only way to prevent this from repeating the next time a president or intelligence agency is so inclined to violate the laws.

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