Comments on: Obama Writes Letter Opposing Inclusion of Graham-Lieberman in Supplemental

By: ChicagoTodd

ChicagoTodd — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:36:47 +0000

I am tired of the meme about putting our troops in danger. Obama is now using our troops as a political tool just the way the Bush Administration did. It is disgusting in the extreme.

By: pmorlan

pmorlan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:40:27 +0000

Wink, wink…we’ll back off for now but we’ll take care of it later, like we did with telecom immunity.

By: jussumbody

jussumbody — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:23:28 +0000

Not very encouraging about Obama’s and the Vichy Dems’ efforts to assume Bush’s mantle of torture, illegal spying, oppression, and constitutional asswiping. Droopy Dog must be wetting his chaps.

By: bonzo1958

bonzo1958 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:41:09 +0000

“NEW YORK — The U.S. government can keep pictures of detainee abuse secret while it asks the Supreme Court to permanently block release of the photographs on the grounds they could incite violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, a federal appeals court said Thursday.

The one-paragraph ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan came after the Obama administration asked the court to keep the pictures secret so it could appeal to the nation’s highest court.”
“House-Senate negotiators reached agreement late Thursday on a $105.9 billion wartime spending bill after last-minute assurances from President Barack Obama that he will use all his powers to prevent the disclosure of controversial photographs depicting the treatment of detainees held by the U.S. military.

http://www.politico.com/news/s.....tQZ&D
House-Senate negotiators reached agreement late Thursday on a $105.9 billion wartime spending bill after last-minute assurances from President Barack Obama that he will use all his powers to prevent the disclosure of controversial photographs depicting the treatment of detainees held by the U.S. military.

By: cdwriteme

cdwriteme — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:25:08 +0000

Sarcasm Ahead. I recommend we just let Liebermann teleconference to the senate from Tel Aviv. No need to keep up the charade and Joe’s gettin’ old anyway.

By: redfish

redfish — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:42:40 +0000

I wish you all would face reality. The photos will never, ever be released. Thank God Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel – two incredibly honest progressives who really do care about doing the right thing are running this show.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:43:54 +0000

Here’s another possibility to scare ya: Israel wants to nuke Iran and the M.E. peace talks break down, so they go ahead. If the photos enrage people enough to end peace talks then you would have to ask yourself if you felt in any way responsible.

Justice for Bushies can wait a bit.

By: Romberry

Romberry — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:31:27 +0000

I don’t know that the president’s statement here represents good news at all. The AP reports the story this way:

After a flare-up over controversial detainee abuse photos, House-Senate negotiators sealed agreement on a crucial war-funding bill Thursday night when President Barack Obama personally guaranteed the photos would never be released.

To reassure Democratic moderates who had balked at House demands that Congress not interfere in a lawsuit to force the release of photos of U.S. troops abusing detainees, Obama promised to use every available means to block their release. His powers include issuing an order to classify the photos, thus blocking their release under the Freedom of Information Act.

So we defeat the add on amendment and get the president’s personal guarantee that these photos will never see the light of day, apparently even if he has to resort to abuse of the classification system in order to do it.

Good thing there’s nothing particularly bad about these photos (which is sort of what the president said when he first flip-flopped on their release), otherwise the administration might actually be willing to go through some trouble to stop ‘em.

By: Jeff Kaye

Jeff Kaye — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:13:08 +0000

This is good news, but he waited for this:

Earlier today, the Second Circuit granted the Government’s motion that will stay the earlier court order to release the detainee photos, and we will now move forward with a petition to the Supreme Court to appeal the case.

So, if this hadn’t happened, would Obama have written the letter? Cynical politics, in my book. Still, if this legislation dies, that’s something (though fighting rear-guard actions is probably not what we thought we’d be doing in the Obama years).

By: Airpower

Airpower — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:30:24 +0000

We still need to keep pushing against both the IMF and the war funding.