The newest round of WikiLeaks revelations unearths troubling facts about the U.S. prison facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Operating for more than nine years now, the prison camp was originally said to be holding “the worst of the worst”—terrorists of the same moral plane and dangerousness as those who committed the attacks of 9/11….
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On virtually all the major civil liberties issues of the Bush era, the Obama administration has followed its predecessor’s example. Detention without trial has continued. Torturers will not be investigated. Warrantless surveillance of the citizenry goes on uninterrupted. What’s more, by vindicating these policies as a left-liberal Democrat, Obama has solidified them in American…
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I saw a huge new billboard in San Francisco the other day—part of the $350 million ad campaign supporting this year’s $14 billion Census—picturing an American Indian in full regalia against a black background, apparently in the process of worshiping the sky, with the stylized text “Tell your story.” If he’s wise, he might…
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There was a certain horrifying fascination to observe the speed and enthusiasm with which conservatives embraced the unprecedented growth of government power and size under George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11. A Crisis and Leviathan case study in the “ratchet-effect” of “crises” — documented brilliantly throughout by Bob Higgs and reprinted as…
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Obama loudly denounced Bush’s policy of “extraordinary renditioning,” whereby terror suspects were captured, transferred through secretive CIA sites, and delivered to foreign regimes — ones denounced by Bush et al. for their cruelty, like Syria and Egypt — where they were tortured. Maher Arar is among the highest-profile victims of this policy. A Canadian…
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In the flurry of the last several days we now know Obama is planning to maintain indefinite detention powers, even going further than Bush was willing to do openly. He is also perpetuating a slightly tweaked version of the Bush military commissions and is being harshly criticized by a U.S. district judge over his…
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Check out cartoonist Mark Fiore’s hilarious, new animated video on Obama’s support for the U.S. government’s “state secrets,” rendition and torture program, “Chains We Can Believe In.” Under a rule of law, individuals are presumed innocent until convicted of harming others, and America was founded on the natural law principles that every person has…
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Those who hoped the rise of Obama would signify a shift toward more respect for civil liberties must be disappointed about this: The new administration fully embraces the last administration’s stance on state secrets and foreign detainees in the war on terror. Rather than the “states secrets” privilege being introduced rarely and depending on…
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Key Bush advisers on Guantánamo have kept their positions, the AP reports. Among those “still overseeing how the Pentagon deals with terror captives” is a “senior judge who has not followed President Barack Obama’s order to halt military trials at Guantanamo Bay.” A new president and a new stated policy do not mean the…
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There are some definite shifts to the left in Obama’s governance, as well as some symbolic or even real gestures toward centrist pragmatism on issues like the environment and abortion. But the general thrust can broadly be seen as hyper-interventionist. Although some depredations under Obama have picked up their pace and some under Bush…
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