Obama admin retains Bush position on rendition secrets

[Undertoad]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/us...er=rss&emc=rss

Originally Posted by NYTimes

In a closely watched case involving rendition and torture, a lawyer for the Obama administration seemed to surprise a panel of federal appeals judges on Monday by pressing ahead with an argument for preserving state secrets originally developed by the Bush administration.

In the case, Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian native, and four other detainees filed suit against a subsidiary of Boeing for arranging flights for the Bush administration’s "extraordinary rendition" program, in which terrorism suspects were secretly taken to other countries, where they say they were tortured. The Bush administration argued that the case should be dismissed because even discussing it in court could threaten national security and relations with other nations.

During the campaign, Mr. Obama harshly criticized the Bush administration’s treatment of detainees, and he has broken with that administration on questions like whether to keep open the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. But a government lawyer, Douglas N. Letter, made the same state-secrets argument on Monday, startling several judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

“Is there anything material that has happened” that might have caused the Justice Department to shift its views, asked Judge Mary M. Schroeder, an appointee of President Jimmy Carter, coyly referring to the recent election.

“No, your honor,” Mr. Letter replied.

Judge Schroeder asked, “The change in administration has no bearing?”

Once more, he said, “No, Your Honor.”

About 20th on the list of reasons why I voted for Obama: the Ds of the land need to see their leader using whatever tools are necessary to get the job done. When Bush did it they screamed bloody murder. Prosecute him, they screamed. What will they scream now?

And I always figured Obama's approach would change after he started getting the national intelligence reports. "Mr. President? Here is a list of the bad people out there, and here is what they want to do." "OK, let me change my underwear, and then let's do whatever we need to do to prevent this."

The ending of Guantanamo Bay as a resource for dealing with the assholes of the world makes rendition the only option. We can't take them to Cuba. We can't take them to the US. Fine, we'll take them to Egypt, and the public won't know a thing about it.

And if we get the wrong guy, well shit happens. And if Egypt tortures after they told us they wouldn't, well shit happens.