The executive orders President Obama signed Thursday regarding the detention and interrogation of detainees in the War on Terror reflect an emerging Obama style: What is said is more rhetorical than illuminating—and what is most important is left unsaid.
Take Guantanamo Bay, the oft-maligned subject of the first order. In announcing the closure of the prison there, the president forcefully asserted that he was following through on a campaign commitment. But the order only promises that the facility will be closed within a year—a nonbinding deadline Obama could extend simply by signing another order. That’s not exactly the immediate shuttering his antiwar base was clamoring for, and such delay would be intolerable if Obama really believed Gitmo were the travesty he has portrayed it as.
Filed under: Analysis, Barack Obama, Diplomacy, Egypt, Foreign affairs, Foreign policy, France, Hamas, IAF, IDF, International, Israel, Israel Air Force, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, MidEast, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Terror, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, UK, World
A policeman and 15 civilians have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
It is a fundamental truth that while history always repeats itself, it almost never repeats itself precisely. There is always a measure of newness to events that allows otherwise intelligent people to repeat the mistakes of their forebears without looking completely ridiculous.
Israel’s invasion of Gaza has strengthened the hand of extremists and only a credible independent investigation into alleged wrongdoing can quiet growing Palestinian anger, a United Nations aid official said on Friday.
Kashmir, said Barack Obama just a few days before his presidential election victory, is “obviously a potential tar pit diplomatically”.
Ambassador of Israel Sallai Meridor made the following statement in response to news that the Obama administration has appointed Senator George Mitchell and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke as special envoys:
The political goals of Operation Cast Lead were not formulated until a few days after the fighting in Gaza began. Heading the list was a “stable cease-fire,” centering around an effort to prevent arms smuggling into the Strip. The logic was that the Israel Defense Forces operation would damage Hamas’ military capabilities, and that putting an end to the arms buildup would prevent renewed rocket fire into Israel. Senior policy-makers, whose decisions were instrumental in shaping the war in Gaza, say Israel succeeded in placing the smuggling issue on the international agenda after years in which it has been shunted to the sidelines. Now Israel has secured a commitment from the United States, Europe and Egypt to act against an arms buildup in Gaza.
Within hours of the president of Guinea’s death on December 22, the country was taken over by a military junta (AP) and the constitution was abandoned. Ghana held the second round of its presidential polls one week later. Analysts celebrated the lack of electoral violence and the peaceful post-election transition. “Africa needed a decent election in one of its leading countries-and a loser who would concede defeat,” noted the Economist following the voting in Ghana, where the opposition candidate was elected by a razor-thin margin. Is Ghana a hopeful example of a trend toward good governance in Africa, or is the continent more accurately represented by the political turmoil in Guinea?
In the political calculus driving Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, Iranian ambition has emerged as a critical–if not always clearly defined–variable. In Washington, President Bush has supported Israel’s strike as necessary self-defense, though some analysts believe an Israeli defeat by Iran-supported Hamas would embolden Tehran and weaken prospects for U.S. diplomacy in the region. And while Israel publicly stresses the need to tackle Hamas rocket fire, analysts, including CFR’s Steven A. Cook, note Israel’s desire to reassert its dominance following the disastrous 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Launching its attack in the final hours of the reliably pro-Israeli Bush administration, writes CFR Senior Fellow Michael Gerson in the Washington Post, is no coincidence, either.
The Terror Journal 
Recent Comments