Obama Administration Maintains Bush Position on 'Extraordinary Rendition' Lawsuit

>These are LIVES we are talking. Law goes out the window when we are talking about portecting lives.

No, it doesn't. Law is what we USE to protect lives. What we know as Al Qaeda began in Egypt with the followers of Sayyed Qutb, including Ayman Zawahiri. They became radicalised and violent because the Egyptian government used torture to suppress them, because the government didn't respect human rights and the rule of law.

Your ancestors believed that abstractions like freedom and the rights of the individual were worth more than their lives. That these rights were worth dying for. And they did die for them, in the Revolution and the Civil War and in WWII, and because of their belief in those abstractions your life is relatively safe, and relatively free.

Some of the things being kept secret in these cases probably do relate to actual operations which could be endangered by the release of information, but I suspect that many of them are simply things that would reveal wrongdoing or otherwise embarrass the state. There needs to be more oversight of what should and should not be kept secret by people and bodies who are impartial and have no motive to protect the government or its agents from embarrassment or prosecution.

Sammy, do you not understand the concept of national security?

If you want to risk your families life in order to heed an abstraction, so be it. But for me, I'll crush you, the ACLU or anyone else who tries to impose ridiculous constraints in a time of war. These are LIVES we are talking. Law goes out the window when we are talking about portecting lives.

every one is talking now. Tow very important things. We who stood behind our president. Stand up, make the change. To pur new Attorney General.. watch it out. Have a plan for the change. We all face difficult change.. we all have to undestand how the change has to come from all of us.

Is it any surprise that Bush's secrets will remain secret? Wake up everyone, it's a closed door society and being the victim of illegal wiretapping myself due to having knowledge of Cheney, Bush and Abramoff you really wouldn't want to expose the CIA's dirty little secrets of illicit drug running which by the way the Clinton's participated in. Not to mention Fox News stake in it all.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"

-- Thomas Jefferson

The day is coming.

It could be funny, but it is actually very sad, to see how american people suddenly get concerned about torture and illegal actions in other countries.
It has been happening during many, many years. Most of the times with the support and intervention of US government, to protect or promote the "american way of life" and their business.
What is not legal in U.S.A. could be legal in others countries ?. What about the reasons that make it illegal in U.S.A.? That is not being a good neighbor!.
It is nothing new. And wonders why so many people are against U.S.A. in the world ?.
American people are good people, have good feelings and hearts. But lives in a bubble, don't know anything about the actual world and others countries, as long their home is safe.
Your country is managed not by politicians but by business men, so you could only get some minor changes. Something must be change so nothing really changes.
I once believe that U.S.A was drove by principles but I am starting to think that U.S.A. actions are driven by pure power, because they can and want it no matter if legal or not.

Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.

"Ask John McCain if torture works, it does."

Actually, if you ask John McCain if torture works, he'll tell you that it scarred him for life and made him admit he was an "air pirate." He'll tell you that it broke him, and made him say whatever his interrogators wanted to hear. Not the truth, mind you - what his interrogators WANTED TO HEAR. That's why every civilized nation rules out torture as a method of gaining information - not because it "isn't nice" but because it isn't EFFECTIVE.

The worst part of this is that it places the Executive Branch above all judicial review. This principle was first tried in 1953 and was given deference by the courts because it was so seldom used. 90% of the use since then was by the Bush administration. It is a shame to see this unbridled misuse of executive power exerted within three weeks of taking office.

What's the big deal about secrecy? The facts of the case have been reported widely and adjudicated in Swedish courts.

Indeed, Robert.

It's *amazing* how serious the mainstream media has suddenly started taking national security! All this time Bush had the same policy, yet they said the worst things about him!

I guess poor Dubya just had the bad luck to be C-in-C before everyone found out how important and fragile national security was! Some people have all the luck!

And Obama is a moron, this is becoming quite evident!

RT

You all miss the point. This man was INNOCENT. He was taken by mistaken identity. There is no point in taking and torturing an INNOCENT man. He is trying to get heard about what happened to him, but what happened to him has been declared a STATE SECRET and NATIONAL SECURITY. that is a smoke-screen - to protect the US Government from being 'outed' about what types of practices it will conduct on innocent people. Remember - this innocent man's experience can be YOURS if you post the wrong comment here. Unless we put the Bush administration through the wringer, hold the hearings, conduct the law review and determine if what they did was legal, justified and appropriate given the circumstances. It was determined that given similar or more dire conditions during WWII, that FDR acted inappropriately when he interned thousands of Japanese-AMericans for reasons of 'national security'

Joe D. is right. And thank you for your service to your country Joe. There are still some REAL Americans out there like me that appreciate everything you do in protecting our country against these radical idiots. Just wait until the car bombs start going off in New York, Dallas, Los Angeles and then see what these nuts say about renditions and tortue. They have no idea that we are fighting a group of people who will not stop until there ideology is running the world.

Obama doesn't know how to act on anything. He's putting all his "faith" on his appointees. This stimulus IS spending and pork. Jobs??? Well what if you are not in IT, construction, law enforcement or teacher? What about jobs for millions of administrative people, nurses, etc. that are laid off? And, $1000 per family and $500 per individual is going to "Jump start" the economy? I don't think so. All he did last night was "campaigning" and repeating the last 8 years and what went wrong. He is good at that, pointing blame but I never heard WHAT he was going to do??? He also seemed to "select" his news media last night. Only 13 in 1 hour! Come on people, where is the change. I heard this morning the world market is very jittery and I haven't seen the market make any drastic jumps to help the economy either.

The issue here is the difference between Barack Obama the Senator, and Barack Obama the President of the United States. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the days before Obama took office; the days when he was informed of the issues relating to the most vital and national security matters. I do not know about the rest of you, but I was watching the press pics of Obama closely, and I do believe that if you were a careful observer, one could see the man change before our eyes.

The issue of his position in this particular matter relates more to the real weight and burden of being the President than it does to what all of us think we might really want to happen or that might be right or wrong. The bottom line is, Obama now realizes that there is much more at stake now than just campaign issues, and if the man really has integrity toward protecting the country to the best of his ability, then he will do what has to be done; regardless of what the press, the courts, the ACLU, or anyone else thinks. When he does, he will change again before our eyes, just like George W. Bush did, and just like all the other Presidents that were before him. He will age from the weight of the burden, he will lose that generous vigor that he displayed during the campaign, he will endure for the betterment of the country, rather than just for the betterment of political gain.

All lies. Nothing has changed. 9/11 was an inside job to get the American people to allow the military industrial complex to create conflict where there was no REAL conflict. So your MIC companies could fleece the tax payers out of trill ons of dollars. Same as the oil cartel is fleecing the world. This along with all the criminals in the financial banks and wall street gang have bought the world economy to where it is today.

The American People need to wake up.

The American People need to know the truth.

The American People need to tell the government to stop all the bull.

It is probley too late.

END GAME

It is OVER.

Can it be Saved?

Can Obama change the game?

How have they threaten Obama?

Who are they?

I know who they are.

Not all their plans have worked out as planned lately.

There is now an openning to save yourselves from them.

One last chance.

Do you even realize how they have brain washed you?

Wake Up!

As long as we play by their rules we're OK. They WANT us to play by our rules which are weak and insufficient to do the job. Ask John McCain if torture works, it does. If you would really trade one American "free thinker" s life for a brainwashed terrorists life, you might be a martyr, but you'd be no christian soldier for the right all and I means ALL religious beliefs rights.

Point of Fact in response to: "Not sure I'd put it like that, hyena, but
Obama was elected Commander in Chief, not Lawyer in Chief
- his responsibilities are for our national security."

Obama's (and every single President's) inaugural oath was to defend the United States Constitution. He can't just choose to ignore the law of the land because of the rather absurd logic that he wasn't elected to be a lawyer.

What is it when your country men have trubles maybe they should just put
a t.v camera on the enemy combantant's
an strap a phentanol patch an see how long it takes them to tell the world how bad they been and hate life.

Thats alot cheaper then safe housed vacations maybe we should just pour them mojitos and see what they got to say your right.

After all the stuff you need to know is probily in a little book.

there was once a day We didn't provide quarter or trial for combantant's they should be proud that they lived an had the discipline to survive rightously.

"The ACLU says the Obama administration reneged on civil liberties, offers "more of the same.""

HA! The bloom is coming off the rose...

Thanks to ABC for this reporting.