[1]As a candidate Barack Obama created a terrible box for himseslf. He could placate his leftard base and abandon an effective war on terror, or he could placate his base, and thus imperil both the nation’s safety and his own re-elections prospects. At least this once, Obama has opted for national security, and Glenn Greenwald, Salon [2], is pissed:
For those interested, I wrote many times in the past about the origins of the State Secrets Privilege and how the Bush administration’s abuse of it (endorsed by the Obama DOJ today) has been so severe and destructive — see, for instance, here and here. And see this excellent comment from DCLaw1, explaining yet another reason why the Obama administration’s decision today is such a substantial setback for the cause of restoring our Constitutional framework.
Get used to it Glenn. While BO is a fool, he not a total moron.
“The change in administration has no bearing?” she asked.
“No, your honor,” he said once more. The position he was taking in court on behalf of the government had been “thoroughly vetted with the appropriate officials within the new administration,” and “these are the authorized positions,” he said.
As a candidate, BO described each and every Bush policy as “failed.” Yet as President, BO now finds it appropriate to continue many of these policies. Honesty, is not Obama’s strong suit.