FYI - Obama's Counterterrorism speech starts @ 2:00 pm EDT - live link:

[ucrdem]

Next Up...

May 23, 2013 2:00 PM EDT

President Obama Speaks on Counterterrorism Policies

Washington, DC

http://www.whitehouse.gov/live

[Newest Reality]

1. Facepalming here!

I'll be looking forward to the counter-corporate speech and the counter-poverty one after that at 3:00 am while I am dreaming.

Then there will be the Fix Our Crumbling Infrastructure and Getting Wealthy People and Huge Corporations to Pay Their Share talks on the 32nd of May at 2:66 PM.

[ucrdem]

2. It's always better to hear it first hand.

That way, when you hear the spin, you'll know when you're being spun.

[Myrina]

3. Does anyone in this - or the previous admin - realize ....

... that keeping folks locked up at Gitmo for 10 years in some cases, with no official charges or trials, is extremely likely to create more real terrorists down the road?

These men - if/when they are released - or friends/family/defenders who are rightly pissed at what's been done to them?

[ucrdem]

5. I think they're fully aware that's a major miscarriage of justice

and all-around evil operation. As to whether released detainees will become terrorists: that might have been part of the original psychopathy, who knows, but I don't think there's any evidence that it's true.

The available evidence of torture victims released from other US facilities suggests that if they were economists or farmers when they were arrested that's what they will try to be when they're released, if there's any way they can. Some have hard feelings toward particular actors, others just want to forget the whole damn thing. As for becoming jihadists though, I personally haven't heard of it happening.

[cilla4progress]

4. Good way to

grab the news cycle, if ya know what I mean!

[ucrdem]

6. Fat chance.

But hope springs eternal.

[ucrdem]

7. Friendly reminder in case anyone' s interested

or isn't near a TV

[ucrdem]

8. heads up, he's on

[ucrdem]

9. Link: Text Of Obama’s Speech On Counterterrorism Policy As Prepared For Delivery

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/read-transcript-of-obamas-speech-on-counterterrorism-policy

[ucrdem]

10. BO calls for closure of Gitmo:

That’s why, over the last four years, my Administration has worked vigorously to establish a framework that governs our use of force against terrorists – insisting upon clear guidelines, oversight and accountability that is now codified in Presidential Policy Guidance that I signed yesterday.

[ucrdem]

11. BO renews calls for media shield law:

a free press is also essential for our democracy. I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.

Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs. Our focus must be on those who break the law. That is why I have called on Congress to pass a media shield law to guard against government over-reach. I have raised these issues with the Attorney General, who shares my concern. So he has agreed to review existing Department of Justice guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters, and will convene a group of media organizations to hear their concerns as part of that review. And I have directed the Attorney General to report back to me by July 12th.

[ucrdem]

12. BO says it's time to deep-six the AUMF:

All these issues remind us that the choices we make about war can impact – in sometimes unintended ways – the openness and freedom on which our way of life depends. And that is why I intend to engage Congress about the existing Authorization to Use Military Force, or AUMF, to determine how we can continue to fight terrorists without keeping America on a perpetual war-time footing.

The AUMF is now nearly twelve years old. The Afghan War is coming to an end. Core al Qaeda is a shell of its former self. Groups like AQAP must be dealt with, but in the years to come, not every collection of thugs that labels themselves al Qaeda will pose a credible threat to the United States. Unless we discipline our thinking and our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we don’t need to fight, or continue to grant Presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states. So I look forward to engaging Congress and the American people in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the AUMF’s mandate. And I will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further. Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. But this war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands.