After campaigning for a number of years now, many activists will be taking delight in the first executive order signed by the newly inauguarated President Obama.
His first executive order was no less than to set in place the closing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within one year, a prison that has been known as the bastion and symbol of the Bush era’s war on terror. It embodied a poor outworking of justice with people being held for long periods with no charges brought against them. It embodied a shift in interrogation methods towards CIA devised torture as opposed to methods outlined in the Army field manual, another isue covered in one of the first three executive orders where President Obama stated this:
“We believe that the Army field manual reflects the best judgment of our military, that we can abide by a rule that says we don’t torture, but that we can still effectively obtain the intelligence that we need”
“This is me following through … on an understanding that dates back to our founding fathers, that we are willing to observe core standards of conduct not just when it’s easy but also when it’s hard.”
For many, including the innocent people subjected to the methods used at Gauntanamo, this has been a long time coming. Amnesty UK has been following the events closely and have been keeping people abreast of the events as they unfold via their Twitter updates.
Note: You can follow the Humanitarian Chronicle on Twitter here.
The closing of Guantanamo represents America once again aligning itself with internationally recognised codes of conduct such as the Geneva Conventions. For this reason, Senator John McCain, President Obama’s opponent in the election race, supported the orders.
As someone who abhors the use of torture as a means to obtain information and as someone who believes that all people deserve a fair trial through due legal process no matter who they are, I support the signing of these executive orders.
The following video shows the very moment the order to close Guantanamo was signed.
The source of the video is www.politico.com, a site where the actions of the new President can followed for the first 100 days.
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He’s sending some pretty good signals first up, eh? Superb.
Yes. I would be lying if I didn’t say I was a happy man with the efforts put forward towwards a shift in direction in foreign policy in only his first few days
He seems to be keeping a level head around the Middle East as well, signally strong diplomacy and putting in place seasoned negotiators with a lot of experience in the area.
Time will tell…
I loved what he said about the fact that they can fight terror without compromising their moral standing. Pretty ironic that people percieved Bush as the more “Christian” of the two and yet Obama is the one making these kinds of changes.
I watched the inaugaration day stuff on TV3 and I though one thing was telling. Carly Flynn, interupting an American guest, said, “Sorry to interupt you, but our president is about to take the podium… I’m sorry, I mean YOUR president.”
It was an honest slip-up but I thought it summed up the general feeling around the world towards the guy. Lot’s of good will.
…Of course, he could always be the antichrist.
.
If someone has to be, it might as well be Obama
I know your only joking, but since you brought it up, here’s a quote from Lance Lambert:
“…if you look at history, you will discover that out of great times of uproar, turmoil, confusion and shaking, great tyrants, great dictators, changes of the whole structure of society have arisen. Adolf Hitler came out of the uproar and turmoil of the Vimar Republic. He would never have had a chance but for that terrible time of shaking, uproar and turmoil. If
you take Mussolini, he only arose in Italy out of the same uproar, and the same trouble. Take Franko of Spain; the same thing, he came out of it. Take Lenin in Russia, he came out of a time of unparalleled shaking for the Czarist Empire, the Russian Empire at that time. Take Mao Tse-Tung. He came out of the turmoil and corruption in Nationalist China. It is interesting to observe all of this. In my estimation, the anti-Christ will in the end come out of this turmoil. I hear Barack Obama hailed as “a messiah,” “a
messiah of the world,” I’ve heard him described as. I’ve heard Gordon Brown described (I do not think he accepts the title) as the “saviour of the world.” It is interesting that the world is in the condition where it is
looking for some super-human being with the solution to the problems. Financial, economic, political, social, religious. I think that this explains very much the situation that we are now in.”
Obviously President Obama is not the antichrist, but the global atmosphere is certainly interesting.
Quoting Lance Lambert… seriously? I guess I wasn’t the only one who was joking
… though the observation that tyrannical leaders have risen amongst turmoil is true, as have great leaders.
Ugh. I’ve heard a handful of Christians say outright they think Obama may be the antichrist. I’ve heard many more hint at it… the fact that it is “interesting” that he has a Jewish and a Muslim name…
Seriously?
I would have voted for him.