Greg Craig, the counsel to the president. At least that's assuming Wikipedia's correct...

I hope there are many more to follow.

Aughhhh!!

TERRORISTS!

EEeeeyahh! Yikes!!

TERRORISTS!

Shreik! Scream! Yelp! WAIL!

T E R R O R I S T S !!!!!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!! MOMMY!!!

I feel like I'm living in bizarro-America. Or perhaps it's just the America I remember from before we stepped through the looking glass of the 2000 elections and 9/11.

I hope all the trolls and doubters who felt that Obama was a secret (or not-so-secret) neocon, Manchurian-candidate-type empty suit, are paying attention here. Many more changes to come...

And no, I don't expect that everything will change, or even nearly as much as I'd like and the country needs. But this is a great big, fat, fresh start, in an area that had almost begun to feel like a fait accompli.

Also apparently on Jan 21, Obama signed an executive order rescinding Bush's EO #13233!

#13233 was an order signed in November of 2001 to limit access to presidential papers - you know, the ususal BushDick proposal of clandestine secrecy.

The order Obama signed yesterday rescinds that piece of crap and apparently directs whomever to "...establish policies and procedures governing the assertion of executive privilege by incumbent and former Presidents in connection with the release of Presidential records by the National Archives..."

I heard it it here, first, the sweet news of the failure of more BushDick failure: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/1/22/124536/107/885/687626

Wait a minute...did you read this from this story: "The prison camp at Guantánamo won't close for a year, and Obama's orders said the government would 'review' what to do with detainees it can't transfer to other countries or prosecute in regular or military courts, leaving an out that could lead to yet more tribunals outside the normal rule of law. 'If there is evidence to suggest that a detainee is very dangerous, and there is reason to be concerned that he would be a danger to United States citizens if he was released ... but there is not evidence that would be admissible in a court of law that you could use to prosecute,' then detainees might be shunted off to some other system, said a senior administration official "!!!

What!? Do you think we are stupid?????!!!!! What the f--k does that mean?! You nimrods who chear this clearly are not really thinking or reading or anything. You just THINK Obama did something bold. Bull-shit. He just drove it all UNDERGROUND. You wanted to cut Bush's balls off and are chearing this baloney??!!! Where are your brains?

Some "other system", where on planet Mongo? More like the Sudan. As I always said, Obama is the same as Bush because Bush's terror policy works, period. Obmaa is not stupid but YOU are if you think anything has changed.

You just won't HEAR about it...shhh....

While Obama's executive decision is laudable to close Guatanamo and other secret detention sites, ending the use of torture (at least officially) by the U.S., there are still serious missing elements to this action. One, an admission of culpability and wrongdoing (that usually goes with a sincere apology to those who have been wronged), and two, prosecution of war crimes by those in the outgoing administration in authorizing and pursuing these policies.

And what about Diego Garcia? Are we finally going to get an investigation of conditions there? We cannot close this hideous chapter in U.S. history until we have full disclosure of the "secret" detention and torture sites.

I agree with Mike Madsen in questioning the ability of a U.S. president, merely with the simple stroke of a pen, to open and close illegal detention centers that have suspended basic human rights, the right to habeus corpus, the right to be treated with dignity, etc., all the rights in the Geneva accord that the U.S. is a signatory to, incidentally.

I'd like to take this a step further to see true justice carried out and a return to a more sane civilization, and that would be to interview all of the prisoners who have been held at Guatanamo Bay, Diego Garcia, prisons in Iraq, etc., and get them to tell their stories of how it felt to have these rights denied to them and concerning the abuses that they have suffered and what they think should be done in the way of reparations, and who they think should be prosecuted, and what might possibly help them put their lives back together again. Their thoughts and feelings could be published on a website created for this purpose or compiled in book form.

Then we might see some real healing and a process of reconciliation begin. To even consider keeping these people incarcerated any longer in order to protect the security interests of the U.S. is to further perpetrate these heinious crimes. It doesn't matter whether they are detained in a U.S. facility or in another country's that is cooperating with the U.S. to further detain these prisoners without a trial.

I have a deep burning anger at what my country has done to the people who have been wrongfully imprisoned and tortured. My anger is so great at all the Americans who carried out their lives as though torture was business as normal, all the Americans who I could not spur to action on this issue, all the media who would write an expose and then drop it, all the politicians in both the U.S. and U.K. who looked the other way and never answered my letters, all the human rights agencies who were so ineffective in doing anything about this, all the heads of governments of other countries who failed to speak their outrage, all the people who kept quiet even though they knew this was happening, all the people who failed to do anything to stop these people from languishing in U.S. prisons and detention centers, being tortured and deprived of their rights.

My anger is so great that I feel like a volcano ready to explore over this issue.

It's time to clean house! Let's sweep out everything from the dark corners so that we may truly bring about the change that is needed to end terrorism and create a more loving, safe world for everyone. Let's stop this insanity! It must stop. President Obama has made a start, but it is not enough, not by a long shot.