[From http://www.marxmail.org/msg62061.html]
[Read the story below and you will see that the President really is on the verge of proposing totalitarian stuff, a US version of something like "banning" in apartheid-era South Africa, or the "ASBO's," anti-social banning orders, from Tony Blair's increasingly authoritarian Labour-governed Britain, or the ghastly treatment of human rights advocates in military-run Myanmar. It seems likely the Head of State is preparing to meet a period of increased social struggle in this country with even more social control and containment by the state. Obama combines a liberal's enthusiasm for state action with a strategy to pre-empt the Republicans by supporting lots of things the GOP likes, such as ever-expanding aggression overseas and increased repression in the US. In terms of attacking our rights, the law professor in the Oval Office is breaking new ground; somewhere Joe McCarthy must be smiling. -- YM]
[Read the story below and you will see that the President really is on the verge of proposing totalitarian stuff, a US version of something like "banning" in apartheid-era South Africa, or the "ASBO's," anti-social banning orders, from Tony Blair's increasingly authoritarian Labour-governed Britain, or the ghastly treatment of human rights advocates in military-run Myanmar. It seems likely the Head of State is preparing to meet a period of increased social struggle in this country with even more social control and containment by the state. Obama combines a liberal's enthusiasm for state action with a strategy to pre-empt the Republicans by supporting lots of things the GOP likes, such as ever-expanding aggression overseas and increased repression in the US. In terms of attacking our rights, the law professor in the Oval Office is breaking new ground; somewhere Joe McCarthy must be smiling. -- YM]
NY Times, May 21, 2009
Obama Is Said to Consider Preventive Detention Plan
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON — President Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a “preventive detention” system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried, two participants in the private session said....
The two participants, outsiders who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was intended to be off the record, said they left the meeting dismayed.
They said Mr. Obama told them he was thinking about “the long game” — how to establish a legal system that would endure for future presidents. He raised the issue of preventive detention himself, but made clear that he had not made a decision on it. Several senior White House officials did not respond to requests for comment on the outsiders’ accounts.
“He was almost ruminating over the need for statutory change to the laws so that we can deal with individuals who we can’t charge and detain,” one participant said. “We’ve known this is on the horizon for many years, but we were able to hold it off with George Bush. The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning.”
The other participant said Mr. Obama did not seem to be thinking about preventive detention for terrorism suspects now held at Guantánamo Bay, but rather for those captured in the future, in settings other than a legitimate battlefield like Afghanistan. “The issue is,” the participant said, “What are the options left open to a future president?” ...
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