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Obama tackles drones, Guantanamo in reset of war on terror
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama Thursday laid out new guidelines for drone strikes and launched a new bid to close Guantanamo Bay, warning that a perpetual US war on terror would be self defeating.
Obama told Americans their country was at a crossroads, and must move on from the counter-terrorism policies deployed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to confront a new era of diverse global threats and homegrown radicals.
He argued that the idea of using military might in a boundless war everywhere that radicalism took root, be it in Pakistan or Arab Spring nations or Somalia, was now obsolete.
A perpetual war through drones or special forces or troop deployments will prove self-defeating, and alter our country in troubling ways, he said, seeking to shape his second term and own political legacy in a major speech.
We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us, Obama said, warning that some post 9/11 tactics like enhanced interrogation of terror suspects had compromised our basic values.
But Obama also mounted a firm defense of his covert drone war as legal and just and the best way to confront terrorism plots against Americans, though warned that undisciplined use of the tactic would invite abuses of power.
He said he had signed a new policy directive codifying guidelines for the use of US drone strikes because to say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance.
The guidelines state that drone attacks can only be used to prevent imminent attacks and when the capture of a suspect is not feasible and if there is a near certainty that civilians will not be killed.
The rules would follow the same criteria as those used for attacks on US citizens who have aligned themselves with foreign terror groups.
Such criteria, however, would still give the administration wide discretion to use a covert strategy condemned by some rights groups and civil libertarians.
On Wednesday, the administration admitted for the first time that it had killed Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011 and three other US citizens also died in anti-terror strikes abroad.
Obama, in the speech at the National Defense University, said that he would be haunted for the rest of his life by the deaths of civilians in strikes he had ordered but had no choice but to act when Americans were at risk.
But he said his policies had been successful in neutralizing the threat of action from core Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan, though cautioned the raid that killed Osama bin Laden was too risky to become the norm.
Obama also signaled a major new effort to close the Guantanamo Bay camp for terror suspects in Cuba, which he billed as harmful to US interests, too expensive and a relic of a past age of counterterrorism tactics.
He pledged to lift a personal moratorium on transferring Guantanamo Bay inmates to unstable Yemen and promised to appoint a senior envoy to work in the State Department and Pentagon to oversee transfers. Yemen welcomed the announcements.
He also called on the Pentagon to designate a site on US soil to hold military tribunals for terror suspects now at Guantanamo Bay, and said Congress must now drop efforts to thwart his closure plans.
I know the politics are hard. But history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of us who fail to end it, Obama said.
Obama offered no solution for inmates deemed too dangerous for release but who cannot be tried because evidence against them was obtained through coercion and may not be admissible in court.
As he addressed Guantanamo, Obama was repeatedly heckled by Medea Benjamin, leader of the Code Pink anti-war group, who shouted : You are commander in chief. You can close Guantanamo today!
Obama, though irked by the interruption, said that such passion showed the need for transparency: These are tough issues and the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong.
He also called on Congress to amend the legal authorization for US anti-terror operations, adopted in the shocked aftermath of the September 11 attacks, saying it did not reflect the evolved threat.
Not every collection of thugs that label themselves Al-Qaeda will pose a credible threat to the United States, he said.
Unless we discipline our thinking and our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we dont need to fight.
Obama tackles drones, Guantanamo in reset of war on terror | Defense News | defensenews.com
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama Thursday laid out new guidelines for drone strikes and launched a new bid to close Guantanamo Bay, warning that a perpetual US war on terror would be self defeating.
Obama told Americans their country was at a crossroads, and must move on from the counter-terrorism policies deployed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to confront a new era of diverse global threats and homegrown radicals.
He argued that the idea of using military might in a boundless war everywhere that radicalism took root, be it in Pakistan or Arab Spring nations or Somalia, was now obsolete.
A perpetual war through drones or special forces or troop deployments will prove self-defeating, and alter our country in troubling ways, he said, seeking to shape his second term and own political legacy in a major speech.
We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us, Obama said, warning that some post 9/11 tactics like enhanced interrogation of terror suspects had compromised our basic values.
But Obama also mounted a firm defense of his covert drone war as legal and just and the best way to confront terrorism plots against Americans, though warned that undisciplined use of the tactic would invite abuses of power.
He said he had signed a new policy directive codifying guidelines for the use of US drone strikes because to say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance.
The guidelines state that drone attacks can only be used to prevent imminent attacks and when the capture of a suspect is not feasible and if there is a near certainty that civilians will not be killed.
The rules would follow the same criteria as those used for attacks on US citizens who have aligned themselves with foreign terror groups.
Such criteria, however, would still give the administration wide discretion to use a covert strategy condemned by some rights groups and civil libertarians.
On Wednesday, the administration admitted for the first time that it had killed Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011 and three other US citizens also died in anti-terror strikes abroad.
Obama, in the speech at the National Defense University, said that he would be haunted for the rest of his life by the deaths of civilians in strikes he had ordered but had no choice but to act when Americans were at risk.
But he said his policies had been successful in neutralizing the threat of action from core Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan, though cautioned the raid that killed Osama bin Laden was too risky to become the norm.
Obama also signaled a major new effort to close the Guantanamo Bay camp for terror suspects in Cuba, which he billed as harmful to US interests, too expensive and a relic of a past age of counterterrorism tactics.
He pledged to lift a personal moratorium on transferring Guantanamo Bay inmates to unstable Yemen and promised to appoint a senior envoy to work in the State Department and Pentagon to oversee transfers. Yemen welcomed the announcements.
He also called on the Pentagon to designate a site on US soil to hold military tribunals for terror suspects now at Guantanamo Bay, and said Congress must now drop efforts to thwart his closure plans.
I know the politics are hard. But history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of us who fail to end it, Obama said.
Obama offered no solution for inmates deemed too dangerous for release but who cannot be tried because evidence against them was obtained through coercion and may not be admissible in court.
As he addressed Guantanamo, Obama was repeatedly heckled by Medea Benjamin, leader of the Code Pink anti-war group, who shouted : You are commander in chief. You can close Guantanamo today!
Obama, though irked by the interruption, said that such passion showed the need for transparency: These are tough issues and the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong.
He also called on Congress to amend the legal authorization for US anti-terror operations, adopted in the shocked aftermath of the September 11 attacks, saying it did not reflect the evolved threat.
Not every collection of thugs that label themselves Al-Qaeda will pose a credible threat to the United States, he said.
Unless we discipline our thinking and our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we dont need to fight.
Obama tackles drones, Guantanamo in reset of war on terror | Defense News | defensenews.com
