Kenneth Roth
Obama's Foreign Policy
(c) Jennifer Kohnke
Empty Promises?
As one would expect from so eloquent a leader, President
In
In
The Russian government has sought to impede critical human rights reporting by imposing burdensome regulatory requirements. Obama responded by meeting with civil society leaders and stressing in a
Obama touched on the right points about the importance of respecting human rights when visiting
Even on counterterrorism -- the area where Obama's policies appeared at first to be farthest from Bush's -- the results are less than had been hoped. Obama ordered the CIA to abide by the military's stricter rules for interrogation and shut the secret detention facilities where terrorism suspects "disappeared" and were tortured, but he has refused to investigate -- let alone prosecute -- the senior officials who ordered torture or the government lawyers who provided thin legal justifications for it. It is not enough for a president to observe the law if he does not also defend the law by prosecuting those responsible for blatant breaches.
Similarly, Obama said he would close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, but it seems he may have meant only the physical facility, not the policies that it represents; he proposes to continue trying some suspects in military commissions that are slightly improved from those that Bush supported, but still substandard. In addition, the Obama administration has now indicated that some 47 suspects will continue to be subject to long-term detention without trial. Suspects held unjustly in Guantánamo or tried in military commissions are worth far more to terrorist recruiters than suspects who are released. It would be better to try them in regular federal courts, which have proved fully capable of handling these types of cases, than military commissions. Regular trials are most likely to produce results, the fairness of which no one could contest.
Obama recognizes the importance of redeeming America's reputation on human rights after the dark Bush years. But it will take more than impressive rhetoric to succeed. Words must be followed by deeds.
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(C) 2010 Council on Foreign Relations, publisher of Foreign Affairs. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Media Services.