Barack Obama announced important shifts in United States anti-terror policy. The president wants to reduce the deployment of unmanned drones against foreign terror suspects. Additionally, he has new plans that should allow him to close Guantanamo Bay.
New Guidelines for Use of Drones
The use of drones in areas such as along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and Yemen has become an increasingly important element of the anti-terror policy under Obama. This is fiercely criticized abroad, with Pakistan in the lead. In his speech at the National Defense University in Washington, Obama recognized that drone attacks are not a panacea to resolve problems.
Prior to his speech, Obama signed new presidential policies for drone deployment. These are, among others: The U.S. will only deploy unmanned drones if there is a direct threat, a slight difference with current deployment contingent on significant threat; drones will only be deployed if there is “near certainty” that there will be no civilian deaths; the Department of Defense will take the lead when it comes to drone attacks, rather than the CIA; and a drone attack will only be executed if a terror suspect cannot be arrested.
The prevention of civilian deaths is an especially crucial point, according to Obama.
“Much of the criticism about drone strikes — both here at home and abroad — understandably centers on reports of civilian casualties. There’s a wide gap between U.S. assessments of such casualties and nongovernmental reports. Nevertheless, it is a hard fact that U.S. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists in every war. And for the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss. For me, and those in my chain of command, those deaths will haunt us as long as we live.”
New Initiatives for Closing Guantanamo Bay
The president announced again that he wants to do everything he can to close the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison, one of his most important election promises from 2008 that he has thus far, due to resistance from Congress, been unable to grant. There are still 166 terrorist suspects in Guantanamo, many held without charge or trial. More than 100 are on a hunger strike and one-third of them are being force-fed.
One of Obama’s announced plans includes the appointment of a special Guantanamo envoy that will ensure prisoners will be taken care of in other countries. This is likely to happen in Yemen, for example, because the prohibition of sending prisoners to that country is being lifted. Between 30 and 60 Yemeni prisoners could go back to their homeland.
About Guantánamo, Obama said: “… History will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of us who fail to end it. Imagine a future — 10 years from now or 20 years from now — when the United States of America is still holding people who have been charged with no crime on a piece of land that is not a part of our country. Look at the current situation, where we are force-feeding detainees who are being held on a hunger strike … Is this who we are? Is that something our Founders foresaw? Is that the America we want to leave our children?”
Threat Now More Diffuse
In his speech, Obama also recognized that the U.S. is still threatened by terrorists, but that the threats are now more diffuse than 10 years ago. He said: “From Yemen to Iraq, from Somalia to North Africa, the threat today is more diffuse, with al-Qaida’s affiliates in the Arabian Peninsula — AQAP — the most active in plotting against our homeland. … While none of AQAP’s efforts approach the scale of 9/11, they have continued to plot acts of terror, like the attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009.”
He accentuated that the U.S. “is not at war with Islam.” According to Obama, cooperation with American Muslims is the best way to prevent violent extremism.
“These partnerships can only work when we recognize that Muslims are a fundamental part of the American family. In fact, the success of American Muslims and our determination to guard against any encroachments on their civil liberties is the ultimate rebuke to those who say we’re at war with Islam.”
New Phase in Anti-Terror Policy
In a preview of the speech, NRC Handelsblad wrote today that according to Obama the anti-terror policy is entering a new phase: “Obama has been put on the defensive in recent weeks by a series of internal affairs, among them the tapping of phones of journalists and the possible bias of the IRS in monitoring the accounts of conservative organizations. According to analysts, Obama wants to shift the focus to the anti-terror policies which he views as entering a new phase, almost 12 years after 9/11 and on the eve of the departure of the Americans from Afghanistan.”
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