No reports of extraordinary rendition to torture or other cruelty under [Obama's] administration.

[ProSense]

ENDING TORTURE = Three Torches

• Ordered an end to the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, withdrew
  flawed legal analysis used to justify torture and applied the Army Field Manual on interrogations
  government wide.
  
• Abolished the CIA secret prisons.
  
• Says that “waterboarding is torture” and “contrary to America’s traditions… contrary to our ideals.”
  
• No reports of extraordinary rendition to torture or other cruelty under his administration.
  
• Failed to hold those responsible for past torture and other cruelty accountable; has blocked
  alleged victims of torture from having their day in court.

http://www.aclulibertywatch.org/ALWCandidateReportCard.pdf

The Democratic Platform specifically address civil rights and civil liberties. People are outraged that it doesn't read exactly like the 2008 platform. This document is more comprehensive and reflective of the administration's record.

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[madokie]

2. What a big difference one man makes

Thank you President Obama,
Oh and you too Joe Biden, thank you both.

[ProSense]

3. Yes.

Thank you President Obama.

[ananda]

4. What do they call Bradlely Manning's treatment?

And Julian Assange's if they get ahold of him?

[ProSense]

5. "They" being the ACLU?

Not only does that have nothing to do with the administration's policy, but also do you think Bradley Manning is being treated any differently from other U.S. prisoners, past and present?

[Bonobo]

8. And what about Guantanomo?

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368

1. “Asymmetrical Warfare”
When President Barack Obama took office last year, he promised to “restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great.” Toward that end, the president issued an executive order declaring that the extra-constitutional prison camp at Guantánamo Naval Base “shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order.” Obama has failed to fulfill his promise. Some prisoners there are being charged with crimes, others released, but the date for closing the camp seems to recede steadily into the future. Furthermore, new evidence now emerging may entangle Obama’s young administration with crimes that occurred during the George W. Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriously—and may even have continued—a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at Guantánamo in 2006.

The Justice Department thus faced a dilemma; it could do the politically convenient thing, which was to find no justification for a thorough investigation, leave the NCIS conclusions in place, and hope that the public and the news media would obey the Obama Administration’s dictum to “look forward, not backward”; or it could pursue a course of action that would implicate the Bush Justice Department in a cover-up of possible homicides.

Nearly 200 men remain imprisoned at Guantánamo. In June 2009, six months after Barack Obama took office, one of them, a thirty-one-year-old Yemeni named Muhammed Abdallah Salih, was found dead in his cell. The exact circumstances of his death, like those of the deaths of the three men from Alpha Block, remain uncertain. Those charged with accounting for what happened—the prison command, the civilian and military investigative agencies, the Justice Department, and ultimately the attorney general himself—all face a choice between the rule of law and the expedience of political silence. Thus far, their choice has been unanimous.

Not everyone who is involved in this matter views it from a political perspective, of course. General Al-Zahrani grieves for his son, but at the end of a lengthy interview he paused and his thoughts turned elsewhere. “The truth is what matters,” he said. “They practiced every form of torture on my son and on many others as well. What was the result? What facts did they find? They found nothing. They learned nothing. They accomplished nothing.”

[MadHound]

6. Boy, you really should do a google search more often,

http://www.salon.com/2009/09/21/bagram_5/
http://psysr.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/obamas-afghan-torture-center-and-the-american-psychological-association/

There's more out there, just do a search.

[Robb]

7. Yeah, those ACLU morans, huh?

[MadHound]

9. Another incident for you,

Now we're doing torture by proxy of American citizens.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/proxy-detention-gulet-mohamed

[Bonobo]

10. I guess, strictly speaking, extra legal assassination is not torture.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/18/us-citizens-drone-strike-deaths

[h1]Families of US citizens killed in drone strike file wrongful death lawsuit[/h1]
Yemen strike against "kill list" member Anwar al-Awlaki also killed his teenage son and an alleged al-Qaida propagandist



The killing of three US citizens, one a 16-year-old boy, in targeted drone strikes last year were unlawful and violated their constitutional rights by not affording them due process, according to a lawsuit filed by their relatives on Wednesday.

Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was placed on a CIA "kill list" last year, died in a targeted strike in Yemen on 30 September that also killed Samir Khan, an alleged propagandist for al-Qaida, in the Arabian Pensinsula. Al-Awlaki's teenage son, Abdulrahman, was killed in a separate strike 200 miles away in which six others died two weeks later.

The lawsuit accuses Leon Panetta, the secretary of defence, David Petraeus, the director of the CIA, and two military commanders of authorising and directing unlawful killings. President Barack Obama is not named in the lawsuit: presidents are immune from civil suits arising from their official actions.

The complaint alleges that the deaths are part of a broader programme of deliberate and premeditated killings by the United States, which rely on "vague legal standards, a closed executive process and evidence never presented to the courts".

[ProSense]

12. "Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric "

Shocking!

Civilian casualties, as horrific as they are, sometimes occur when terrorists are targeted.

[Bonobo]

13. A radical Muslim cleric is now, by definition, the same as "terrorist"?

Assuming that he was, in fact, even that...

Does "terrorist" even MEAN anything anymore?

Why were no charges brought against him?

What about his son? Was the Denver teenager also a terrorist?

You should be ashamed of yourself for defending what you KNOW you would condemn if it was done by a Republican.

Shame, shame, shame.

[ProSense]

14. My bad, I should have

Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was placed on a CIA "kill list" last year, died in a targeted strike in Yemen on 30 September that also killed Samir Khan, an alleged propagandist for al-Qaida, in the Arabian Pensinsula. Al-Awlaki's teenage son, Abdulrahman, was killed in a separate strike 200 miles away in which six others died two weeks later.

...included the entire paragraph.

And, no

You should be ashamed of yourself for defending what you KNOW you would condemn if it was done by a Republican.

Shame, shame, shame.

I will not be "ashamed" of countering anti-Obama spin. I mean, the DNC begins and this is the best anyone wanting to distract from it can do?

You should be ashamed, and the agenda is fucking clear.

[ProSense]

11. What nonsense

"Now we're doing torture by proxy of American citizens."

Now rampant speculation and innuendo is fact?

There is nothing in that article that talks about the administration's policy.