http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123620918926234023.htmlObama Starts 'Urgent Review' of U.S. Policy Toward Sudan
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
President Barack Obama has launched a "high-level, urgent review" of U.S. policy toward Sudan that will consider whether the U.S. should re-examine joining the International Criminal Court, which the Bush administration had emphatically rejected, a senior White House official said Wednesday. A policy decision should be ready "within weeks."
Mr. Obama campaigned hard on toughening U.S. policy toward Sudan and bringing an end to the fighting in Darfur, which he called genocide. As a senator, Mr. Obama visited Darfurian refugee camps in Chad in 2006 and identified the issue as a priority. The administration's reticent response Wednesday to the ICC's warrants for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was not meant to convey any slackening of the president's position, but the president did not want to respond to developments in Sudan before a broader framework could be unveiled, the official said.
"His determination to end the atrocities in Darfur has not wavered," the official said. "Our intent is not to address this in piecemeal fashion but to make sure the U.S. and its allies bring about a lasting end to the horrors in Darfur and the rest of Sudan," he said.
Among those involved in the review is National Security Council staff member Samantha Power, who made her career in international diplomacy by working to expose and campaign against genocidal policies. Mr. Obama severed ties to Ms. Power during the campaign after she called then-Sen. Hillary Clinton a "monster." But she has quietly returned to the fold. Other members of the review are drawn from across the government.
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