COUNTER-TERRORISM POLICIES

To what extent has the Obama administration turned its back on the counter-terrorism policies of the Bush administration?

To what extent has the Obama administration turned its back on the counter-terrorism policies of the Bush administration?

Introduction

The killing of the military base at Fort Hood in November 2009, the attack against the CIA in Khost Afghanistan and the failed attack on a flight from Amsterdam Detroit in December 2009 shows the high terrorist threat against the United States. Beyond the gaps and deficiencies persistent of the American intelligence community (lack of skills, problems in the transmission of information), the fight against terrorism remains a folder delicate, the consequences could be significant for the Obama administration. An attack successful on American soil could indeed undermine the political agenda of Barack Obama.

Obama explicitly rejected the use of torture and reaffirmed the commitment of the U.S. to the Geneva Conventions. It broke also with the Manichean and bellicose rhetoric of his predecessor by deciding example not to use the terms “war against terrorism”. U.S. President finally committed in an attempt outstretched hand via the Muslim world. The goal for the Obama was to improve the image of the United States on the international stage, especially with the Muslim world in order to win the “war message” against Al Qaeda. Beyond strong symbolic gestures and rhetoric needed break, Obama administration, however, largely renewed the approach to the fight against terrorism and developed implemented in George W. Bush. She had indeed produced results not negligible and most importantly, it was significantly bent and cropped in the second term of President Bush.

Under pressure from the media, the public, Congress and the Supreme Court, the policy against terrorism has changed significantly between 2005 and 2008. Two years before the end of his presidency, George W. Bush had decided to institutionalize more can this policy so that his successor, he was a Democrat, does not reject completely. The technique of water boarding has been abandoned ago years. The secret CIA prisons were closed, monitoring programs U.S. citizens and the system of military courts were restructured and approved by the Congress before the inauguration of Barack Obama. The Bush administration was considering the same closure of Guantanamo: some 500 detainees have been transferred or released before January 2009 (there are still about 200 now).

Barack Obama did not break with these developments. Instead, he relied on them all in seeking to accelerate. Continued surveillance of U.S. citizens, extrajudicial renditions, indefinite detention of terrorism suspects without charge formal, sending more troops to Afghanistan, or the considerable expansion the use of drones against Al-Qaeda, are decisions of the Obama administration fall directly in line with the fight against terrorism as implementation under George W. Bush. This continuity is also evident regarding the leaders of this struggle. Barack Obama has in fact retained much of the key people in place by the Bush administration. John Brennan, Ancier specialist CIA officer in the Middle East, had been commissioned by George ...