23 January 2009
Analysis: Obama Offers New Approach to Counterterrorism
Emphasis on American values central to struggle against extremism
Washington — President Obama plans to continue building robust global partnerships to confront terrorism, but he has already signaled in his first days in office a new American approach to facing extremist violence.
“Our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example,” Obama said in his inaugural address. “Those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”
In his speech, witnessed by more than 1 million people on Washington’s National Mall and countless millions more worldwide, Obama confronted head-on one of the most controversial misperceptions among Muslims around the world about America’s struggle against terrorism since September 11, 2001: the false view promoted by many extremist groups that the U.S. struggle against terrorism is a so-called “war on Islam.”
America is “a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth,” Obama said. “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”
“The message that we are sending around the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism,” Obama said. “We are going to do so vigilantly, we are going to do so effectively, and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals.”
Revitalized American diplomacy and development assistance will be essential ingredients in Obama’s approach to counterterrorism, as seen by his joining Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on January 22 to name former Senator George Mitchell as his special envoy to the Middle East peace process and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke as his special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, a region which Obama called “the central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism.”
“Earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions,” Obama said. “We pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow, to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.”
Upon taking office, Obama also moved quickly to address a key campaign promise by issuing executive orders closing the detention center at the Guantánamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba within one year and placing new restrictions on the interrogation of terrorism suspects. “We intend to win this fight. We're going to win it on our terms,” he said.
While the detention center holds several top-level al-Qaida operatives, including admitted September 11 attack planner Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the prison complex has drawn widespread international criticism for what critics have argued is imprisonment outside conventional legal frameworks.
“Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man,” Obama said. “Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.”
Obama has frozen deliberations about detainees under the current military tribunal system, and each of the remaining 245 detainees will receive an immediate review. A new commission of top government, military and intelligence officials will weigh how best to unravel the complex legal issues surrounding the detentions.
In a separate order, Obama called for an end to harsh interrogation methods for terrorism suspects, requiring that all counterterrorism and intelligence officials abide by the U.S. Army Field Manual on human interrogation methods. The Army manual was produced in 2006 in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. It explicitly prohibits torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
“I can say without exception or equivocation that the United States will not torture,” Obama said. He later added that “America's moral example must be the bedrock and the beacon of our global leadership.”
