-Abraham Lincoln
Our newly inaugurated president has been a busy, busy bee.
The day after his swearing-in, we saw policy guidance issue from the Oval Office regarding the Freedom of Information Act. "All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure," orders our president. His memorandum called for new guidelines from the Attorney General that embody that presumption -- with an eye to transparency in our government. This was complimented by Obama's Open Government Directive, which lays out three guiding characteristics of his administration: transparency, participation, and collaboration.
Next, salaries in excess of $100,000 were frozen for White House aides. "In this challenging economic period, it is only appropriate that senior officials on the White House staff forgo pay increases until further notice." Amen to that, brother.
As for his executive orders -- which carry the force of law -- there's even more cause for enthusiasm.
Executive privilege, the Bush Administration's abuse of which would have brough a blush to Nixon's droopy jowls, has been redefined and explicitly narrowed. He effectively reversed President Bush's 2001 order that granted ex-presidents broad authority to stonewall the release of White House records.
He has tightened restrictions on lobbyists and how they can move in and out of the administration.
He has ordered a review of the detention of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a man who has been held in the United States as an "enemy combatant" -- without formal charge -- for more than five years (and who would not have been covered by his executive order re: Guantanamo Bay detentions).
He has revoked the Bush Administration's most recent perversion of the Geneva Conventions, and has mandated that all U.S. personnel must adhere to the U.S. Army Field Manual with respect to interrogations. This is particularly significant because the Field Manual expressly bans torture and inhumane treatment, and establishes an exclusive list of permissible interrogation techniques (which the CIA has heretofor not been obliged to follow). He has also denied every agency's ability, in the context of interrogations, to rely on any interpretation or policy guidance issued by the Bush Administration regarding the Geneva Conventions or federal law.
And -- to my unending relief -- he has ordered the suspension of prosecutions at and closing of Guantanamo Bay, as well as the full review of all cases against detainees. (I note, with no small disappointment, that there was no mention of other detention facilities, such as Baghram.)
All this in the span of 48 hours.
Now, I'm not thrilled that he's authorized a review of the Field Manual's 17 interrogation techniques in order to determine if additional techniques can be added to it -- but there's reason to hope, in light of the foregoing, that anything addendum would be in step with the Constitution and our international human rights obligations. And I harbor a similar hope for the black site detention facilities we've spread abroad.
HOW REFRESHING it is to have a President who has studied and deeply respects the letter and spirit of our Constitution. HOW REFRESHING it is to have a President who understands the obligation we have as a nation to the human condition and the rule of law.
I shudder at how close we came (and it wasn't even all that close) to a McCain/Palin Adminstration -- because I know, and you know, that what has been set in motion over the last two days would not have seen the light of day in that alternate universe.
Anyway. So far so good, Mr. President.
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