Brooke Gladstone asks: "Do you have any speculations as to why this administration has backtracked from its promises with regard to civil liberties and human rights?"

How about: with government comes responsibility, and knowledge of things that may not fit comfortably with abstract moral principles and early promises made based on those principles. Has this occured to you, Brooke?

Mr. Wizner then asks: "How many Americans have actually died from terrorism on U.S. shores in the last ten years?"

To which I would ask: "How many Americans have actually been held in custody without due process on terrorism charges in the last ten years?".

Paranoia and mistrust of government has to stop on both left and right.

I think that democratic Governments world-wide are forgetting the principles on which their countries were built. What the people who say that supporting your principles is being "soft" on terrorists are forgetting is that the democratic protections do protect us from tyranny and from attack.

Individual protections (such as the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty) protect people from injustice. Injustice leads to anger directed to the institutions and the country itself -- i.e. it is the breeding ground for radicalisation.

Media protections mean that the media have the power, should they choose to use it, to hold administrations to account. If the media lose those rights and/or lose the will to prosecute that duty, then citizens will become even more cynical about their Government.

You don't have to take my word for it, just look at the history of failed states and dictatorships.

The difference between the bush & Obama foreign policy is a difference of degree not of kind. We withdraw from Iraq we still have bases in nearly 200 countries & the president can invade now ask permission later. That's not the way it's meant to be.

I believe you misunderstood my meaning. I think Obama is a wise man, who will use his executive power better than most. But he is making few moves to roll back the unbalanced power of the executive branch. It doesn't matter how good individuals are if the system they leave behind is bad you'll get bad outcomes.

"Obama making sure to register the gun that kills the republic." OH BROTHER!

Black Sites

Rendition

Oh the good old days...

This is Obama making sure to register the gun that kills the republic. Google Dan Carlin's common sense to get some additional commentary. It's just too depressing not to share, and it dovetails right into this story.

It is foolish to fight a new war with an old playbook.
That is exactly what caused the carnage of WWI & WWII until we wised up and learned from our errors.
This New Normal is needed to fight a new enemy and seems to be the one thing that Obama doesn't mind inheriting from Bush not that he will ever thank him for it.
Mr. Wizner and the ACLU will do nothing to protect this nation and should be ignored.

But you acknowledge that he is being critical of his policies, so what is your point? You seem to be objecting to style, not substance.

That's a real talent Mr Wizner seems to have for kissing the butt of a president while being critical of his policys.