Kinder and Gentler Techniques of Torture and Assassination?
Obama Waffles on School of the Americas
By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF
….Obama likes to employ soaring rhetoric when discussing human rights. But late last year, he failed to take a strong position opposing WHINSEC. When pressed, the candidate praised Congress’ revision of the school’s curriculum but said that he wanted to continue to evaluate the institution.
What more information could Obama possibly need to reach a final decision on the matter? An Obama spokesman said the senator “has not committed to closing down the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, but he will take a hard look at the program and the progress it has made once he is elected.” The spokesman reiterated Obama was pleased with the institution’s inclusion of human rights courses.
To put this in all in perspective then, on this issue Obama has staked out a position to the right of Ron Paul, many members of Congress, and mainstream labor and Church organizations.
Obama’s Draconian New Death Penalty Stance
In a reactionary political calculation, Barack Obama comes out in support of the death penalty for child rape.
…. in the recent history of the death penalty, calling for the execution of a person who commits a crime other than murder is a radical stance. Nobody has been executed for such an offense in the United States in over 40 years. Until yesterday, only two people out of more than 3,200 prisoners on death row faced execution for a crime in which the victim did not die. Affirming the death penalty for child rape would not only have potentially placed thousands more people on death row — as Justice Anthony Kennedy noted yesterday, there were 5,792 rapes of children under 12 in 2005 alone — it would have vastly broadened the net for capital crimes, a trend that would quickly become a slippery slope. Nevertheless, “I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime,” Obama said yesterday, “and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution.” Never mind cruel and unusual punishment. (And yes, that is Obama embracing the conservative mantle of states’ rights.)
