How Obama Can Keep America Safe
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 14/12/08:
Over the next few weeks, the Opinion section will publish a series of Op-Ed articles by experts on the challenges facing Barack Obama when he takes office. Homeland security and improving our intelligence agencies is the focus of today’s articles.
1) ‘Terror’ Is The Enemy. The threat has changed; our tactics should, too.
2) Safe At Home. How worried should we be about Al Qaeda?
3) Out Of Sight. Barack Obama will come to see the value of rendition.
4) Big Brother Hasn’t Won. We need to know the scope of eavesdropping.
5) Intelligence Boosters. The C.I.A. needs help from the…
‘Terror’ Is the Enemy
By Philip Bobbitt, a law professor at Columbia and the author of Terror and Consent: The Wars for the 21st Century. He is also a former senior director at the National Security Council (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 14/12/08):
Generals are not the only ones who prepare to fight the previous war. Our experience with 20th-century nation-based terrorists — the I.R.A. in Ireland, the P.K.K. in the Kurdish areas of Turkey, ETA in Spain’s Basque country, the F.L.N. in Algeria and others — still dominates much of our thinking about how to deal with 21st-century global terrorists. Indeed, the lack of new…
Safe at Home
By Peter Bergen, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of The Osama bin Laden I Know (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 14/12/08):
A few days before the presidential election, the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, told a group of intelligence officials that the new administration could well be tested by a terrorist attack on the homeland in its first year in office. “The World Trade Center was attacked in the first year of President Clinton, and the second attack was in the first year of President Bush,” he said.
President-elect Barack Obama made a similar observation when he…
Out of Sight
By Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer and a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 14/12/08):
Few post-9/11 issues have produced more anxiety and revulsion than the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of “aggressive interrogation” and the extrajudicial rendition of terrorist suspects to countries that practice torture. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to ban waterboarding and other pain-inflicting soliciting techniques, as well as rendition. He has also promised to close the Guantánamo Bay prison.
More broadly, liberal Democrats in Congress intend to deploy a more moral counterterrorism, where the ends — stopping the slaughter…
Big Brother Hasn’t Won
By Patrick Radden Keefe, a fellow at the Century Foundation and the author of Chatter: Uncovering the Echelon Surveillance Network and the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 14/12/08):
If you thought the wiretapping controversy ended last summer, when Congress blessed the Bush administration’s warrantless-wiretapping program by passing a new surveillance law that greatly enhanced the powers of the National Security Agency, think again. The legacy of the illegal operation represents a serious problem for the Obama administration.
After a contentious hearing this month on the most controversial aspect of the new law — a blanket grant of immunity to…
Intelligence Boosters
By Art Brown, a 25-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency and the head of the Asia division of the agency’s clandestine service from 2003 to 2005 (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 14/12/08):
This is the article I never intended to write. For former C.I.A. officers, the tipping point between debate-generating critique and “if they had only listened to me” pontification is easy to cross, and I had hoped to avoid the latter by simply refraining from attempts at the former. So let’s be clear, I am not claiming to have been prescient. It took more than three years outside the agency…
When the Cars Go Away
By Bill McGraw, a columnist for The Detroit Free Press (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 13/12/08):
This week, as Washington has tried to decide whether to rescue the automobile industry, Americans have wondered what it looks like when a giant automobile company goes under. The answer can be found in Detroit.
In the summer of 1956, the once-mighty Packard Motor Car Company closed its doors. Its headquarters and chief production complex still stand here, though, and their slowly decaying remains serve as a symbol for the fall of American manufacturing in general and the degradation of the auto industry in particular. The Packard plant…
A Bridge Detroit Needs
By Carlos M. Gutierrez, US secretary of commerce (THE WASHINGTON POST, 11/12/08):
Congress is debating the future of the American automobile industry. With our economy in crisis, this is not a time for ideology; it’s a time for pragmatism and common sense. Amid daunting job losses and unprecedented fiscal challenges, the economy cannot sustain a body blow to one of America’s most significant industries without giving it a chance to restructure.
The Big Three automakers directly employ nearly 250,000 Americans. Overall, the industry accounts for roughly 5 million jobs. The failure of the U.S. auto industry would have ramifications far beyond Michigan;…
Obama’s Human Rights Opportunity
By Jimy Carter, the 39th president and founder of the Carter Center, a not-for-profit organization advancing peace and health worldwide (THE WASHINGTON POST, 10/12/08):
The advancement of human rights around the world was a cornerstone of foreign policy and U.S. leadership for decades, until the attacks on our country on Sept. 11, 2001.
Since then, while Americans continue to espouse freedom and democracy, our government’s abusive practices have undermined struggles for freedom in many parts of the world. As the gross abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay were revealed, the United States lost its mantle as a champion of human rights, eliminating…
‘Molinos de viento’ en EEUU esperan al quijotesco Garzón
Por Felipe Fernández-Armesto, catedrático de Historia en la Universidad de Tufts, Boston, EEUU (EL MUNDO, 09/12/08):
Emociones contradictorias me afligen. Como el poeta Catulo al contemplar los excesos de su ex novia, siento estima y odio al mismo tiempo. El objeto de mis sentimentos confusos -sin ningún toque erótico, claro está- es el juez Baltasar Garzón. Admiro su valentía. Aprecio su gran trabajo a la hora de perseguir a los terroristas, defender los derechos humanos e iniciar el proceso contra ese monstruo que fue Pinochet. Pero odio su exhibicionismo, su arrogancia y su falta de sentido común. Por un lado, me…
Showdown in the Big Tent
By Caitlin Flanagan, the author of To Hell With All That and Benjamin Schwarz, the national and literary editor of The Atlantic (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 07/12/08):
The attitude of white, liberal Hollywood toward African- American churches has long been one of almost participatory respect. Whether it’s Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard, or the Blind Boys of Alabama on the iPod, or a serious — reverential — mention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference over dinner, the understanding is clear: the black church is a foundational institution in the history of the civil rights struggle, and its music…
En 2002 se sabía lo que pasaba en Guantánamo
Por Mariano Aguirre, director del área de paz y seguridad de FRIDE (EL PAÍS, 06/12/08):
El ex ministro de Exteriores Josep Piqué indicó el 3 de diciembre en la Universidad Complutense que en febrero de 2002 él no sabía “lo que iba a pasar en Guantánamo después”. Piqué formó parte del grupo que, según los documentos publicados por el EL PAÍS, decidió que Estados Unidos usara aeropuertos españoles para transportar a prisioneros detenidos ilegalmente en Afganistán hacia la base de Guantánamo. El entonces ministro de Exteriores, al igual que otros funcionarios del ministerio y Presidencia parece que no tuvieron tiempo de informarse…
Team of Heavyweights
By Henry A. Kissinger, national security adviser to President Richard M. Nixon and secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Gerald R. Ford (THE WASHINGTON POST, 05/12/08):
President-elect Barack Obama has appointed an extraordinary team for national security policy. On its face, it violates certain maxims of conventional wisdom: that appointing to the Cabinet individuals with an autonomous constituency, and who therefore are difficult to fire, circumscribes presidential control; that appointing as national security adviser, secretary of state and secretary of defense individuals with established policy views may absorb the president’s energies in settling disputes among strong-willed advisers.
It took courage for…
Barack Obama no es negro. También es medio blanco
Por Marie Arana, escritora y directora de Book World. Entre otras obras, ha publicado American Chica y Cellophane (EL MUNDO, 04/12/08):
Salvo que se aplique todavía la regla de hasta la última gota de sangre, hay que decir que Barack Obama, presidente electo de EEUU, no es negro. Después de una historia de más de 300 años, plagada de dificultades, seguimos cortados según el antiguo patrón racista por el que quien es un poco negro, es negro. Así, el 50% equivale al 100%. No hay nada entre medias. Los titulares de la prensa mundial coincidían el pasado 5 de noviembre: «Obama marca un…
Obama hace política de Estado
Por Luis Alejandre, General (EL PERIÓDICO, 03/12/08):
Una de las primeras medidas adoptadas por el presidente electo de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, ha sido la de confirmar a Robert Gates como secretario de Defensa un mes antes de su toma de posesión. Gates, 65 años, exdirector de la CIA con Bush padre, quemado o sacrificado en el escándalo Irán-Contra, lleva dos años en el Pentágono, dirigiendo con sensata mano la política de defensa después del turbulento mandato de Donald Rumsfeld. Gates significa la continuidad del general Petraeus, el hombre que ha hecho del lema Aprender y adaptar un eficaz y flexible…
El discurso que me gustaría escuchar
Por Pedro González-Trevijano, Rector de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (ABC, 01/12/08):
He dejado transcurrir cierto tiempo antes de ocuparme de los comicios presidenciales norteamericanos, y al hacerlo ahora no voy a referirme al resultado electoral, a la alta participación registrada, a su influencia en las relaciones con España, ni siquiera al liderazgo de Barack Obama. Sirvan a tales efectos las consideraciones de Eugenio Trías en su Tercera, «Donde arrecia el peligro». Lo que deseo resaltar es otra cosa complementaria, pero diferente: la entidad, calidad y ética pública de los discursos de los dos contrincantes tras conocerse el escrutinio. Por supuesto,…
Our Country Is Failing the AIDS Test
By Sandford F. Kuvin, founder and international chair of the Sanford Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the Hebrew University Medical School in Jerusalem. He was medical counsel to Kimberly Bergalis, the first patient to have gotten AIDS from her dentist (THE WASHINGTON POST, 01/12/08):
AIDS remains the world’s No. 1 health threat and in the United States is a grave risk to black people in particular. As Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, put it, “AIDS in America is a black disease . . . about half of the just over 1…
How to Close Guantanamo
By Jack Cloonan, a former FBI special agent and Sarah Mendelson, the author of the Center for Strategic and International Studies report Closing Guantanamo: From Bumper Sticker to Blue Print (THE WASHINGTON POST, 30/11/08):
Among Barack Obama’s many campaign promises, the one whose fulfillment is anticipated most around the world is the closing of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Not surprisingly, public debate has begun on how to extract the United States from this legal and security quagmire. Sound recommendations include the need for a fresh review of all detainee files followed by a determination of who can be…
Dioses de América
Por Umberto Eco, escritor. Traducción del italiano: Helena Lozano (EL PERIÓDICO, 29/11/08):
Una de las mayores diversiones del visitante europeo que va a Estados Unidos ha consistido desde siempre en sintonizar el domingo por la mañana los canales de televisión dedicados a las retransmisiones religiosas. Quienes no han visto nunca estas asambleas de fieles arrebatados en éxtasis, pastores que lanzan anatemas y grupos de mujeres que se parecen a Whoopi Goldberg y bailan rítmicamente gritando “Oh, Jesus”, quizá se hayan hecho una idea viendo recientemente la película Borat. Pero, claro, habrán pensado que se trataba de una invención satírica, tal como…
Seis tesis sobre el español en Estados Unidos
Por Eduardo Lago, escritor y director del Instituto Cervantes de Nueva York (EL PAÍS, 28/11/08):
La publicación de la Enciclopedia del español en Estados Unidos, proyecto conjunto del Instituto Cervantes y la editorial Santillana, ha despertado asombro por lo apabullante de las cifras que dan cuenta de la fuerza de nuestro idioma en aquel país, aunque no han faltado quienes se han mostrado escépticos a la hora de valorar lo que realmente puedan significar los datos aportados. Más de uno ha señalado que la Enciclopedia peca de triunfalismo; que por depender directamente de la inmigración, el español hablado en Norteamérica es una lengua…
