Obama’s ‘cosmetic’ exercise on Guantanamo

IN his feature article headlined ‘Obama’s first 100 days’ (April 25), Matt Williams tells us the US president’s decision to close Guantanamo Bay “has helped repair some of the damage done to the US reputation overseas”.

But while many have been appeased, others see his words and deeds as cosmetic. Since the T-word has become taboo, and since the new politically correct term “harsh interrogation techniques” is unwieldy, I propose to use the acronym “HIT”.

Williams lists the abolition of HIT as one of Obama’s achievements. But in fact the president has not promised to put a stop to HIT, as Siobhán Gorman warned in the Wall Street Journal last November: “Upon review,” one government official said, “Mr Obama may decide he wants to keep the road open in certain cases for the CIA to use techniques not approved by the military, but with much greater oversight.”