According to this blog, nothing has happened in world news for three weeks. That’s my bad. First off, I just want to say sorry for not posting in almost a month. I was swamped with school work, finals and assignments to end off the year. But now I’m in the clear so I can again devote some time every day to writing for Blast.

Again, my bad.

Instead of reviewing what has happened in the past few weeks, let’s just skip ahead to now. There is one particular story that I want to tell you about. I saw it this afternoon and it sort of stood out from the rest.

According to the Wall Street Journal, after a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah today, President Obama told reporters he has left open the possibility of pursuing legal action against those in the CIA who created the policies that, in large part, led to torture and extreme methods of interrogation during the war.

He does stand by his promise to not pursue any course of legal action against those who actually executed the torture (the Jack Bauers). Obama did however make a clear distinction between the contractors and those who formulated the policy behind which the contractors operated.

The president told reporters that the Department of Justice is looking into memos from Bush’s term that green lit extreme interrogation. He also added that he doesn’t want to “prejudge” what is in the memos based solely on the character (or lack thereof) of our previous president.

He also spoke of a bipartisan committee that may be established to examine the use of torture and other extreme interrogation since 9/11. He said that talks during open congressional hearings (which is the way that these issues are currently addressed) tend to break down over partisan banter, and that it would be more “sensible” to start a committee of ““independent participants who are above reproach” to examine these issues.

However, he made it clear that he does no fully endorse the idea.

The president released the interrogation memos last week, in a decision he says was one of his hardest as president to date. Former VP Dick Cheney and other republicans have called this release a “breach of national security.”

I like the idea of a bipartisan tribunal. Its members would of course need to be carefully chosen however talks would never be interrupted or broken down over political differences. This issue is a moral one, an ethical one, not a political one. The ethics and morals of U.S. Army tactics overseas must be examined and open congressional hearings just aren’t the way to do that effectively. The committee’s creation would ensure ethics are at the forefront of the debate, and whether you’re red or blue would never be an issue.

On his second full day as leader, America’s newly crowned President Obama stood by his word and ordered the U.S. prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba be closed, according to the New York Times.

Obama also ordered an all-inclusive review of the U.S.’s‚ treatment‚ of terror suspects and signed an order banning the CIA from using any sort of “enhanced interrogation” methods including waterboarding, effectively distancing himself from Bush’s policies.

“As I said during the inauguration, we are not going to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals,” said Obama, IHT reports. “We are going to win this fight but we will win it on our terms.”

The president also ordered a cabinet-level review of some of the most pressing questions facing U.S. international forces: what the U.S. should do with prisoners who cannot be tried in America, how they can make sure prisoners transported to other countries won’t be tortured, and whether or not to keep some interrogation methods secret so terrorism groups don’t train to resist them.

Currently, there are 245 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The government has said it only plans to bring charges to 80 of the 245, though only a few trials have begun.

The remaining 175 will probably face no charges. Of these 175, nearly 100 were deemed too dangerous to be released by the Bush administration, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The remaining 75 of the 175 were kept at Gitmo on the grounds that U.S. defense agencies believed they would be tortured or killed had they been sent home.

This was an anticipated move by Obama, although I am a little sad that he delayed deciding on some of the more‚ difficult‚ details for six months. But it is a pretty big thing, so six months isn’t too long.

The time will ensure everything runs smoothly, which is for the best. I guess I’m just a little anxious to see this place shut once and for all.