Obama attacks insurance premiums

Extract from BBC News, 16 August 2009

US President Barack Obama has stepped up his drive for healthcare reform, attacking excessive premiums charged by insurance companies.

Speaking in Colorado, Mr Obama said that under his plan companies would not be allowed to charge exorbitant fees nor place arbitrary limits on coverage.

Mr Obama is making a series of "town-hall" speeches to back his campaign.

Extending coverage to the millions of Americans who lack health insurance is Mr Obama's top priority for 2009.

His reform plan is currently under debate in the US Congress.

Some 46 million people in America currently do not have health insurance, and rising healthcare costs are a major contributing factor to America's spiralling budget deficit.

'No silver bullet'

Mr Obama said insurance companies had to be held accountable for practices that had led to premiums nearly doubling for the average American family over the past few years.

HEALTHCARE IN THE US

46 million uninsured, 25 million under-insured

Healthcare costs represent 16% of GDP, almost twice OECD average

Reform plans would require all Americans to get insurance

Some propose public insurance option to compete with private insurers

He said: "We're going to ban arbitrary caps on benefits. We'll place limits on how much you can charge on out-of-pocket expenses. No-one in America should go broke because they get sick."

Mr Obama admitted there was "no perfect painless silver bullet out there that solves every problem, gives everybody healthcare for free".

But he said he had "a lot of really smart people around me who've been working on this for months now".

Mr Obama also accused his political opponents of using scare tactics in their campaign against the reform.

He added: "I need you to stand for hope. I need you to knock on doors. I need you to spread the word. Because we are going to get this done this year."

[Read the article in full here]

Obama to lift for six months economic embargo against Cuba

Extract from El Informador, Mexico

US President Barack Obama decided to lift section III of the Helms-Burton Law which penalises foreign investment in Cuba. [...] Obama notified Congress that he will extend for six months, starting Aug 1.

Victory on climate change boosts president's position

Suzanne Goldenberg, the Observer, UK, 28 June 2009

The epic battle over universal health care is still to be fought, but Barack Obama moved to capitalise on a defining moment of his presidency yesterday - a vote in Congress to act on global warming - saying the time had arrived for America to show international leadership on climate change.

The White House shifted the topic of Obama's address from healthcare to energy after the vote, seeking to build momentum for the ambitious climate change bill ahead of its next hurdle in the Senate. The first round, in the house of representatives on Friday night, barely went to Obama. The Democratic leadership, despite making concessions to dissidents from oil and coal states, eked out only a 219-212 victory. A total of 44 Democrats opposed the bill.

But environmentalists claimed the vote as a milestone: the first time either house of Congress had acted to reduce the carbon emissions that cause climate change. It was also a validation of Obama's powers of persuasion. The president put energy reform at the heart of his White House agenda and jumped into a furious lobbying effort for its passage.

In his video address, Obama sought to bring home Friday night's victory, calling on the Senate to approve the bill so that America could catch up to the rest of the world in moving to a cleaner energy economy.

"We have seen other countries realise a critical truth: the nation that leads in the creation of a clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy," he said. "Now is the time for us to lead."

Read the article in full here.

Obama risks wrath of his liberal base

From The Independent, UK, 16 May 2009

David Usborne, US editor: "Decision to revive military trials for terror suspects welcomed by Republicans – and lambasted by human rights activists".

"Although his plan will modify the tribunals in an effort to expand the legal rights of the defendants, the decision has already proved controversial. One of Mr Obama's first acts as President was to announce the closing of Guantanamo Bay within a year and the suspending of the tribunals which drew criticism around the world. As a candidate, he favoured turning to America's federal courts or the traditional military judicial system to try the cases.

But pressure has been building on Mr Obama to explain what he planned to do with the roughly 241 detainees at Guantanamo – and particularly how he would proceed with the 20-odd cases due to be handled under the commission system set up by an act of Congress in 2006. He remains squeezed by competing priorities: to repudiate the past Bush policies while not compromising national security. "

Click here to read the full article

Obama's Guantanamo balancing act

From BBC News-
by James Coomarasamy , Washington

Barack Obama's decisions to try to block the release of photos allegedly showing abuse of prisoners in US custody, to avoid the pursuit of Bush administration officials who may have sanctioned torture and - now - to restore military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay - suggest that, on contentious national security issues, he plans to take a middle path.

Depending on your point of view, the president should either be applauded for his responsible, pragmatic approach or criticised for reneging on one of his key campaign promises: to turn his back on many of the practices used by the Bush administration, as it prosecuted its "War on Terror".

Of course, all US leaders encounter the same conflict, when campaign rhetoric runs up against the reality of the security briefings they are given as commander-in-chief.
But, having been handed two wars - and a highly contentious foreign policy legacy - this was always going to cause Mr Obama particular headaches.

Click here to read the article in full

Obama releases Bush torture memos

"Insects, sleep deprivation and waterboarding among approved techniques by the Bush administration"

Extract from The Guardian, UK, 17 April 2009

By Ewen MacAskill.

Barack Obama today released four top secret memos that allowed the CIA under the Bush administration to torture al-Qaida and other suspects held at Guantánamo and secret detention centres round the world.

But, in an accompanying statement, Obama ruled out prosecutions against those who had been involved. It is a "time for reflection, not retribution," he said.

The memos provide an insight into the techniques used by the CIA and the legal basis on which the Bush administration gave the go-ahead.

In the first of the memos, dated 1 August 2002, the justice department gave the go-ahead to John Rizzo, then acting general counsel to the CIA, for operatives to move to the "increased pressure phase" in interrogating an al-Qaida suspect.

Ten techniques are approved, listed as: attention grasp, walling (in which the suspect could be pushed into a wall), a facial hold, a facial slap, cramped confinement, wall standing, sleep deprivation, insects placed in a confinement box (the suspect had a fear of insects) and the waterboard. In the latter, "the individual is bound securely to an inclined bench, which is approximately four feet by seven feet. The individual's feet are generally elevated. A cloth is placed over the forehead and eyes. Water is then applied to the cloth in a controlled manner........produces the perception of 'suffocation and incipient panic'."

'Walling' involved use of a plastic neck collar to slam suspects into a specially-built wall that the CIA said made the impact sound worse than it actually was. Other methods include food deprivation.

The techniques were applied to at least 14 suspects.

Click here to read the full article.

Barack Obama tells Turks: 'We are not at war with Islam'

Extract from The Times (UK), 6 Apr 2009

President Obama extended the hand of friendship to the Muslim world today by declaring: “Let me say this as clearly as I can: the United States is not at war with Islam.”
In a speech to the Turkish Parliament, Mr Obama sought to draw a line under what he described as the “difficulties these last few years” during the Bush era of the “war on terror” – a phrase rarely used by his own Administration not least because it reinforced the views of many Muslims that they were under attack.

"Our partnership with the Muslim world is critical," he said, "in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject”.
Mr Obama’s 25-minute speech was listened to respectfully in the white marble parliamentary chamber with one of the few bursts of applause reserved for a commitment to back Turkey’s fight against the PKK – Kurdish separatists deemed by the US a terror group