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CIA chief-designee will continue to hand detainees over to other countries

WASHINGTON – The United States will continue to hand foreign detainees over to other countries for questioning, but only with assurances they will not be tortured, Leon Panetta told a Senate committee considering his confirmation as CIA director.

That has long been U.S. policy, but some former prisoners subjected to the process — known as extraordinary rendition — during the Bush administration’s anti-terror war say they were tortured.

“I will seek the same kind of assurances that they will not be treated inhumanely,” Panetta said Friday in his second day before the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I intend to use the State Department to be sure those assurances are implemented and stood by, by those countries.”

Panetta formally retracted a statement he made Thursday that the Bush administration transferred prisoners for the purpose of torture. “I am not aware of the validity of those claims,” he said. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., chastised Panetta for careless words. “You cannot be making statements or making judgments based on rumors and news stories,” he said.

Because he has not yet been confirmed, Panetta has not been briefed on the details of the secret program. Panetta said he believed the Bush administration was trying to protect the country from terrorists with its use of secret prisons, renditions and harsh interrogations.

“I think they made some wrong decisions, I think they made mistakes,” he said. “I think sometimes they believe the ends justifies the means, and that’s where people sometimes go wrong.” He said he thinks that in the fear of another 9/11-style attack, Bush administration officials thought, “We can’t be bothered with legalisms.”

Panetta said, however, he believes the greatest weapon the United States has against terrorists is its moral authority and commitment to the rule of law. “The sense that we were willing to set that aside did damage our security,” Panetta said.

Panetta said the Obama administration will no longer move detainees to secret CIA prisons for interrogation, because the so-called “black sites” have been ordered closed. But it will move prisoners to other countries for prosecution, he said.

Panetta told senators it’s time for the agency to move ahead, rather than dwell on the harsh treatment of foreign detainees in the previous administration.

Panetta will oversee the end of “enhanced” interrogation and the closure of secret CIA jails. But he says the Obama administration will not prosecute those who participated, because they were acting on the legal authority of the Justice Department.

Interior Department to review whether to open those federal lands

In its first action to overturn Bush administration policies on energy, the Obama administration on Wednesday said it will cancel oil drilling leases on more than 130,000 acres near two national parks and other protected areas in Utah.

“In the last weeks in office, the Bush administration rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases near some of our nation’s most precious landscapes in Utah,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters. ““We need to responsibly develop our oil and gas supplies to help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but we must do so in a thoughtful and balanced way that allows us to protect our signature landscapes and cultural resources.”

“We will take time and a fresh look at these 77 parcels to see if they are appropriate for oil and gas development,” he said, adding that the Bureau of Land Management will return the $6 million in bids from an auction last December.

The 77 leases were for areas near Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and Nine Mile Canyon, which is sometimes called the world’s longest art gallery for its collection of ancient rock-art panels.

Republicans and the oil industry did not immediately respond to the decision, but they have argued that the United States should open more domestic areas if it wants to reduce its reliance on foreign oil.

Environmental groups lauded the action, saying drilling would have threatened Utah’s wild lands and spoil views from some of the state’s spectacular national parks.

“I see this announcement as a sign that after eight long years of rapacious greed and backdoor dealings, our government is returning a sense of balance to the way it manages our lands,” actor and activist Robert Redford, a trustee with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement issued by groups that opposed the leases.

Redford owns a home in Utah and hosts the annual Sundance Film Festival there.

The alliance of groups in December filed a lawsuit to try to stop the leasing, in part citing concerns it would pollute the air in the protected areas.

In January, a judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing the BLM, which is part of Interior, from moving forward with the leases.

“At best these lands will produce only 1.5 hours of the oil we use in a whole year,” Robin Cooley, an Earthjustice attorney who represented the conservation groups in court, said in Wednesday’s statement. “The oil industry will profit, not America.”

The battle between the Bush administration and activists took an unusual turn in December when an activist bought several of the leases but then didn’t have the money for a down payment on them.

The activist, Tim DeChristopher, in early January said he had raised $45,000 from supporters and that if he didn’t have to use the money he would contact donors to determine what do do with the cash.

The Interior Department said it was able to scrap the leases because the BLM had not yet formally accepted them.

The National Park Service protested the Dec. 19 auction weeks before it was held, and the BLM removed some parcels from the auction list in response.

At first, the BLM was going to auction a parcel so close to Delicate Arch, the signature landmark at Arches park near Moab, drills might have been visible through the center of the 33-foot-wide span. That parcel was 1.3 miles away. It was taken off the auction list under Park Service protest, but the BLM took bids on other drilling parcels within view of Arches, Canyonlands and Dinosaur parks.

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When George Bush took over as president in 2001 the media was having a field day at his expense. he was the most despicable man on earth, not fit for public office. Every conservative talk show host and pundit in America objected, and rightly so. Now Obama is president and as before with bush conservative pundits from far and wide are mouthing the same objections. It doesn’t matter how many platitudes and pleasantries they add to their harsh rhetoric the end result is the same, talk show hosts are sore losers. I say back off until there’s something concrete to base their negative assumptions on then let Obama have it with both barrels.

(CNN) — Growing up in America, Joshu Harris was captivated by the mystique, music and history of Cuba.
A photograph of Havana at dusk taken by photographer Chris Messner on his second trip to Cuba in April 2008.

So before Harris started law school, he traveled to Santiago in southeastern Cuba — something very few Americans can do today. While there, he played his trumpet with a local dance band, touring across the Cuban countryside.

“I wanted to see and experience the country for myself,” says Harris, who is now an attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Harris visited Cuba in 2004 under the promise that he would stay with a Cuban friend and host. Such travel was legal at the time — before former President George W. Bush imposed more stringent travel restrictions later that year.

Many travelers and travel industry professionals hope the Obama administration will soon loosen Cuba travel rules. During the campaign for the White House, President Obama promised to lift travel restrictions on Cuban Americans trying to visit family.

Under Bush’s policy, Cuban Americans had to wait three years between visits to relatives in Cuba. The policy also complicated travel for Americans with no ties to the island. Photo See photos of Cuba »

“My daughter still hasn’t met her grandmother,” said Leigh Salvage, a 38-year-old teacher in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Salvage, who is not Cuban, hopes to accompany her Cuban boyfriend and their 2-year-old daughter soon to visit his relatives in Cuba. She volunteered for the Obama campaign last year, telling people about the effect of the travel restrictions on her family.

“We have roots there, and we should be able to go without so much trouble,” she said.

In 2007, about 45,200 Americans — including Cuban Americans — legally obtained a license or approval from the U.S. government to enter Cuba by air, a dramatic drop from nearly 84,500 travelers in 2003, according to reports from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Travel and Tourism Industries.

Easing travel restrictions for Cuban Americans alone isn’t enough for many in the travel industry. The American Society of Travel Agents, the nation’s largest group of travel professionals and companies, would like all Americans to be allowed to visit the island.

The group formally requested the Obama administration lift all travel restrictions.

American travel to Cuba remains tightly controlled and highly bureaucratic for most Americans since the U.S. imposed a trade embargo on the country in the 1960s. Many American critics say opening U.S. travel to Cuba would be supporting an oppressive, totalitarian government.

Several academics say Obama’s administration wouldn’t go as far as allowing American leisure travel, and the president indicated he will maintain the trade embargo.

“The Obama administration isn’t just going to give the policy unless Cuba gives something in return,” says Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami.

Almost all other countries in the world have open access to Cuba and the island remains a popular tourist destination for Canadians and Europeans, attracting millions of visitors each year. Tourism is a primary source of revenue for the island.

Along with Cuban Americans, journalists, church volunteers, athletes and students are among the few non-Cuban Americans who can apply for applications to visit Cuba.

“Travel isn’t banned,” explains Richard Champley, a senior analyst in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Travel and Tourism and Industries, “You just have to get permission.”

Legal American travel to Cuba began to fall after Bush toughened restrictions. For example, there were nearly 350 universities and schools offering study abroad programs before the changes. Now, there are only a half dozen, says Robert Bozina, a professor at Santa Clara University in California who organizes the school’s Cuba study abroad trip.

Government approved travelers usually enter Cuba via charter flights because direct flights by U.S. flagged carriers are illegal. Flights from Miami, Florida, located 90 miles away, can run around $550 for a round trip, according to several charter companies.

Other Americans who visit Cuba illegally rely on foreign entry points such as the Cayman Islands, Mexico City or Canada. Travel experts estimate tens of thousands of Americans do this annually, despite the fact that tourist travel to Cuba is also illegal through a third party country, according to the U.S. State Department.

Travelers who visit the country illegally “could face civil penalties and criminal prosecution upon the return to the United States,” the State Department’s Web site says. Civil penalties could mean thousands of dollars in mandatory fines.

Despite restrictions, travel industry professionals say the American tourist demand is there.

“If Cuba was opened up, you’d see a significant amount of interest from Americans,” says Mary Peremsky, a travel consultant at Travel Advisors International, a travel booking agency based in Minnesota. “People get tired of the same cookie cutter destinations.”

A travel agent for more than 20 years, Peremsky says visiting Cuba would be a big hit for younger and more adventurous travelers with an appetite for unexplored locations. The close proximity of Cuba to the U.S. makes the Caribbean island a convenient destination as well.

Chris Messner, a fine arts photographer in Santa Barbara, California, visited Cuba twice in the last three years through his association with the Architectural Design Review Board.

“Everything is like a time capsule,” said Messner, who plans to return in March. “When you are in Havana, it’s like you’re in the 1950s.”

If leisure travel is approved, legal tourism to Cuba will only be popular among Americans in the first few years, says Tomas Bilbao, executive director at Cuba Study Group in Washington.

He says U.S. tourists are unlikely to return once they realize the island’s weak infrastructure grants limited services at a higher cost compared to other Caribbean destinations.

Still, travel agents are ready to meet the demand for Cuba travel.  advertisement  “I think Cuba needs some work, and I don’t know if it’s ready for us,” says Cathy Mezzacappa, manager of Marshfield Travel, a travel company outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

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