WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama left plenty of ambiguity in new policy guidelines that he says will restrict how and when the U.S. can launch targeted drone strikes, leaving himself significant power over how and when the weapons can be deployed.
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Obama’s drone rules leave unanswered questions
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama signed legislation Friday to award Congress' highest civilian honor to four girls killed in an Alabama church bombing during the civil rights movement. He called it a tragic loss that “helped to trigger triumph and a more just and equal and fair America.”
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Obama OKs honor for Birmingham bombing victims
**Written by Doug Powers Long live the honor system . I’ll go out on a limb and predict that Eric Holder’s comprehensive review will conclude that Eric Holder’s department acted appropriately if not heroically. However, in the name of respecting the privacy of journalists, the DOJ may acquiesce by agreeing to redact entire numbers from phone records they seized before releasing the information in the future: President Obama, responding to mounting criticism of his Justice Department’s seizure of reporter records, said for the first time Thursday that the administration would be reviewing its guidelines in response to the controversy. Obama said he’s “troubled” by the developments and that journalists should not be “at legal risk” for doing their jobs. Not only did the department secretly obtain two months of phone records from the Associated Press, but it seized phone records from several Fox News lines — and labeled one correspondent a criminal “co-conspirator” in its successful effort to seize his personal emails. Obama, in a Washington address, said he’s asked Attorney General Eric Holder to review the department’s “guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters” and report back by July 12. He said Holder will convene a group of media organizations to hear their concerns. Obama then said any concerned members of the media desiring an invitation to meet with Holder need only mention it the next time they’re talking on the phone to their parents . Just kidding … I think. The latest on the man in charge of the department now being asked to investigate itself: Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday. The disclosure of the attorney general’s role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterrorism policy, said Holder had agreed to review Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve journalists. Mouse, cheese, etc. **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Obama orders DOJ to review propriety of DOJ’s leak investigations
By Matt Spetalnick and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Thursday shifted the United States away from a “boundless global war on terror,” restricting deadly drone strikes abroad and signaling that America's long struggle against al Qaeda will one day end. In a major policy speech, Obama narrowed the scope of the U.S. targeted-killing campaign against al Qaeda and its allies and took new steps toward closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison – controversial elements of the U.S. counterterrorism fight that have drawn condemnation at home and abroad. …
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Obama shifts U.S. from ‘perpetual war-footing,’ limits drone strikes
