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WASHINGTON — President Obama yesterday said the war on terror “must end” eventually as he called for more restrictive use of drones as part of a “comprehensive” rethinking of US anti-terror policy.
In a major speech on national security, Obama floated new procedures to rein in lethal drone strikes that he has authorized repeatedly, and again called for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
“Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. But this war, like all wars, must end,” Obama told a crowd at the National Defense University in Washington.
The long-planned speech came with Obama eager to change the subject from a series of scandals that have been sucking up his attention.
Among the key moments in yesterday’s speech, Obama:
* Proposed a “special court” or “oversight board” that could play a role in green-lighting “lethal strikes” by drones — although he expressed reservations about both ideas, and said strikes would be OK’d only after “continuing and imminent” threats.
* Said drone strikes have “saved lives,” but acknowledged the practice raised “profound questions” about civilian casualties, creating new enemies, and their “legality” and “morality.”
* Said he was “troubled” by the possibility that his administration’s own leak investigations “may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.”
* Confronted an angry heckler from the anti-war group “Code Pink,” telling her, “You should let me finish my sentence.”
Obama’s remarks on leaking came as the Justice Department is being taken to task in the press for snooping on AP journalists and Fox News reporter James Rosen, even tapping his parents’ home on Staten Island.
“Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs,” Obama said, adding that he’s asked Attorney General Eric Holder, who he said shares his concern, to review guidelines on investigations of reporters and give an account in July.
Obama delivered his speech at a time when the administration has come under fire for the drone program, which the administration revealed for the first time Wednesday had resulted in the deaths of four US citizens, and will now be held to a higher level of checks.
The Guantanamo prison, which Obama promised but failed to closeunder congressional opposition, continues to be a flash point, with more than 100 prisoners on a hunger strike and being force-fed.
The administration is lifting a moratorium on sending prisoners to loosely-governed Yemen, and called the Guantanamo prison “a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law.” He called for a “larger discussion” on counterterrorism as the United States approaches the end of the “transition” to the end of the war in Afghanistan.
“We cannot use force everywhere that a radical ideology takes root,” Obama said, adding that a “perpetual war” would prove “self-defeating.”
Obama implored the persistent anti-Guantanamo heckler, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, to “let me finish,” but then later went off script to address her concerns. “The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to,” Obama extemporized.
Eschewing the Bush-era rhetoric of a “war on terrorism,” Obama called for dismantling terror “networks that pose a direct danger,” and making decisions “based not on fear, but hard-earned wisdom.”
Hawks slammed his speech.
“The president’s speech today will be viewed by terrorists as a victory,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.).
“Rather than continuing successful counterterrorism activities, we are changing course with no clear operational benefit.”