Obama

[Soldier4Christ]

Hail King Obama: President for life
Move underway to repeal Constitution's term limits

As Inauguration Day approaches and Barack Obama prepares to assume his first term as president, some in Congress are hoping to make it possible for the Democrat to not only seek a second term in office, but a third and fourth as well.

The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary is considering a bill that would repeal the Constitution's 22nd Amendment prohibiting a president from being elected to more than two terms in office.

Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., earlier this month introduced the bill, H. J. Res. 5, which, according to the bill's language, proposes "an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President."

In the past, some presidents have been critical of the 22nd Amendment, including Eisenhower, Clinton and Reagan.

In 1807 Thomas Jefferson, however, warned that presidents not bound by term limits could use their popularity and power to become kings.

"If some termination to the services of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution or supplied in practice," Jefferson wrote to the Legislature of Vermont, "his office, nominally for years, will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance."

Presidential term limits, however, were not "fixed by the Constitution" until ratification of the 22nd Amendment. Congress passed the Amendment on March 21, 1947, shortly after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the first and only president to be elected to more than two terms – in Roosevelt's case, four. The Amendment was ratified by the required number of states on Feb. 26, 1951.

The 22nd Amendment states, "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once."

The Amendment limits presidents to a maximum of eight years in office – or, under unusual circumstances, such as succession following the death of a president, a maximum of ten years in office. Should Rep. Serrano succeed in repealing the Amendment, Obama would be cleared to run for an unlimited number of terms, restricted only by the vote of the electorate.

In order to achieve repeal of the 22nd Amendment, Serrano's proposal must be approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress and ratified by three-quarters of the states' legislatures.

H. J. Res. 5 is not the first attempt by Serrano to repeal the 22nd Amendment. In 2003, Serrano introduced H. J. Res. 11 to the 108th Congress to accomplish the same purpose. A similar resolution, H.J. Res. 25, was also proposed the same year and received co-sponsorship from a bipartisan group of six other representatives. In 1987, during Reagan's term of office, Earl Michener, R-Mich., also proposed a repeal of the 22nd Amendment.

At the current time, H.J. Res. 5 has not tallied any cosponsors and has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Prior to Franklin Roosevelt, presidents honored the precedent established by George Washington, who – though widely popular – refused to run for a third term of office.

Thomas Jefferson, who became the second vice president of the U.S. after Washington declined to run for a third term and who then later became the third president, not only affirmed following the Washington's example, but also foresaw the eventual passage of the 22nd Amendment.

"General Washington set the example of voluntary retirement after eight years," Jefferson wrote in an 1805 letter to John Taylor. "I shall follow it, and a few more precedents will oppose the obstacle of habit to anyone after a while who shall endeavor to extend his term. Perhaps it may beget a disposition to establish it by an amendment of the Constitution."

In the same letter to the Legislature of Vermont where he warned of a presidential monarchy, Jefferson further explained why he refused to run for a third term.

"Believing that a representative government, responsible at short periods of election, is that which produces the greatest sum of happiness to mankind," Jefferson wrote, "I feel it a duty to do no act which shall essentially impair that principle; and I should unwillingly be the person who, disregarding the sound precedent set by an illustrious predecessor, should furnish the first example of prolongation beyond the second term of office."

WND attempted to contact Rep. Serrano about his reasons and argument for repeal of the 22nd Amendment, but phone calls to his communications director were not returned.

[Soldier4Christ]

I don't find it a coincidence that during Obama's run for the Presidency that he made a comment in regards to his still being in office in a year that would have placed it over two terms. I can't remember the exact wording of that comment but I do remember it being posted in this thread. If I can get the time and remember to do so I will try to find it and point it out.

[nChrist]

I don't find it a coincidence that during Obama's run for the Presidency that he made a comment in regards to his still being in office in a year that would have placed it over two terms. I can't remember the exact wording of that comment but I do remember it being posted in this thread. If I can get the time and remember to do so I will try to find it and point it out.

 

Let's see how King Obama does during the first two months, if he isn't disqualified before then.

[Shammu]

Obama's inaugural "the God of our many understandings"
By Derrick Z. Jackson
January 17, 2009

THAT WAS a nice save by President-elect Obama to invite Gene Robinson, the openly gay New Hampshire Episcopal bishop, to give a prayer at the pre-inauguration celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. Obama riled many people, including me, by inviting mega-church pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration. Warren endorsed the successful California ballot measure to ban gay marriage, and suggests that evangelicals who believe life begins at conception consider abortion a holocaust.

"I take the Obama people at their word that my invitation was in the works for awhile, along with Warren's," Robinson said in a telephone interview this week. "But the person who called me did say, 'We understand there are people in the gay community who were stung and hurt (by the Warren invitation) and they said they hoped this was a step in the right direction.' "

It is more than a step. Though it was secondary news, it was a leap beyond Robinson's sexual orientation. Robinson will not deliver an exclusively Christian prayer, such as in 2001 when Franklin Graham filled in for his father, Billy, to pray for the presidency of George W. Bush "in the name of the Father and of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ." Graham also gave the sermon at the national prayer service the next day, extolling "Christ, whom the Bible speaks of as the source of all wisdom."

Calling such prayers "aggressively Christian," Robinson asked, "My God, what does a Jew, a Muslim, a Sikh, or a Hindu think when they hear those prayers?" He said his prayer will refer to "the God of our many understandings."

As if the Obama team is following that script, the Associated Press reported this week that Jewish and Muslim prayers will be offered at the national prayer service that ends the festivities next Wednesday. The Muslim prayer will be delivered by Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America.

That is the way it should be after a seminal election in which Obama won with the most brilliant rainbow of voters in history, winning even though he lost among white Americans by 12 percentage points.

But in no small surprise, Robinson, who endorsed Obama in 2007, has been deluged by over 200 angry e-mails from people who read about his plans for an inclusive prayer. "One e-mail said I was shirking my responsibility as a Christian and a bishop because I had the chance to save countless millions of people from everlasting burning in hell," Robinson said. "As if the mere mention of Jesus saves them."

At least in this case, Obama saves - his inaugural hide.

While Robinson still believes the Warren choice was a mistake, he said he has a fresh appreciation for the complexities Obama faces. "He now has to be a lion tamer," Robinson said. "He will have his hands full keeping everyone on their perches."

Obama's inaugural "the God of our many understandings"

[Shammu]

The root of America's problems today are not social or even financial. They are spiritual. Too many in this great nation have told God to take a hike. Is it any wonder we are facing problems that are economic, weather-related, crime-related, immorality-related, and, well...... you fill in the blank.

Romans 1:28-31 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;  29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Robinson is not a friend of God. He is ashamed of the gospel and uncomfortable praying a "Christian" prayer though the entire world may be watching.

It is a shame that President-elect Obama apparently has so little regard for his Christian constituents. That he would give such a high place of honor, to a self styled man of God whose only claim to fame is that he abandoned his wife and children to enter, loudly and proudly, a sexually deviant lifestyle expressly condemned by the very Bible he's ironically calling 'holy and sacred. Gene Robinson is little more than a radical homosexual activist in a clergyman's clothing. In fact, his heretical rebellion against God's express natural order, coupled with his selfish refusal to surrender his pulpit, has almost single- handedly devastated the U.S. Episcopal Church.

Obama has not been informed (by my recking) that there are consequences when we are in God's face. Yes, this is a bone thrown to the gay community to heal their wounds at the selection of Pastor Rick Warren, but it is a dangerous one. God and His Word will not be mocked!!

As Gene Robinson prays for Barack Obama on Sunday. I would encourage all Bible believing Christians to pray for him. Pray for his wife and children he left for a lie. Pray that he will repent, go and sin no more, bringing others with him to the salvation only Christ can offer, a salvation our nation and world so desperately need.

[Shammu]

Obama: In the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln
18 January 2009
Rupert Cornwell

America is living a strange and magical moment. In a fickle universe, US presidential inaugurations are a quadrennial rock of predictability, like leap years and the football World Cup. But never has there been one quite like the inauguration this week of Barack Obama.

The event is always a republican version of a coronation, quasi-ecclesiastical even as it flaunts its populist trappings. But when Obama takes the oath of office at noon on Tuesday from John Roberts, the Chief Justice, the occasion will be far more, a beacon of hope in a tempest of fear. The closest in modern times was in 1961, when John F Kennedy brought hope and renewal. But back then the country was not terrified, merely jaded, in an era when the fundamentals of American civilisation seemed immutable.

No longer. The meteor Obama has arrived in the midst of America's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. But somehow that only makes it more thrilling, rather as in wartime, when life itself could be extinguished at any moment. This weekend Washington is a city, and America a country, caught between jubilation and anticipation on one side and bankruptcies, lost jobs and lost homes on the other.

But, however fleetingly, pleasure is outdoing pain. For Democrats, it is enough that after eight years one of their own is back in the White House. And even many Republicans are moved by the first black President, one of whose parents was from the Third World. And in a country where politics has so long been a business of old people, practised on behalf of old people, the young feel that at last they have a stake in the game.

Then there's the impressiveness of the man himself. Obama has a limpid intelligence and a wonderful way with words, as his inaugural address will surely confirm. But he is not a nanny like Jimmy Carter, nor does he have the manipulativeness of Bill Clinton or the amorality of Richard Nixon – to name but three conspicuously intelligent recent presidents.

Undeniably too, he benefits from a national outpouring of relief that George W Bush is gone. Not quite everyone feels that way: astonishingly, one in four Americans still believe Bush has been doing a good job. But for many, many more, in the words of Gerald Ford as he replaced Nixon, a "long national nightmare" is finally over.

In his valedictory TV address on Thursday, Bush was smug and unapologetic. He seemed to be living in a separate universe, in which America had been made safe from terror, democracy had been established in Iraq and Afghanistan, Katrina had been a rescue operation for the ages, and the US had continued to grow and create jobs – at least until the recent spot of bother, which was no fault of his.

Indeed, in this sense, the global hopes pinned on this president-elect are a huge compliment to the US. Many have been disgusted by its recent policies; some have even written the place off. But the country is capable of astounding self-regeneration. And despite its imperfections – the obscene disparities in wealth, its inability to provide healthcare to 15 per cent of its citizens – America remains the great hope of humanity. What new Russian leader or new Chinese president, let alone a new EU president, could so enthuse us?

And just maybe, this is the season of miracles. No other word, surely, describes how every passenger survived when a US Airways plane came down in the icy Hudson River. A lost sense of national unity is making a miraculous return, inspired perhaps by that greatest of all Obama speeches, to the Democratic convention in 2004, when he said: "There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America – there's the United States of America." That theme too will run through his inaugural address, and in this magical moment people will believe him.

History's rhythms too are conspiring. Yesterday Obama and his vice-president elect, Joe Biden, took the same train trip from Philadelphia to Washington that his hero Abraham Lincoln, the man who saved the Union, took in 1861. Today the pair attend a spectacular "We Are One" concert in front of the Lincoln memorial, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the 16th President's birth. Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day, at which the arguably the greatest of all black Americans is remembered – a perfect curtain-raiser for the swearing-in 24 hours later of America's first black President.

Lincoln, of course, is not the only presidential shadow at this inauguration. Many invoke JFK, and his demand that Americans give as well as take: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." These past decades, every US advertisement has seemed to contain the words "you deserve". You may have to borrow half the value of your home to secure a product, but don't worry,

cont'd next post

[Shammu]

you are entitled to it. A Pew poll last week suggests that the notion of sacrifice, conspicuous by its absence under Ronald Reagan, the two Bushes and Bill Clinton, is back in vogue.

But the closest presidential parallel is Franklin Roosevelt, who took office at the height of an economic crisis even worse than this one: a jaunty figure who communicated boundless confidence to his countrymen, even if he sometimes privately lacked it. In this sense too, some see Obama as a man of destiny.

Big problems offer the chance of big solutions. The current huge public deficits, and the need for radical therapy to correct them once the immediate crisis has passed, provide an opportunity to tackle those ticking bombs of pensions and healthcare that, if unattended, might bankrupt the country a generation from now. If a president is going to ask for sacrifices for the common good – tax increases, say, to fund healthcare reform – now is the moment.

Today Americans yearn for great leadership as rarely before. Obama's approval rating of 75 per cent is unprecedented for a president-elect. A similar proportion, polls also report, are confident he can put the economy to rights..

Will we be disappointed? Probably. It is ridiculous that so much hope is placed on one person's shoulders. The problems are a familiar and depressing litany: the bloody, seemingly insoluble conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Iran's nuclear menace, unfinished wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism, energy and water shortages, global warming, pollution – not to mention an economic crisis that is shaking the very foundations of American capitalism. All that is missing, you sometimes feel, is a giant asteroid hurtling towards Earth, threatening to destroy human civilisation. But in the irrational euphoria of this moment, who doubts that Superman Obama could deflect even that? Well, perhaps not, and the truth is that we do not expect him to solve every problem – certainly not at once.

That is one reason this President will be granted a long honeymoon. Another is that Obama, like JFK, makes Americans feel good about America. In an especially dark hour, he is a beacon of renewal. Of the conditions for human happiness, hope is the most important.

Some time in the small hours of 21 January, when the last celebrants leave the bars, reality will intrude. In the pale light of morning, more companies will fail. More jobs will be lost, and fresh billions will doubtless be wiped off share prices. Just one last official inaugural event will be left, a multi-faith service of prayer at Washington's National Cathedral, to be attended by the newly minted President and Vice-President. If ever an incoming leader needed the assembled gods of every religion at his side, it is Barack Obama. But then again, they say that theatre is the willing suspension of disbelief. He might be called "no-drama Obama". But never has political drama been more uplifting, and never have we been more willing to suspend our disbelief. Can he do it? Of course he can.

The journey to the White House

All aboard for the special rail service to Washington as it follows in the tracks of presidents past...

Barack Obama has consciously sought to don the mantle of Abraham Lincoln, and yesterday he re-created the 135-mile train journey his hero took from Philadelphia to Washington to be inaugurated.

There were a few differences. Lincoln's journey in 1861 from his home state to the capital took 12 days. Mr Obama's trip aboard a blue vintage rail car, accompanied by his family, 40 hand-picked "everyday Americans" and a smaller number of journalists, took nine hours.

As a precaution against terrorism, the US Coastguard banned shipping from the Delaware River and other waterways crossed by Mr Obama's train. Despite intense security, the aim was also to be seen: the inaugural train made several "slow rolls", giving the onlookers a chance to wave, and be waved at, by the incoming President and first family.

There were reminders of the economic crisis that awaits the 44th President as his train rolled past shuttered factories and scenes of urban decay, but aboard the private carriage, all was polished brass and hardwood, with luxurious leather seating. Built by Pullman in 1930 and used by presidents including George Bush Snr and Bill Clinton, it has a dining room and an observation platform. It was specially fitted with internet facilities for yesterday's trip.

The train stopped in Wilmington, Delaware, to pick up Joe Biden, the vice-president elect, and his family. As senator for the state, Mr Biden commuted to Washington by train for 30 years, and Gregg Weaver, the conductor of his regular train, was on hand to meet him yesterday.

Along the way, the special guests picked for the journey made appearances at public events to focus attention on his agenda. One was an Iraq war veteran determined to talk to Mr Obama about their favourite TV series, 'The Wire', as the train rolled through Baltimore districts where it was set.

Obama: In the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln

[Shammu]

Obama has little in common with Lincoln............

It's ironic that Barack Obama chooses to infuse these opening days of his presidency with the imagery of Abraham Lincoln.

I don't think there could be two more different men. Understanding why may help us think about what to expect in the days ahead.

Beyond his trademark "change we can believe in," Mr. Obama's defining theme has been unity and inclusiveness. "… there's not a liberal America and a conservative America – there's the United States of America. … We worship an awesome God in the Blue States … and have gay friends in the Red States."

Mr. Obama, of course, does not suggest that we don't have differences. His point is that those differences are not critically important, and they're getting in our way. Let's put differences aside, get practical and solve our problems.

The inaugural ceremonies have pastors for everyone: a white evangelical who opposes same sex marriage, a white homosexual, a left-wing black male and a left-wing black female.

His economic stimulus plan has large government expenditures to please Democrats and tax benefits to please Republicans.

Lincoln, too, sought unity. But Lincoln's notion of where national unity would lie was far different from Obama's.

He prophetically stated the challenge after accepting the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1858.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure half slave and half free. I do not expect the union to be dissolved. I do not expect the House to fall. But I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other."

As historian Harry Jaffa points out, " For Lincoln, as for Jefferson and for all genuine supporters of the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the distinction between right and wrong is antecedent to any form of government and is independent of any man's or any majority's will."

Lincoln knew that some principles are so fundamental they cannot be compromised. He knew that we couldn't ignore our key differences. Unity could only come from facing them and making the hard choices.

He knew that even though there were competing religious claims on the issue of slavery – some found biblical sanction in it – we would still have to choose and decide who we are.

As Americans killed each other, he observed, "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God. … The prayers of both could not be answered."

We have many Americans today who read the same Bible but see the truths that define this country very differently. And, of course, we have Americans who do not see the Bible as relevant to those truths at all and those who would claim that there are no truths.

As Lincoln observed, the prayers of all cannot be answered. Unless we're resigned to meaninglessness, we must believe that our future will reflect today's choices.

On the hardest moral dilemma of his day, Abraham Lincoln stepped up to the plate and took a stand. He did not say that it was above his pay grade. And this is what makes Abraham Lincoln very different from Barack Obama.

Each time has its challenges. Americans feel betrayed by what they see as unethical behavior in American business and in Washington. Yet few seem to appreciate that moral problems lie at the root of our faltering economy.

Sanctity of life and sanctity of property are cut from the same cloth of eternal law. In the view of many, including me, it's this law that defines our free country.

Our new president, who sanctions both abortion and massive government intrusion into our economic lives, sees things very differently.

So let's not pretend these fundamental differences don't matter. How we choose will define our future. As Lincoln said, the nation "will become all one thing, or all the other."

[Soldier4Christ]

Obama has tried consistently to duplicate the personification of Abraham Lincoln. There definitely is NOT any similarity. Abraham Lincoln was a true man of God, he recognized Jesus Christ as very God. As such he was a man of honor and integrity unlike Obama.

[nChrist]

The root of America's problems today are not social or even financial. They are spiritual. Too many in this great nation have told God to take a hike. Is it any wonder we are facing problems that are economic, weather-related, crime-related, immorality-related, and, well...... you fill in the blank.

Romans 1:28-31 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;  29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Robinson is not a friend of God. He is ashamed of the gospel and uncomfortable praying a "Christian" prayer though the entire world may be watching.

It is a shame that President-elect Obama apparently has so little regard for his Christian constituents. That he would give such a high place of honor, to a self styled man of God whose only claim to fame is that he abandoned his wife and children to enter, loudly and proudly, a sexually deviant lifestyle expressly condemned by the very Bible he's ironically calling 'holy and sacred. Gene Robinson is little more than a radical homosexual activist in a clergyman's clothing. In fact, his heretical rebellion against God's express natural order, coupled with his selfish refusal to surrender his pulpit, has almost single- handedly devastated the U.S. Episcopal Church.

Obama has not been informed (by my recking) that there are consequences when we are in God's face. Yes, this is a bone thrown to the gay community to heal their wounds at the selection of Pastor Rick Warren, but it is a dangerous one. God and His Word will not be mocked!!

As Gene Robinson prays for Barack Obama on Sunday. I would encourage all Bible believing Christians to pray for him. Pray for his wife and children he left for a lie. Pray that he will repent, go and sin no more, bringing others with him to the salvation only Christ can offer, a salvation our nation and world so desperately need.

AMEN!

This is truly a sad state of affairs when GOD is mocked at a Presidential Inauguration! It is a sign of the times, and the times are sickening. I HAVEN'T DECIDED YET WHETHER I CAN STAND TO WATCH IT.

[Soldier4Christ]

I watched some of that pre-inauguration ceremonies today that was held in Boston. It is supposed to be just a taste of what will be at the inauguration itself. It was indeed sickening and has made me decide not to watch the rest of this mockery.

[nChrist]

Brothers and Sisters,

We are watching the attempted deification of a MAN who hasn't even taken office yet. Abraham Lincoln was also just a man, but he was a Godly man. I'm not hinting that he was perfect or holy, but trying to compare Abraham Lincoln to a man with a life full of corruption is WRONG! By the way, I would be talking about spiritual and moral corruption of a man who has a track record of nothing else. It makes me sad to see anyone try to use the memory of Abraham Lincoln in such a manner.

These are sad and evil times.

[Shammu]

Oh brother.......................

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.

The words were completely taken out of context. The verse is speaking of when Christ returns, then we will see Him as He is and know Him as well as he knows us. At that time the charismatic (gifts of the Spirit) will cease for they will no longer be needed.

1 Corinthians 13:11-12 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Me thinks Obama needs to study the Bible better. Either that or get better advisers, on Biblical matters.

By the way, full text of Obama's speech is Barack Obama's Inaugural Address, the full text..... Click this link

[David_james]

this is all very exciting 

[Soldier4Christ]

Obama signs order to shut Guantanamo prison
President also orders that all interrogations must follow Army manual

On Day Two of his administration, President Barack Obama began overhauling U.S. treatment of terror suspects, signing orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, review military trials of suspects and ban the harshest interrogation methods.

With three executive orders and a presidential directive signed in the Oval Office, Obama started reshaping how the United States prosecutes and questions al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters who pose a threat to Americans.

The centerpiece order would close the much-maligned U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year — a complicated process with many unanswered questions that was nonetheless a key campaign promise of Obama's. The administration already has suspended trials for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.
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"We intend to win this fight. We're going to win it on our terms," Obama said of the war on terrorism. But he also said he didn't want to have to make a "false choice" between successfully waging war against terrorist organizations and hewing to U.S. human rights ideals in the process.

"This is following through not just on a commitment I made during the campaign but an understanding that dates back to our Founding Fathers, that we are willing to observe core standards of conduct — not just when it's easy but also when it's hard," the president said.

"We will be setting up a process" to figure out the logistics of closing down Guantanamo, Obama told reporters gathered in the Oval Office of the White House.

In related actions, Obama:

    * Created a task force that would have 30 days to recommend policies on handling terror suspects who are detained in the future. Specifically, the group would look at what do do with the 245 Guantanamo detainees.
    * Required all U.S. personnel to follow the U.S. Army Field Manual while interrogating detainees. The manual explicitly prohibits threats, coercion, physical abuse and waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning and has been termed a form of torture by critics. However, a Capitol Hill aide says that the administration also is planning a study of more aggressive interrogation methods that could be added to the Army manual — which would create a significant loophole to Obama's action Thursday.
    * Directed the Justice Department to review the case of Qatar native Ali al-Marri, who is the only enemy combatant currently being held on U.S. soil. The directive will ask the high court for a stay in al-Marri’s appeals case while the review is ongoing. The government says al-Marri is an al-Qaida sleeper agent.

CIA secret prisons to close?
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Thursday that Obama would also order the CIA to shut its internationally-condemned network of secret prisons, which it built in 2002 to house and interrogate top al-Qaida figures captured in foreign countries.

It is not known how many suspects have moved through the secret prison network over the years, but the number is believed to be fewer than 100, The Times reported.

The Republican opposition in Congress, meanwhile, said it would seek a meeting with Obama to voice growing concerns about portions of his plan to spend $825 billion in a bid to reverse the country's perilous economic slide.

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia said his party wanted to work with the new administration, but that many facets of the stimulus program wending its way through Congress would not create jobs, a vital requirement as unemployment numbers climb. Cantor spoke on CBS television Thursday.

Obama was visiting the State Department to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and his top national security advisers to round out a day focused on restoring the U.S. image abroad by making a clean break with some of the most controversial national security policies of the administration of former President George W. Bush.

Obama on Thursday could also name a highly respected veteran politician to serve as special Mideast envoy, a step to make good on a campaign pledge to be more robustly involved in efforts to help with peace efforts in the volatile region.

Sources have said that the envoy will be George Mitchell, the former Senate Democratic leader.

Mitchell, 75, will return to a role he pursued during President Bill Clinton's presidency when the former senator took on several difficult diplomatic assignments, including chairing peace talks on Northern Ireland.
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Mitchell also led an international commission to investigate violence in the Middle East. His report, issued in spring 2001, after Clinton had left office, called for a freeze on Israeli settlements on the West Bank and a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism.