Does the Obama administration differ from the previous one on issues relating to torture and rendition?
This is one of the significant differences. The Obama administration wants to show that it will pursue a humane policy, especially on the torture issue. It wants to give torture suspects a fair trial and constitutional rights. That’s a genuine difference. But it is not going to go too far. The new administration basically subscribes to the same counter-terrorist approach of the previous administration. It thinks that it can eliminate the terrorist threat without dealing with the legitimate grievances. Are the continuing U.S. sanctions on Iran justified? As far as I know, the Iranians have the right to fully develop the nuclear fuel cycle, to have unrestricted use of peaceful nuclear technology, which is all they claim to be interested in. Of course, a lot of this technology is dual-use. It’s hard to be sure what their intentions are. The Iranians have just as good a security argument as many other states that are nuclear-weapon states. Their case is certainly as good as Israel’s. They
