It’s the second full day of the Barack Obama presidency and Black Enterprise is included among the White House press corps.
I am here as part of our media organization’s commitment to cover all substantive matters related to President Obama. The press corps has flourishes of frenetic activity with the release of each policy initiative. When the Obama administration releases policy developments, these journalists gain access to the information first. And today the room is buzzing about the announcement of four Executive Orders signed by the president. With Vice President Joe Biden and retired military officers by his side, Obama unveiled the policies that included the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay — known for the notorious acts of torture against suspected terrorists during the Bush administration — within a year; review of the army field manual as it relates to the humane treatment of such prisoners; and an inter-agency task force including Secretaries of State, Defense, Homeland Security as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Central Intelligence Agency director regarding detainee policy.
Obama says he put these policies in place because “the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism…We are not going to have a false choice between safety and ideals.”
More from the White House press room to come.
Derek T. Dingle is the editor-in-chief of Black Enterprise magazine