By VICTORIA TOENSING
WashingtonPost.com

Deputy assistant attorney general, 1984-88; established the Justice Department's terrorism unit; chief counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 1981-84

What's new? To much applause, Obama announces he has "banned the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques"; silently, he reserves the right to use them. Sounds like the Bush-Cheney position, except they did not release classified documents to inform terrorists what would or would not be done to them during interrogations. The maligned military commissions are back, characterized now as having increased evidentiary protections but in reality not creating any more than were already available.

George W. Bush wanted to close Guantanamo, too, but he did not know what to do with dangerous detainees who could not be put on trial. For example, a federal court will suppress a confession made without Miranda rights, a nicety not usually practiced on the battlefield. Obama announces the closing of Guantanamo (again, applause), but concedes there may be "people who cannot be prosecuted . . . because evidence may be tainted," but they "nonetheless pose a threat to . . . the United States." Without telling how, Obama promises not to "release individuals" who want to kill Americans. Changing Zip codes from Cuba to a U.S. prison does not resolve the issue: unending detention for detainees who cannot be tried in a U.S. court or by military commission. The Bush-Cheney dilemma remains.

What's new? Unlike Bush-Cheney, Obama knows how to put lipstick on a pig.