WASHINGTON — With the introduction of President-elect Barack Obama's intelligence team on Friday, the United States is poised to enter what might be considered the second phase in the counter-terrorism campaign launched after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Obama and his spy chief nominees have promised a dramatic break with the policies of the Bush administration, largely by focusing attention on what they intend to undo -- including shutting down the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison complex and ending the CIA's use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques.
But the incoming administration has been less clear about what it will erect to replace those programs, which drew condemnation from much of the world but often were cited by Bush administration officials as key to keeping the country safe.
The team introduced Friday faces the daunting task of filling in the details on what comes next. Indeed, senior lawmakers and intelligence officials said that retired U.S. Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair, who is nominated to be director of national intelligence, and Leon E. Panetta, Obama's choice to head the CIA, might find themselves at the center of an intense debate.
"We need to talk about these problems anew," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), who introduced legislation Friday to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. A similar bill was introduced this week in the Senate.
More than seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States is only beginning to chart long-term strategies for dealing with detainees: "How we apprehend them. Where they go. What process they go through," Harman said. "The expectation of the Obama administration is that they are going to bring this into the sunlight."
At the same time, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said there were other components of the Bush administration's counter-terrorism apparatus that the Obama team might find difficult to dismantle, if not enthusiastically embrace.
Among them are overseas prison facilities that are operated by the CIA -- and currently not accessible to Red Cross monitors -- as well as the use of unmanned Predator drones to fire missiles at suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban compounds in Pakistan, strikes that often cause civilian casualties.
Obama appeared to leave little wiggle room in his remarks Friday. The president-elect pledged that his administration would "adhere to our values as vigilantly as we protect our safety, with no exceptions."
