Civil liberties groups have a wish list for Obama

Rolling back Bush's counter-terrorism policies is a priority, as are closing the Guantanamo prison, stopping military tribunals and curtailing domestic surveillance. Tempering President-elect Obama's desire to close the book on an administration that has been accused of violating domestic and international law will be the need to ensure the nation remains protected. President Obama must decide whether to dismantle the legal framework that the Bush administration created after the Sept. 11 attacks, when the White House, Pentagon and Justice Department determined that existing legal processes, both civilian and military, were inadequate to meet the threat posed by terrorism. Specifically, human rights and civil liberties groups are pushing for the Obama administration to do the following: Scale back amendments passed this year to the federal law that governs the surveillance of foreign agents, and which provided retroactive immunity from lawsuits to the nation's largest telecommunications companies. Obama supported the amendments but also opposed granting immunity. Until now, he probably did not know the extent to which the surveillance program has provided valuable information.