(Apr 29, 2009) One area where Mr. Obama has run against public opinion involves the debate over past use of torture in interrogations. A majority, 53%, disapproved of the president's decision to release memos detailing these methods. Further, a clear majority, 61%, opposes a criminal investigation into whether torture was committed during the Bush administration. Download Full Report Below.

(April 27, 2009) According to the poll, sixty-two percent of Americans do not think Congress should hold hearings to investigate the administration's treatment of detainees. Only a third of Americans thinks Congress should investigate. That's the same proportion as thought so in February. Read Full Article

(April 27, 2009) Overall, the public is about evenly divided on the questions of whether torture is justifiable in terrorism cases and whether there should be official inquiries into any past illegality involving the treatment of terrorism suspects. About half of all Americans, and 52 percent of independents, said there are circumstances in which the United States should consider employing torture against such suspects. Read Full Article

(April 27, 2009) A new Gallup Poll finds 51% of Americans in favor and 42% opposed to an investigation into the use of harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects during the Bush administration. At the same time, 55% of Americans believe in retrospect that the use of the interrogation techniques was justified, while only 36% say it was not. Notably, a majority of those following the news about this matter "very closely" oppose an investigation and think the methods were justified.

New York Times, March 17, 2009
by John Schwartz
Link to the Full Article

Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2008

Kenneth Luongo, executive director of the Partnership for Global Security, a Washington-based research organization focusing on weapons of mass destruction, said his group had published an article on the strides Pakistan’s nuclear program has made since 1998. “Their No. 1 vulnerability is people,” he said. “It’s clear that people in military and physics departments in various universities are more fundamentalist than in the past.”

(Download full article below)

This originally appeared on the God's Politics blog on January 11, 2008.

The day after Christmas, President Bush signed an omnibus spending bill containing a major victory for all those committed to a world free of nuclear weapons: the complete elimination of funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program. This program would have led to a new generation of nuclear warheads, and possibly a new nuclear arms race, under the guise of ensuring the reliability of current nuclear warheads.

Toronto Star, September 27, 2007

Kenneth Luongo, executive director of Partnership for Global Security, a group fighting the dangers of weapons of mass destruction, told senators that American investments at the Canadian border, including more than $122 million in technology improvements since Sept. 11, 2001, have been "well advised but insufficient."

Luongo noted the June 2006 arrests in Canada of 17 men allegedly planning to carry out attacks inspired by Al Qaeda.