Of course, that's not really soon enough.
Barack Obama: Administration drafts order to close Guantanamo camp within year
Draft order would also declare a halt to all trials currently under way at the facility
By Mark Tran and Matthew Weaver for the Guardian U.K.
Moazzam Begg, the former British detainee at Guantanamo Bay, urged Obama to go further. "There is no clear statement about this being stopped and the whole process being recognised as illegal," he said."For myself and other former detainees, until we see something tangible happening we are going to reserve judgment. That is because we have been here before - Bush has stated he wanted Guantanamo closed."
Here is the full text of the entire article, in case the link goes bad:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/21/guantanamo-barack-obama-draft-order-closure
Barack Obama: Administration drafts order to close Guantánamo camp within year
Draft order would also declare a halt to all trials currently under way at the facility
* Mark Tran and Matthew Weaver
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 January 2009 17.52 GMT
* Article history
The Obama administration is circulating a draft executive order that calls for closing the controversial US military prison at Guantánamo Bay within a year, it emerged today.
The draft order, obtained by the Associated Press, would also declare a halt to all trials currently under way at the facility, where roughly 245 detainees are being held. Most have not been charged. The Bush administration created the camp after the September 11 2001 attacks.
The draft order would start the process of shutting down a facility that has been strongly criticised by human rights groups and European governments.
News of the draft order came as President Barack Obama ordered a suspension of the controversial Guantánamo Bay military tribunals, in one of his first actions after being sworn in yesterday.
Within hours of taking office Obama's administration filed a motion to halt the war crimes trials for 120 days, until it completes a review of the much-criticised system for trying suspected terrorists.
The move, which will suspend cases against 21 men, was made at the direction of Obama and Robert Gates, George Bush's defence secretary, who has kept his job in the new administration.
The first military judge to consider the motion, US Army Colonel Patrick Parrish, granted the request to suspend the trial of Omar Khadr, a Canadian who is accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan in 2002. Later another military judge will consider suspending the case of five men charged with plotting the 9/11 attacks.
The halt to the tribunals was sought "in the interests of justice", the official request to the judges said.
Moazzam Begg, the former British detainee at Guantánamo Bay, urged Obama to go further. "There is no clear statement about this being stopped and the whole process being recognised as illegal," he said.
"For myself and other former detainees, until we see something tangible happening we are going to reserve judgment. That is because we have been here before - Bush has stated he wanted Guantánamo closed."
Human rights groups who were at Guantánamo Bay to observe this week's session of the tribunals welcomed the move.
"It's a great first step but it is only a first step," said Gabor Rona, the international director of Human Rights First. "It will permit the newly inaugurated president and his administration to undertake a thorough review of both the pending cases and the military commissions process generally.
"The suspension of military commissions so soon after President Obama took office is an indication of the sense of urgency he feels about reversing the destructive course that the previous administration was taking in fighting terrorism."
Jamil Dakwar, director of the human rights programme at the American Civil Liberties Union, said it was a positive step but noted, "The president's order leaves open the option of this discredited system remaining in existence."
Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights lawyer who has represented Guantánamo suspects, said, "It's great isn't it? There is no doubt it will stop the practices at Guantánamo. After all, Obama is now the commander-in-chief."
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Stafford Smith said, "It's going to take some work but what he [Obama] is looking at, I think, here is a very clear-cut distinction between this administration and the last."
Relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks, who were also at the base to observe the hearings, have said they oppose any further delay in the trials of the men charged in the case.
The requested suspension came on the day a military judge adjourned the war crimes court just before Obama was sworn in by noting that the future of the commissions was in doubt.
Obama had previously pledged to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp and had been expected to suspend the widely criticised tribunals.
The president's nominee for attorney general, Eric Holder, has said the military commissions lack sufficient legal protections for defendants and that they could be tried in the US.
I'm excited about our new president, but I'm more excited about closing Guantanamo NOW.
I hope that, tomorrow morning, or at least sometime this week, I'll get to look like a doubting thomas when Obama closes Guantanamo like he said he would.
Obama Will Issue Executive Order Within First Week to Shut Guantanamo
By Laura Meckler and Evan Perez, in the Wall St. Journal
Mr. Obama acknowledged over the weekend the process will take time. "It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize," he told ABC's "This Week." "I think it's going to take some time." He added: "But I don't want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution."Here is the full text of the entire article, in case the link goes bad: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123179018983674483.html
Obama Will Issue Executive Order Within First Week to Shut Guantanamo
By LAURA MECKLER and EVAN PEREZ
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama plans within his first week in office to issue an executive order to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, two people with knowledge of the plan said Monday.
The order won't immediately close the prison, the people said.
It is the first step in what is expected to be a long process of determining what to do with the approximately 250 suspects and potential witnesses in the war on terror who are held at Guantanamo.
Mr. Obama is expected to issue several executive orders in his opening days in office.
One person familiar with his plans said an order regarding interrogation methods is also planned.
This person said that the Guantanamo order isn't likely to come on Jan. 20, the day Mr. Obama is inaugurated.
The Guantanamo prisoners include so-called high-value detainees the U.S. officials still consider dangerous, among them Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged al Qaeda mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist plot.
Hundreds more detainees have gone through the facility, which opened in 2002 after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. Guantanamo offered U.S. officials a place where they could hold detainees away from U.S. soil so they didn't qualify for legal protections.
President George W. Bush declared the detainees "unlawful combatants," who didn't qualify for protections under the Geneva Convention.
Rep. Jane Harman (D., Calif.) introduced a bill last week to close Guantanamo and said that as a result of operating the prison, the U.S. "has paid a steep price in eroded moral authority. We've flouted the very legal protections that we've tried to export to the rest of the world."
According to people familiar with Mr. Obama's plans, the executive order will direct officials to examine each detainee's case to determine who can be released and find a place to send those who must remain held.
Mr. Obama acknowledged over the weekend the process will take time.
"It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize," he told ABC's "This Week." "I think it's going to take some time."
He added: "But I don't want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution."
He said "part of the challenge" is that many of the people who have been detained may be "very dangerous" but have not been put on trial or had any formal adjudication, and the evidence against them may be tainted.
