Obama signs order to close Guantanamo in a year

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By Sara A. Carter and Eli Lake and Jon Ward

UPDATED:

President Obama on Thursday ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba within a year and ordered that all interrogations of suspected terrorists will have to abide by the Army field manual, removing the Bush administration's approval of "enhanced" interrogation techniques, which some believed to be torture.

The new president, during his second full day in office, also ordered the shuttering of so-called black sites, where the CIA and foreign security services harshly interrogated terrorist suspects.

Mr. Obama signed three executive orders in the Oval Office a few minutes after 11 a.m., in front of news photographers and reporters, with retired military generals standing behind him.

"The message that we are sending around the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism, and we are going to do so vigilantly, we are going to do so effectively, and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals," Mr. Obama said.

"We intend to win this fight," Mr. Obama said. "We're going to win it on our terms."

But his request for a panel headed by the Attorney General to report back with recommendations on future practices leaves unanswered the thorniest questions related to both detention of suspected terrorists and interrogations of high-value detainees.

The panel will deliver an opinion in 180 days on what should be done with Guantanamo detainees that are too dangerous to release but also can't be tried in a court either because the evidence against them is classified or was obtained by extra-judicial means.

"There's one category that we can transfer. There's one category that we can try. The third category can't be transferred, can't be tried," said a senior Obama administration official, who briefed reporters on the condition that his name not be used, saying he could speak more freely that way.

"But we've got to figure out a way consistent with our values and the rule of law, but also our national safety, to deal with these people," the official said.