Obama orders Guantanamo closure

22/01/2009| IslamWeb

Barack Obama, the US president, has ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp within one year and a review of the military tribunals set up by the Bush administration to try them.

 

Obama also signed an order ending the harsh interrogation of prisoners held by the US and requiring investigators to comply with the Geneva Conventions.

 

On his second full day in office, Obama signed the three orders surrounded by retired military officers in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington.

 

Obama said the signing of the order showed "we are willing to observe core standards, not just when its easy but when its hard".

 

"The message that we are sending around the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism," Obama said.

 

"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."

 

Obama had promised to close the detention centre during his election campaign.

 

Legal advice

 

Guantanamo was set up by the Bush administration in 2002 to hold prisoners it detained as part of its so-called war on terror.

 

More than 240 prisoners remain held there.

 

The US president also said he was setting up a task force that would have 30 days to recommend policies on handling "terror" suspects who are detained in future.

 

The force would look at where those detainees should be held instead of Guantanamo.

 

The order ending harsh interrogations also requires that all interrogations follow the US Army's Field Manual interrogation guidelines, which ban the use of techniques such as "waterboarding," which simulates the sensation of drowning.

 

It also ends US government reliance on a series of controversial legal advice notes on the treatment of prisoners drawn up by Bush administration advisers.

 

Obama also issued a memorandum ordering a review of the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a Qatari citizen and the only "enemy combatant" held on US soil at a Navy prison in South Carolina.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

Razor wire rises to the sky at the Camp 5 maximum security facility on the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

 

Al-Jazeera