New boss to close Guantanamo
Bay when he takes office
Controversial move demonstrates how abruptly Obama
plans to change policy, personnel and tone
The Australian, November 12, 2008
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See Article I.3
Suspension of Basic Legal Proceedings
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President Bush, center,
meets with Sen. John McCain, far left, Sen.
Barack Obama, far left, and congressional leaders
to discuss the financial crisis, September 25,
2008.
Source: /Pablo Martinez
Monsivais, AP |
Barack Obama will move swiftly to close Guantanamo
Bay as soon as he takes office, his aides say, in
a clear and early sign of how determined he is to
break with President George W.Bush.
Under the plan being drawn up by the US president-elect's
advisers, some detainees would be released and others
would be charged in US courts, where they would receive
constitutional rights and open trials.
Underscoring the difficult decisions Senator Obama
must make to fulfil his pledge of shutting down Guantanamo,
the plan could require creation of a new legal system
to handle the classified information in some of the
most sensitive cases.
Many of the 255 Guantanamo detainees are cleared
for release, but the Bush administration has been
unable to find a country willing to take them.
As details surfaced yesterday, the plan drew criticism
from Democrats who oppose creating a new legal system
and from Republicans who oppose bringing terror suspects
to the US mainland.
The move would mark a sharp change from the Bush
administration, which established military tribunals
to prosecute detainees at the navy base in Cuba and
strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the US.
Mr Bush refused to countenance trials on the mainland
and was finally forced by the US Supreme Court this
year to allow prisoners the right to have the legality
of their detention adjudicated in a federal court.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said yesterday
that Mr Bush had faced many challenges in trying to
close the prison. "We've tried very hard to explain
to people how complicated it is," she said.
"When you pick up people off the battlefield
that have a terrorist background, it's not just so
easy to let them go."
The controversial move demonstrates how abruptly
Senator Obama plans to change Washington in terms
of policy, personnel and tone the moment he enters
the Oval Office.
Senator Obama believes the closure of Guantanamo
Bay would provide one of the starkest demonstrations
of how he intends to effect immediate change.
He is looking at creating a new "terrorism court"
on the US mainland to try up to 80 terror suspects,
including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the confessed September
11 mastermind. Senator Obama said last week that he
would close the camp "as quickly as we can do
prudently".
Closing the detention camp could create myriad other
problems. Of the 255 detainees still held there, experts
believe that more than 100 will probably never be
charged, because there is little or no evidence linking
them to terrorism.
Yet a number of their home countries have said that
they would refuse to take them back. Housing them
in the US, or giving them asylum, would be highly
controversial.
The legal team advising Senator Obama on Guantanamo
believes that prosecuting the "high-value"
terror suspects such as Khalid -- a group comprising
about 30 -- will require the creation of a special
new court designed to handle highly sensitive intelligence
material, a cross between a military tribunal and
a federal court.
