President Barack Obama began overhauling U.S. treatment of terror suspects Thursday, signing orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, review military trials of suspects and ban the harshest interrogation methods.
With three executive orders and a presidential directive signed in the Oval Office, Obama started reshaping how the United States prosecutes and questions al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters who pose a threat to Americans.
The centerpiece order would close the much-maligned U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year, a complicated process with many unanswered questions that was nonetheless a key campaign promise of Obama’s.
The administration already has suspended trials for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.
In other actions, Obama:
Created a task force that would have 30 days to recommend policies on handling terror suspects who are detained in the future. Specifically, the group would look at where those detainees should be housed since Guantanamo is closing.
Required all U.S. personnel to follow the U.S. Army Field Manual while interrogating detainees. The manual explicitly prohibits threats, coercion, physical abuse and waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning and has been termed a form of torture by critics.
However, a Capitol Hill aide says that the administration also is planning a study of more aggressive interrogation methods that could be added to the Army manual, which would create a significant loophole to Obama’s action Thursday.
Directed the Justice Department to review the case of Qatar native Ali al-Marri, who is the only enemy combatant currently being held on U.S. soil.
An estimated 245 men are being held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, most of whom have been detained for years without being charged with a crime.
Among the sticky issues the Obama administration has to resolve are where to put those detainees, whether back in their home countries or at other federal detention centers, and how to prosecute some of them for war crimes.
(Source: CBS News)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
5 Responses
It seems like terrorists have a friend in the White House now. Being ‘nice’ 5to them is not going to make them into good people. They just laugh at us and go back to murdering and terrorizing,better than before,now that they learned more tricks from their fellow inmates.May Hashem protect us,the USA and Jews,Israel and humanity!!
I agree, let’s close down this most maligned Gitmo prison and open a different one in Guam.
If they qualify as “combatants” then we can follow the Geneva Accords, which the US signed, and hold them until the war is over (or until they die of old age, whichever comes first). The cold war lasted over 40 years (the Crusades lasted several centuries), so unless al-Queda surrenders, they got a long wait. There is no legal issue dealing with POWs. If they file for a writ of Habeus Corpus, the response will be they are POWs. We’ve been there, done that, no big deal, solid precedent.
For the ones who claim they were non-combatants, and the USA has no real evidence to the contrary, and if their home country agrees with them, let them go. Any Saudi citizen (as is typical) who is a threat to the USA is not going to be anxious about being sent “home”, as they consider Osama to be a traitor. What would have happened to a Swiss civilian captured by the Allies while visiting the front lines in WWII (the Swiss government vouched for him, and he probably would have been released immediately).
Things such as keeping Osama’s driver for eight years make the US look foolish (we only kept Hitler’s driver for two years, after the war ended).
The issue in the war is the desire of al Queda to make us give up our freedoms, and Bush played into his hands by making random arrests of non-combatants thorughout the world, and totally ignoring the legal system most Americans are justifiably proud of.
They dont come under the rules of the Geneva Convention as they are not from a country. If they were a “country” fighting the USA, they would have these “rights” but since they are a band of thieves they should not get these rights.
I wonder what he wants to do with these criminals? I hear Sen Murtha wants them in Western PA when they are released from Club Gitmo.
BS”D
Maybe they will be legalized and given jobs in the new, kinder, gentler Obama style unionized Agriprocessors (under new politically correct ownership of course).