Obama Orders Detention Facility at Guantanamo Closed

Moving to make good on one of his key campaign pledges, President Obama this morning signed a series of executive orders to close the detention facility at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The orders, signed at a West Wing ceremony, specify the closure should occur within 12 months. Obama is also ending what the new administration believes are harsh interrogation techniques used previously. Obama has said the United States will fight terrorism "in a manner consistent with our values and ideals."

The timetable means the clock is ticking on figuring out just what to do with the 245 detainees being held at Gitmo. Among them: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

A senior administration official says detainees will eventually be classified into various groups, ranging from those who could be released, to those who cannot. The official said that some detainees could still be "in detention for years," but added "but not without due process."

Among the options at the administration's disposal for detainees: repatriation to their home country or a willing third country, civil trials in the U.S., or a special civil or military process. The official told reporters that prisoners would be released or transferred on a rolling basis, based on how their individual cases are determined.

The administration is now in contact with foreign governments to take detainees who may be released at a future date. The official said detainees would not be sent to countries with a reputation for torturing prisoners; he did not say what countries were under consideration. No countries have stepped forward and volunteered to accept anyone to date; the official said "We hope some will help us."

Future interrogations of detainees will be done within the parameters of the Geneva Conventions, the official said, and will use only techniques listed in the Army Field Manual - a reference to waterboarding, which will be discontinued.

The administration's review process for detainees will be overseen by a high level committee comprised of the Attorney General, the Secretaries of Defense, State, Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

White House Briefing

With election day two weeks away, why hasn't the president been campaigning for John McCain? White House spokesperson Dana Perino says Sen. McCain -- who now goes to great lengths to distance himself from Mr. Bush, by saying "I'm not George Bush" - is running his campaign as he sees fit. Besides, Perino says, the president has had a lot on his plate the last few months: notably Russia's invasion of Georgia and the economic crisis. Does this suggest he's too busy to help Sen. McCain? "Not at all," says Perino.

The possibility of a second round of economic stimulus checks is on the White House radar, but with Congress away for the next few weeks, the White House is not expecting anything to happen anytime soon. Does the White House support the idea? "We're open to any and all ideas," Perino says. But she points out the massive $700 billion rescue package approved by Congress and signed by the president is still in the pipeline: "It'll take a while for that to have an impact."

Perino knocked down the The New York Times article claiming President Bush has decided not to close the U.S. Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some 272 detainees are being held. "The president remains committed to closing Guantanamo," she said, "But it is complicated." Perino cited several reasons, including ongoing habeus corpus litigation, military tribunals and the unresolved issue of where to move any detainees that might be released. "Guantanamo would be easy to close," she says, "If you don't care about those issues."

Attorney General defends Department of Justice

Attorney General Michael Mukasey spoke today at a hearing concerning “Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice,” for the House Judiciary Committee. Although Mukasey was never sworn in, he defended the DOJ’s actions over the past few years and spoke about the changes they are making with voting rights, concerns over Guantanamo Bay and other domestic issues.

Mukasey spoke about the changes the DOJ has made with outreach and monitoring, they have been working with civil rights groups and state and local elections officials to identify and solve problems. Also, on election day, the DOJ will deploy hundreds of observers and monitors around the country, so that the American people have confidence in our electoral process.

Mukasey said that “I do feel that it is urgent to address the Boumediene v. Bush case,” because there is an ultimate risk that terrorists could be released in the United States from Guantanamo Bay. Congress and the Executive Branch are in a better position than the courts to create practical procedures and rules to govern the habeas corpus hearings required by the Supreme Court, procedures and rules that would both give the detainees what process they are due and accommodate the grave national security concerns involved, he said.

“We believe firmly in a comprehensive approach to law enforcement in stopping gang violence,” Mukasey said. The U.S. is facing on an international level more organized crime and the U.S. needs to do more, he said. On the issue of prison overcrowding, Mukasey said that federal prisons are handling the situation, but state prisons, especialy on the southern border are severely overcrowded.

Water boarding proved "very valuable" in Guantanamo

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft spoke at the fifth part of a hearing entitled “From the Department of Justice to Guantanamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules.” Ashcroft defended the Department of Justice’s action in Guantanamo Bay, saying that they worked within the framework of the law and never supported torture.

Ashcroft said that after 9/11, the Bush Administration’s overriding goal was to do everything within its power and within the limits of the law, to keep this country and the American people safe from terrorist attacks. He spoke about the Administration’s efforts to work within the law and follow Supreme Court rulings about torture and interrogations in Guantanamo, and that water boarding was never ruled as torture and has “proved very valuable.” Although the Supreme Court ultimately ruled against certain features of Administration policy in each of these cases, the “Justices themselves were closely divided and the courts of appeals had uniformly upheld the Administration’s positions.”

Ashcroft spoke in defense of the several memos in the Department of Justice about interrogation techniques and anti-torture, saying they were all legal and worked off Supreme Court decisions. Ashcroft said that the Administration’s continual quest for legal guidance and specific authorization for measures necessitated by the “war on terror” is evidence of a government striving to keep within the limits of law, not one seeking to ignore or evade those limits.

Also at the hearing was Benjamin Wittes, follow and research director in public law at the Brookings Institute. Wittes said that the Army Field Manual contains a great deal of specificity about the interrogation tactics used and it is a mark of how successful the policy changes have been that not even human rights groups today complain much about contemporary military interrogation policies. However, the current state of the law is inadequate due to the vagueness which gives the Administration enough interpretive latitude to authorize some pretty extreme tactics, such as water boarding, Wittes said.

Third Time is a Charm

Talk Radio News Service bureau chief Ellen Ratner writes about the personal meaning of the landmark Supreme Court ruling on the rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Click hear to read her blog.