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Obama orders Guantanamo closed, end to CIA prisons, harsh interrogations

Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers • Published February 07, 2009

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Thursday signed executive orders to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay within a year, and to ban the Central Intelligence Agency from operating other detention facilities.

Obama's orders also revoked the Bush administration's interpretations of what kind of interrogations are permitted under the Geneva Conventions and told interrogators they must abide by the limits on interrogation techniques contained in the Army Field Manual and in other U.S. laws.

The same order also told interrogators that they could no longer rely on any legal interpretation issued between Sept. 11, 2001 and Jan. 20, 2009, Obama's inauguration date — language that may indicate that the Obama White House is uncertain what other legal justifications for the Bush detainee policies may exist.

The president signed the orders in the Oval Office just after 11 a.m., with Vice President Joe Biden at his side, after meeting with a group of retired military officers. "We can abide by a rule that says 'We don't torture,' " Obama said. The orders, he said, reflect "an understanding that dates back to our Founding Fathers that we are willing to observe…standards of conduct not just when it is easy but also when it's hard."

In a third executive order, Obama established a task force to be led by the secretary of defense and the attorney general to review detainee policies and recommend other changes.

In a memordandum also releaed Thursday, Obama instructed the attorney general to conduct a review of the status of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who is currently held at the Naval Brig in Charleston, S.C. Al Marri is the only so-called "enemy combatant" held inside the United States.

The timing of these sweeping changes, on just the second full day of Obama’s presidency, is meant to send a signal to the international community that the new administration will not employ torture in interrogations of terrorism suspects and is seeking renewed trust and support of disenfranchised nations.