Obama to shut down Guantanamo Bay

[Sionnach Glic]

Barack Obama will move swiftly to close Guantanamo Bay as soon as he takes office, his aides revealed today, a clear and early sign of how aggressively he wants to break with President Bush the moment he is sworn in.

Mr Obama is planning to ship dozens of terror suspects from the prison to face criminal trial in the US as part of a plan to shut the jail down. It is a controversial move but one that demonstrates how abruptly he plans to change Washington in terms of policy, personnel and tone the moment he enters the Oval Office.

Mr Obama has said he wants to hit the ground running, and already details of his ambitious agenda - as he seeks to turn his back on the Bush-era - are becoming clear. He has vowed to start immediately removing combat troops from Iraq, although in recent weeks he has become more opaque about the speed of withdrawal.

Rahm Emmanuel, Mr Obama's choice for White House chief of staff, said on Sunday that the president-elect will also waste no time in pushing ahead with a new, middle-class tax cut, and a tax increase for the wealthiest Americans - a sharp break with Mr Bush.

Mr Emmanuel added that Mr Obama would act quickly to expand health insurance coverage and reverse course on Mr Bush's energy policy, although such an agenda is hugely expensive and could be imperilled by the worsening economy and a rapidly increasing budget deficit.

One of Mr Obama's first acts could be to use the power of executive authority - which enables presidents to take action without an Act of Congress - to block the expansion of oil drilling in the Utah wilderness that Mr Bush authorised by executive order. He is also looking to use the same power to quickly lift the limits on stem cell research imposed by Mr Bush.

Yet it is the closure of Guantanamo Bay that Mr Obama believes would provide one of the starkest and most high-impact demonstrations of how he intends to seek immediate change.

He is looking at creating a new "terrorism court" on the US mainland to try up to 80 terror suspects, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed September 11 mastermind. Mr Obama said last week that he would close the prison "as quickly as we can do prudently".

Yet the move will face stiff opposition from many Republicans on Capitol Hill and a substantial number of Americans, who strongly oppose bringing terror suspects to US soil with traditional rules of evidence that give those being prosecuted the presumption of innocence.

Mr Bush refused to countenance trials on the American mainland and was finally forced by the US Supreme Court this year to allow detainees the right to have the legality of their detention adjudicated in a federal court in Washington.

Closing the jail on the US Naval base in Cuba could also create myriad other problems. Of the 255 detainees still being held there, experts believe well over 100 will probably never be charged, because there is little or no evidence linking them to terrorism.

Yet a significant number of their home countries are refusing to take them back, leaving Mr Obama with the politically difficult problem of what to do with them once they have been released. Housing them in the US, or giving them asylum, could prove to be highly controversial.

The legal team advising Mr Obama on Guantanamo believe that prosecuting the "high-value" terror suspects such Mohammed - a group of only about 30 - will require the creation of a special new court designed especially to handle highly sensitive intelligence material, a cross between a military tribunal and a federal court.

Prosecuting such high-value detainees in open federal court presents a host of problems. Evidence obtained by military interrogation would likely be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, leaving undercover CIA offices or undercover informers to take the stand.

Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor who has been advising Mr Obama on the issue, said closing the prison was a top priority. He conceded that moving the prisoners onto US soil will be controversial, but added: "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."

Mr Obama also faces doubts from many Democrats who distrust a court that gives detainees anything less than the full constitutional and legal rights afforded normal defendants. "There would be a concern about establishing a completely new system," said Adam Schiff, a Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee who is aware of the discussions inside the Obama camp.

Although a new hybrid court could prove to be unpopular, Mr Obama's advisers say he has few other options if he wants to close Guantanamo. Mr Tribe said he expects him to move quickly. "In reality...the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark," he said

[Captain Seafort]

About bloody time.

Although this bit:

the move will face stiff opposition from many Republicans on Capitol Hill and a substantial number of Americans, who strongly oppose bringing terror suspects to US soil with traditional rules of evidence that give those being prosecuted the presumption of innocence.

is, to put it mildly, fucking scary.

[Teaos]

The Dems have enough seats in both houses to pretty much do what they want. That and the fact that the Republicans would be to scared to face off against the most popular guy in the world...

[Sonic Glitch]

That and the fact that the Republicans should be to scared to face off against the most popular guy in the world...

Edited for accuracy. The fact that he is the most popular guy in the world may not stop them.

[Mikey]

About bloody time.

Although this bit:

the move will face stiff opposition from many Republicans on Capitol Hill and a substantial number of Americans, who strongly oppose bringing terror suspects to US soil with traditional rules of evidence that give those being prosecuted the presumption of innocence.

is, to put it mildly, f***ing scary.

Not really surprising, though, considering they are holdovers from the same party who endorsed the stripping of prisoner's rights from those inmates in the first place.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

About damned time. Mister Obama, I salute you.