[Peace-discuss] Plans for Gitmo

[Ron Szoke]

[NYT[  January 13, 2009
Obama Plans to Order Closing of Guantánamo on 1st Full Day

By WILLIAM GLABERSON and HELENE COOPER

President-elect Barack Obama plans to issue an executive order on his first full 
day in office directing the closing of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in 
Cuba, people briefed by Obama transition officials said Monday.

But experts say it is likely to take many months, perhaps as long as a year, to 
empty the prison that has drawn international criticism since it received its first 
prisoners seven years ago this week. One transition official said the new 
administration expected that it would take several months to transfer some of 
the remaining 248 prisoners to other countries, decide how to try suspects and 
deal with the many other legal challenges posed by closing the camp.

People who have discussed the issues with transition officials in recent weeks 
said it appeared that the broad outlines of plans for the detention camp were 
taking shape. They said transition officials appeared committed to ordering an 
immediate suspension of the Bush administration’s military commissions 
system for trying detainees.

In addition, people who have conferred with transition officials said the 
incoming administration appeared to have rejected a proposal to seek a new 
law authorizing indefinite detention inside the United States. The Bush 
administration has insisted that such a measure is necessary to close the 
Guantánamo camp and bring some detainees to the United States.

Mr. Obama has repeatedly said he wants to close the camp. But in an interview 
on Sunday on ABC, he indicated that the process could take time, saying, “It is 
more difficult than I think a lot of people realize.” Closing it within the first 100 
days of his administration, he said, would be “a challenge.”

The president-elect drew criticism from some human rights groups Monday 
who said his remarks suggested that closing Guantánamo was not among the 
new administration’s highest priorities. But even if the detention camp remains 
open for months, the decision to address Guantánamo on the day after his 
inauguration seemed intended to make a symbolic break with some of the most 
controversial policies of the Bush administration.
. . .

[Truncated]