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Obama Signs Order to Close Guantanamo Bay Within a Year

by Rob Walker | January 22, 2009 at 09:25 am

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United States President Barack Obama signed the order to close Guantanamo bay within a year, saying the move would restore his country's 'moral high ground'. He also appointed an attorney to prosecute high profile terror cases.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Thursday to close the controversial detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within a year, saying the move would restore his country's "moral high ground" in the battle against terrorism.
"We intend to win this fight, and we're going to win it on our terms," Obama said at a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C.

Following his executive order yesterday to halt all trials at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, new US President Barack Obama has appointed an attorney who was fired by the Bush administration to be the prosecutor for Guantanamo cases, in a civil court.

Along with closing down Guantanamo Bay, Obama ordered the CIA to close down secret overseas prisons and banned any interrogation method not in US military guidelines.

President Barack Obama on Thursday moved quickly to undo a contentious Bush administration national security program, ordering the CIA to close down secret overseas prisons and the Pentagon to close down the Guantanamo prison within a year. The president also banned the harshest interrogation methods.

Obama's staff at the White House are saying that going to work there is like going into a technological dark age. 'It's kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari' says one Obama aide.

While the staffers are used to working on new Macbooks, with full access to social media tools and sites, the computers at the white house are running microsoft windows that are years out of date, and are prevented from accessing outside tools for a variety of administrative and security reasons.

Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.

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lefty_liberated

at 09:41 on January 22nd, 2009

yes indeed.

Barbara McPherson

at 09:54 on January 22nd, 2009

It will be a long climb to that high ground, but this is a good beginning.

dmeieran

at 10:45 on January 22nd, 2009

The 100 Days Campaign to Close Guantanamo and End Torture features a sustained presence at the White House and events across the US including screenings, lectures, community meetings and creative actions. For more info visit www.100dayscampaign.org

dmeieran has contributed a photo to this story.

Uwe Paschen

at 15:59 on January 22nd, 2009

That is good news and I hope he will do as well with the Afghan War, and the Israel-o-Palestinian conflict as well as with UN, allowing the UN to work and do their job in the middle east and with Zimbabwe as well as paying the outstanding amount owned to the UN.