News of Guantanamo's closure welcomed worldwide

[bemildred]

Source: AP

GENEVA (AP) — Former detainees, human-rights advocates and government officials around the world welcomed President Barack Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, saying Thursday it helped restore their faith in the United States.

The U.N.'s torture investigator, Manfred Nowak, said news that Obama will order the prison closed, review military trials of terror suspects and end harsh interrogations was a sign of goodwill by the new American administration. But he warned that shutting the prison will require difficult decisions and said freed inmates should be allowed to sue the United States if they were mistreated.

"Justice also means to look into the past," Nowak told The Associated Press. Nowak, an Austrian law professor, has previously said he had reliable accounts to indicate that Guantanamo detainees have been tortured.

Pentagon official Susan Crawford told The Washington Post in an interview published last week that the United States tortured one inmate, a Saudi named Mohammed al-Qahtani, in 2002. She was the first senior Bush administration official to make such a statement.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i2meZSL5zDlLUUP8VT3PLRZlt5ZgD95S8MGG0

[bemildred]

1. Obama to close detention sites used overseas

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is expected to take the first steps to undo Bush-era detention policies today, signing executive orders directing the CIA to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, government officials said.

The orders would rewrite U.S. rules for the detention of terrorism suspects. They would require an immediate review of the 245 detainees still held at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to determine if they should be transferred, released or prosecuted.

The orders would bring to an end a CIA program that kept terrorism suspects in secret custody for months or years, a practice that has brought fierce criticism from foreign governments and human rights activists. They also will prohibit the CIA from using coercive interrogation methods, requiring the agency to follow the same rules used by the military in interrogating terrorism suspects, government officials said.

But the orders would leave unresolved complex questions surrounding the closing of the Guantánamo prison, including whether, where and how many of the detainees are to be prosecuted. They also could allow Obama to reinstate the CIA's detention and interrogation operations in the future, by presidential order, as some have argued would be appropriate if Osama bin Laden or another top-level leader of al-Qaida were captured.

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_11510960

[bemildred]

2. CORRECTED: Obama spy chief choice backs Guantanamo closure

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. spy chief backed closing Guantanamo prison and said humane treatment standards for terrorism suspects must apply thought the government, breaking with the Bush administration's insistence on an exemption for the CIA.

"I agree with the president that the detention center at Guantanamo has become a damaging symbol to the world and that it must be closed," retired Adm. Dennis Blair told a Senate hearing on his nomination as Director of National Intelligence.

"There must be clear standards for humane treatment that apply to all agencies of U.S. government, including the intelligence community," Blair said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE50L42I20090122

[Clear Blue Sky]

3. What happens to the detainees once Gitmo closes?

[bemildred]

4. Normal civil legal process.

There civil rights will be restored. They will in due course either be tried or freed. Places will be found for them to go to.

[Clear Blue Sky]

6. Can't try them.

None have been given Miranda rights. Their cases will be tossed out of any US court.

Disclaimer, I'm not an attorney and my take on it may be off.

[bemildred]

7. OK, that works for me. I'm not a lawyer either. nt

[Tempest]

5. The U.S. is trying to get other countries to take some of them

Others will be released.

I believe Sweden has agreed to take some, but there's not many countries willing to.

[Harry Monroe]

8. Bit by bit, Obama is restoring our reputation around the world

LOVIN' IT!!!

[HopeHoops]

9. Not to mention in Cuba