Obama orders Guantanamo prison closing

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Source: CCTV.com | 01-23-2009 08:53

US President Barack Obama has signed orders to close Guantanamo prison within one year, review military trials of terror suspects and ban the harshest interrogation tactics.

US President Barack Obama holds an executive order related to the closing of the "War on Terror" prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after signing it during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.(AFP/Saul Loeb)

The moves mark a reversal of eight years of Bush administration policies sharply criticized at home and overseas.

The new president set a one-year deadline for shutting Guantanamo and barred harsh treatment of terrorism suspects held there.

The order calls for a series of reviews on the status of the detainees at the prison and the military commissions set up to try them.

Anyone covered by the order who is still in detention when the prison is closed shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another US detention facility.

Obama said he didn't want to have to make a "false choice" between waging war against terrorism and hewing to US human rights ideals in the process.

Obama said the message his administration is sending around the world is that the US intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and to do so vigilantly.

The Prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has damaged America's moral standing in the world. Prisoners have been detained for years without charge, some subjected to interrogation that human rights groups say amounted to torture.