Executive Orders for Guantanamo Bay

Earlier today on the second day of his Presidency, Barack Obama signed four executive orders related to Guantanamo Bay. The four orders spiraled from an anticipated desire to break from the Bush administration policies, and for the new President's wish to win the war on terror on his own terms.

Gitmo History
After the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan which began in October 2001, the U.S. government contemplated what to do about potential enemy captives that were held in military custody. These captives were arrested by American soldiers during battle, turned over to troops by Afghan allies, and collected by bounty hunters who seeked big profits for their capture.

Following September 11, 2001, now former President George W. Bush declared that the U.S. was in a "war on terror." Shortly thereafter, a question lingered as to if the captives were deemed as prisoners of war? The U.S. government thought otherwise. They believed that because these captives were not affiliated with any recognizable military force, they didn't qualify for protection as prisoners of war under the international rules of war via the literature and protocols of the Geneva Convention. Therefore, these captives did not fall into a category which kept them in legal bounds for trial and dodging extensive interrogations.

And then there was Guantanamo Bay Prison, or 'Gitmo' for short. The first prisoners arrived at the U.S. detention facility in Cuba in 2002. U.S. officials who supported the detention facility argued that the prisoners in custody were enemy fighters who had few legal rights and could be interrogated about their potential links to Islamist extremist groups. At the time, the U.S. announced that it was to try these prisoners using military commissions, a process that was intended for dispensing battlefield justice to captives or suspected war criminals caught outside the United States (more information involving military commissions can be found on the Department of Defense website). This process had not been used since after WWII, and legal-rights activists around the world and within the U.S. were distraught with this decision.

In 2003 and onward, many court challenges were brought forth demanding full legal rights for prisoners at Guantanamo, plus the right to be tried in a civilian or military court. This would allow for the inmates to challenge evidence against them in the prosecution, and to call on any witnesses necessary, as well as to form an appeal to higher courts. Courts in the U.S. began to make rulings on these challenges, and many courts discovered that the inmates should be entitled to certain rights.

In 2004, the inmates were put before a panel for their review, to determine whether they were captured foreign soldiers or not. Nearly all the inmates were declared "unlawful enemy combatants," which prevented them from receiving the rights outlined in the Geneva Convention. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court reached a split decision, declaring that military commissions were in fact illegal, which created a violation of the Geneva Convention for the United States government. The ruling followed cases filed by inmates who challenged their detention. A then Republican-controlled U.S. Congress responded to the Supreme Court ruling by passing the Military Commissions Act. It took the court's concerns into account, allowing avenues of appeal and explicitly prohibiting evidence obtained through torture.

In June 2008, a more recent U.S. Supreme Court decision was ruled in favor of the Guantanamo detainees. This new ruling allowed them the right to habeas corpus, a mandate allowing prisoners the right to be brought to court to determine if the individual is imprisoned lawfully.

Overall, in the history of the detention facility, the U.S. government has charged only 21 inmates with crimes, including alleged alleged Sept.11 mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed are among those who've been charged. Many questions remain unanswered after the numerous court proceedings brought forth during the Bush administration, which shed mass confusion as to the process of detaining potential terrorists. This leads us to the new administration which will decide the legal proceedings and the fate of the current detainees at Gitmo.

Executive Orders

The first of the orders will require the eradication of the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year. The second order formally bans torture by requiring that the Army uses its field manual as a guide when conducting terror interrogations. This will eliminate any additional interrogation methods that the Bush administration was criticized for potentially using, such as waterboarding. The third order actually establishes an interagency task force which will be responsible for the review of all detention policies and all individuals on a case-by-case basis. And the final executive order will delay the trial of a man by the named of Ali al-Marri. He is a legal U.S. resident who has been contesting his detention for more than five years, meanwhile the government has failed to bring any charges against him.

These executive orders were long awaited by some who believed that the Bush administration had used torture methods on terror detainees at the detention facility, although these claims were repeatedly denied by the government. However, Obama's move does not come without criticism either. The dilemma he now faces is where the 245 current detainees will be placed when the facility is closed. This vital question is being tossed around due to the severity of implications that may arise if the prisoners are brought back within U.S. borders. Also, another question remains of what the U.S. government will do with the $500 million facility built at Guantanamo Bay following the release of the prisoners. We will have to listen closely to the debates that pan out between President Obama and Congress in the near future, as heated arguments are sure to arise given the significance of the issue.