Having being swept into office with the promise of change, Obama has moved swiftly to dismantle some of the most controversial policies of the Bush administration's "war on terror", Tamam Ahmed Jama reports Under the Bush administration, Guantanamo Bay, the notorious off-shore US military prison in Cuba where terrorism suspects have been held for years without charge or trial, became synonymous with blatant human rights abuses committed under the cloak of combating terrorism. Barack Obama promised, during the election campaign, that he would close Guantanamo Bay, if elected president. He declared his intention to fulfil that promise the day after his historic inauguration and subsequently issued an executive order to close the controversial camp within a year. "This is a monumental break with the policies of the previous administration, which was notorious for its disregard for human rights and international law," Nafees Syed, a Harvard University student and editor of the editorial page of the university's student daily, The Harvard Crimson, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "I think it is a good first step to restore respect for human rights and repair America's image in the world. And I hope that President Obama will follow up with closing similar prisons elsewhere." The day after the new president issued the executive order to close Guantanamo Bay, columnist and associate editor Eugene Robinson wrote in The Washington Post, "The name [Guantanamo Bay] itself has become shorthand for the Bush administration's arrogant disregard for international legal norms. In terms of America's moral standing in the world and Obama's vow not to abandon our nation's noblest ideals for the sake of expedience, every day the Guantanamo prison remains open is a day too long." Along with closing Guantanamo Bay, President Obama also issued executive orders banning CIA-operated secret detention facilities as well as some of the controversial interrogation techniques. The existence of CIA-run secret prisons and the methods used to glean intelligence from terrorism suspects, the so-called "harsh interrogation techniques", have provoked widespread international condemnation. Chief among these contentious methods is a technique known as water-boarding, which involves holding the victim's head under water till he almost drowns, clearly a form of torture. Robinson urged President Obama to go a step further and order a thorough investigation that would bring to light the full extent of the human rights abuses committed in the name of combating terrorism under the Bush administration. "Obama should form an official blue-ribbon panel, some sort of 'truth commission', to investigate Bush's conduct of his 'war on terror' and report to the American people. The point isn't to prosecute anyone. The point certainly isn't to reveal genuine national security secrets which might put US lives in danger. The point is to know, and to remember. This nation's ideals of due process, rule of law, humane interrogation, privacy and governmental openness are not mere embellishments. They are essential to who we are. By disregarding those ideals, the previous administration diminished us all." Others have suggested that those individuals responsible for gross human rights abuses under the previous administration should be held to account. "This must not be the end of the story," said Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International. "All those responsible for approving and carrying out crimes such as torture, disappearances and arbitrary detention must be brought to justice, and an independent commission of inquiry into all aspects of the USA's detention and interrogation practices in the 'war on terror' must be established." There are about 250 detainees remaining in Guantanamo Bay. Only a handful of them have been charged and many have been cleared and are eligible for release. There are fears that some of the detainees may face further persecution upon being returned to their home countries. A group of 17 Chinese nationals, who were cleared for release as far back as 2004, is a case in point. The men, who are ethnic Uighurs from the Xinjiang province of western China, where there is a pro-independence movement, could face persecution by the Chinese authorities if sent home. Albania offered resettlement for another five Uighurs who were released from Guantanamo Bay in 2006. There is currently a campaign underway to find countries, mainly in the EU, which would offer political asylum to those detainees whose lives might be in danger if they returned home. So far, Portugal has come forward to say it is willing to take some of the detainees and Germany is considering the matter. Former UK attorney-general Lord Goldsmith has urged Britain to take some of the detainees to speed up the process of closing the controversial camp. Lord Goldsmith has in the past forcefully criticised Guantanamo Bay, describing it as a "symbol of injustice". It is not yet clear where the detainees who have been charged will be tried. The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which represents many of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, hailed the decision to close the infamous military prison as "the beginning of the end of lawlessness" and said the detainees should be tried in US federal courts. "There can be no third way, no new schemes for indefinite or preventive detention or alternative national security courts," the CCR said in a statement. "Any move in that direction would discredit all of the new administration's efforts in the eyes of the world."
