Obama Issues 4 Executive Orders, Closing Guantánamo Prison Camp, Banning Torture
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Related subjects: Executive Powers, J.E. Robertson, Obama administration, Obama's 1st 100 days, Rendition & Ghost Flights, Rights & Freedoms, Security & Surveillance, U.S. Law, U.S. Politics, U.S. news Comments (1)
Pres. Obama today signed 4 executive orders dramatically redirecting administration policy from that of the Bush administration. He signed one order to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp by 22 January 2010, another to close CIA “black site” prisons across the globe, another would establish a special task force in collaboration with Defense Secretary Robert Gates to determine detention policy going forward, and the fourth would require all US personnel to adhere at all times to the rules for treatment of prisoners as laid out in the Army Field Manual.
The orders demonstrate a firm rooting in the principle that the rule of law must prevail and that the moral failings of one’s enemy should not be allowed to erode the devotion with which US officials honor their oath to uphold the Constitution and its attendant constraints on power and principles of due process. Pres. Obama did not clarify whether individual officials from the Bush administration will face prosecution for what many say are fundamental violations of Constitutional law.
The orders are part of what has been a rapid-fire effort to take a firm stand on issues related to government transparency and the rule of law. Pres. Obama is a former Constitutional law professor and has often painted efforts to circumvent due process laws or protections against prisoner abuse as efforts to undermine the Constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle of a democratic government that cannot act on executive fiat.
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In what appeared to be a reference to Obama’s ongoing assertion that it requires more courage to stand by one’s convictions than to privilege force over democratic principles, the president finished his comments saying “We intend to win this war, but we’re going to win it on our terms”. Then senator or candidate Obama had often suggested that to allow abusive treatment or interrogations without due process was to abandon “our terms”, the very idea of a government that abides by the rule of law and establishes justice by way of fair hearings in open court.
On the campaign trail, Obama often said he would establish, or would favor Congress establishing an investigatory commission to at least find out the truth about all prisoner abuse allegations and that it would be necessary to evaluate whether laws were broken and whether prosecution would then be an appropriate remedy. The task force he established today may perform some of these tasks, but it is not clear if their main role will be advising on policy, or examining how to deal with the potential illegality of past prisoner treatment.
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[...] On his second day in office, he banned torture and called for a review of all cases of terror suspects, to craft the proper means of bringing them to justice within the Constitutional system of government that by law the United States adheres to. He ordered the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp in Cuba, where prisoners were held without legal counsel, without the hearing of evidence and without charge, indefinitely, and the closing of CIA ‘black site’ prisons around the world. [...]