Obama to close terrorist ‘black sites’ + Countdown: Gitmo & Dept of Justice + Executive Orders

Dandelion Salad

Updated: 1.24.09 added another story, scroll down

Updated: added executive orders; added a video of the signing

Sara A. Carter and Eli Lake
Washington Times
Thursday, January 22, 2009

President Obama on Thursday will order the closure of so-called black sites, where CIA and European security services have interrogated terrorist suspects, under executive orders dismantling much of the Bush administration’s architecture for the war on terror, according to four individuals familiar with a draft executive order.

[…]

Mr. Obama, in one of his first acts as president, on Wednesday suspended all the military commissions for 120 days. During his campaign and after his election, he promised that his administration would not practice torture. In his Inaugural address Tuesday, he said, “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals … Those ideals still light the world and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.”

[…]

via Washington Times – Obama to close terrorist ‘black sites’.

h/t: CLG

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Countdown: Jonathan Turley visits, discusses blown Oath, Guantanamo detainees, Department of Justice

firedoglake

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Updated

Closure Of Guantanamo Detention Facilities

EXECUTIVE ORDER — REVIEW AND DISPOSITION OF INDIVIDUALS DETAINED AT THE GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVAL BASE AND CLOSURE OF DETENTION FACILITIES

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to effect the appropriate disposition of individuals currently detained by the Department of Defense at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (Guantánamo) and promptly to close detention facilities at Guantánamo, consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice, I hereby order as follows:

Section 1. Definitions. As used in this order:

(a) “Common Article 3” means Article 3 of each of the Geneva Conventions.

(b) “Geneva Conventions” means:

via Closure Of Guantanamo Detention Facilities.

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Updated

President Obama’s Signing Of Executive Order To Close GITMO!

VOTERSTHINKdotORG

http://cspanjunkie.org/

January 22, 2009 MSNBC

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Updated

Ensuring Lawful Interrogations

EXECUTIVE ORDER — ENSURING LAWFUL INTERROGATIONS

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to improve the effectiveness of human intelligence gathering, to promote the safe, lawful, and humane treatment of individuals in United States custody and of United States personnel who are detained in armed conflicts, to ensure compliance with the treaty obligations of the United States, including the Geneva Conventions, and to take care that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed, I hereby order as follows:

Section 1. Revocation. Executive Order 13440 of July 20, 2007, is revoked. All executive directives, orders, and regulations inconsistent with this order, including but not limited to those issued to or by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from September 11, 2001, to January 20, 2009, concerning detention or the interrogation of detained individuals, are revoked to the extent of their inconsistency with this order. Heads of departments and agencies shall take all necessary steps to ensure that all directives, orders, and regulations of their respective departments or agencies are consistent with this order. Upon request, the Attorney General shall provide guidance about which directives, orders, and regulations are inconsistent with this order.

Sec. 2. Definitions. As used in this order:

(a) “Army Field Manual 2 22.3” means FM 2-22.3, Human Intelligence Collector Operations, issued by the Department of the Army on September 6, 2006.

via Ensuring Lawful Interrogations.

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Updated

Review of Detention Policy Options

EXECUTIVE ORDER — REVIEW OF DETENTION POLICY OPTIONS

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to develop policies for the detention, trial, transfer, release, or other disposition of individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations that are consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice, I hereby order as follows:

Section 1. Special Interagency Task Force on Detainee Disposition.

(a) Establishment of Special Interagency Task Force. There shall be established a Special Task Force on Detainee Disposition (Special Task Force) to identify lawful options for the disposition of individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations.

(b) Membership. The Special Task Force shall consist of the following members, or their designees:

via Review of Detention Policy Options.

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Updated

Obama’s orders leave torture, indefinite detention intact

by Tom Eley
Global Research, January 23, 2009

On Thursday, President Barack Obama issued executive orders mandating the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp in a year’s time, requiring that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and military personnel follow the Army Field Manual’s prohibitions on torture, and closing secret CIA prisons overseas.

While the media is portraying these orders as a repudiation of the detention and interrogation policies of the Bush administration, they actually change little. They essentially represent a public relations effort to refurbish the image of the United States abroad after years of torture and extralegal detentions and shield high-ranking American officials from potential criminal prosecution.

via Obama’s orders leave torture, indefinite detention intact.

see

Obama’s 1st Press Conference as President + 1st Executive Order + Faux transparency

New Questions About U.S. Interrogations Techniques

Barack Obama Inauguration Speech + Transcript

Obama-Barack

Torture on Dandelion Salad

Gitmo