21 January 2009
Obama Asks for 120-Day Delay for Guantánamo Trial System
Military judge halts detainee proceedings
Washington — At the request of President Obama, trial proceedings of detainees at the detention center in the Guantánamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba have been suspended until approximately May 20, a Pentagon official says.
At a Pentagon briefing January 21, deputy spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters that “the president has clearly made his intentions well known.” Obama pledged during his presidential campaign that he would eventually close the detention center, which has been housed at Guantánamo Bay since it was created in 2002.
Obama directed Defense Secretary Robert Gates to suspend military commission proceedings for 120 days, Whitman said. The president has indicated that his new administration needs time to evaluate the military commissions system established to try detainees accused of war crimes and terrorist acts.
U.S. Representative Jane Harman, who is chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment, said January 21 that the action taken by the president calls “for a 120-day stay on actions of these military commissions. I would hope that within that time frame we will figure out a way to try those who should be tried in the [United States]; to release those who should be released ... and then to transfer most of the detainees for trial elsewhere.”
The facility currently holds approximately 245 detainees captured in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places since the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001.
“In order to permit the newly inaugurated president and his administration time to review the military commission process, generally, and the cases currently pending before the military commissions, specifically, the secretary of defense has, by order of the president, directed the chief prosecutor to seek continuances of 120 days in all pending cases,” a U.S. prosecutor said in a written petition to the military judges.
Army Colonel Stephen Henley issued the freeze on legal proceedings after a brief hearing at the military commission facility January 21, according to news reports.
Gates had recommended closing the detention center more than two years ago and specifically asked his staff for a proposal on how to close it and move the detainees from the facility, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said December 18 at a news briefing.
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 established military commissions to try alien unlawful enemy combatants engaged in hostilities against the United States for violations of the law of war and other offenses triable by a military commission, according to a Pentagon fact sheet.
