A year left for Guantanamo

Washington: Pressing forward on a vow to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, the Obama administration circulated a draft order on Wednesday calling for review of all 245 prisoners' cases and closure of the prison within a year.

The order, which is expected to be signed in the next few days, followed by mere hours the new president's appeal to military judges to halt ongoing prosecutions of terrorism suspects.

Army colonels presiding over the two cases scheduled for hearings this week suspended those proceedings, sending the defendants back to their cells and mothballing the tribunal at the US Navy base in southern Cuba.

The swift steps by the Obama administration defeated an attempt by advocates of the war-crimes court to see the internationally maligned military commissions forced onto the new White House. Some Republican leaders pressed on with the fight to keep the prison and tribunal functioning, saying it protects national security.

"The key question is where do you put these terrorists? Do you bring them inside our borders? Do you release them back into the battlefield? Is it really necessary to suspend the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the avowed mastermind of the September 11 plot, even though he has objected to the delay?" House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio demanded to know after learning of the pending closure order.

"If there is a better solution, we're open to hearing it," he said. "But most communities around America don't want dangerous terrorists imported into their neighbourhoods, and I can't blame them."

The government has been slowly whittling down the Guantanamo population over the past three years by transferring to their home countries those deemed little threat to US or allied security. Six prisoners were repatriated last week, and the releases and transfers for rehabilitation are expected to accelerate as the Obama administration evaluates the evidence against those remaining.

The executive draft on closing Guantanamo drew praise from some human rights advocates and appeals from others for a speedier dismantling of the Bush administration's detention and prosecution legacies.

"It only took days to put these men in Guantanamo. It shouldn't take a year to get them out," said Vincent Warren, executive director of the Centre for Constitutional Rights that has spearheaded the battle against the offshore justice system since President George W Bush created it shortly after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Warren said he was "proud that President Obama made addressing Guantanamo one of his first acts in office." But he said rights advocates were disappointed that the draft order contained "no concrete steps for closing the base" and gave officials an entire year to empty the prison.

Human Rights Watch praised President Barack Obama for putting the Justice Department, instead of the military, in charge of reviewing prisoners' cases.

"It sends a message," said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for the rights group. "Symbolically, putting the attorney general in charge signals doing this consistent with the rule of law is the first priority."

Clive Stafford Smith, founder of the British rights group Reprieve and defence lawyer for British prisoner Binyam Mohammad, urged European countries to help Obama close Guantanamo by taking in those detainees who cannot be returned to their home countries for fear of torture or execution.

Foremost among the 21 men facing war-crimes charges at Guantanamo are Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and four confessed Sept. 11 co-conspirators.

- Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service