Guantanamo Reversal from Obama

Tuesday, 08 March 2011 | by Pat's Picks

More than two years after he vowed to close Guantanamo Bay,  President Obama announced plans yesterday to create a formal system of indefinite detention for detainees reports the Washington Post. Insiders say it’s an acknowledgment by the president of the reality that many prisoners will likely spend years, if not longer, in the detention center. The system will give them a way to argue their case for release.

Critics, however, say the executive order represents a complete policy reversal from the president’s campaign promise to shutter Guantanamo within one year. Says the exec. director of the ACLU: ““It is virtually impossible to imagine how one closes Guantanamo in light of this executive order.” A lawyer represent more than a dozen detainees at Guantanamo says “he sees no substantive difference between the new system and the review process under the George W. Bush administration, just ‘a new cast of characters’ sitting on review boards.”

(Photo via Wikipedia)