On Jan. 20, the answer to that question seemed obvious. In his inaugural speech, with George W. Bush standing just behind him, President Obama pointedly pledged to "reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals" – a clear indication that,...
Those of us who prefer justice to arbitrary and unaccountable detention without charge or trial were delighted when, last week, Barack Obama fulfilled a long-stated promise and issued a presidential order stating that Guantánamo will be closed "as soon as...
Finally! 2569 days after the prison at Guantánamo opened – but just two days into the new presidency – Barack Obama signed three executive orders and a presidential memorandum that mark a decisive break with the "War on Terror" policies of the Bush...
Two separate universes were in evidence on Tuesday. In the world of Barack Obama, the sense of change, the optimism and the intelligence were palpable, as two million Americans from every part of the United States – and numerous visitors from around the world...
Just two weeks ago, in a habeas corpus case in a Washington, DC, court, Judge Richard Leon turned the clock back to January 11, 2002 (the day Guantánamo opened) by ruling that the US government could continue holding two prisoners at Guantánamo –...
Seven years ago, on Jan. 11, 2002, when photos of the first orange-clad detainees to arrive at a hastily erected prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba were made available to the world's press, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reacted to the widespread uproar...
Since the last blowout at Guantánamo on December 8, when dozens of reporters and relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks watched as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and his alleged co-conspirators tried – and failed – to plead guilty so that they could die...
On December 11, the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a compelling report into the torture and abuse of prisoners in US custody (PDF), based on a detailed analysis of how Chinese torture techniques, which are used in US military schools to train personnel to...
Hit Me Baby One More Time There's an ambiguous undercurrent to the catchy pop smash that introduced a pigtailed Britney Spears to the world in 1999 – so much so that Jive Records changed the song's title to "… Baby One More Time" after executives...
The repatriation from Guantánamo of Salim Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, to serve out the last month of his sentence for providing material support for terrorism in Yemen, will surely hasten the demise of the prison, as promised by President-elect Barack...
