Obama Gives One-year Deadline To Close Gitmo

The road is long and rough for President Barack Hussein Obama to make right the wrongs his predecessor had committed while in office.

But it's good to know that he kept his word on closing the evil Guantanamo Bay. He did not waste anytime issuing the order.

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama took the reins of US foreign policy on Thursday with orders to close the Guantanamo prison, crack down on harsh interrogation methods and eliminate secret CIA detention centers that drew ire from US friends and foes alike.

The order to close the controversial prison, a symbol of detainee abuse and detention without charge under the Republican administration of George W. Bush, fulfilled a promise Obama made during his campaign and signaled the urgency he felt about improving the US image abroad.

We...will uphold our fundamental values as vigilantly as we protect our security. I can say without equivocation that the United States will not torture." Obama said during an afternoon visit to the State Department.

In the first of three executive orders Obama set a one-year deadline for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and kicked off a review process to deal with relocating, releasing or prosecuting the remaining detainees.

The order halts the military commissions set up to try prisoners and requires that conditions at the facility until its closure be humane.

Deciding to close the facility is the first step in a complicated process to determine the fate of its 250 inmates, many of whom have been held for years without trial.

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