WASHINGTON, January 22—Today, Witness Against Torture — the organization that first marched to Guantanamo in 2005 to protest the prison there — applauds President Barack Obama's executive orders to shut down Guantanamo and the CIA "black sites," and to end the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used by the CIA at Guantanamo and other prisons. According to the Guantanamo order, "The detention facilities at Guantanamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order."

"President Obama has taken important first steps to undo much of what was worst about Bush administration policies," said Matthew Daloisio, one of those who marched to Guantanamo. "We remain concerned, however, that the order leaves open the possibility that Guantanamo will stay open another year, allows for a new system of detention without charge, and does not adequately address other facilities, such as that in Bagram, Afghanistan, that share the problems of Guantanamo. We therefore call on the Obama administation to take additional steps to restore fairness and the rule of law and to advance true security."

Focus on People
Since its inception, Witness Against Torture has focused on seeing the humanity of the men our government has told us are the "worst of the worst." Even before the claims that Guantanamo was teaming with high-level Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives were categorically refuted by legal analyses, we looked through bars and barbed wire, past government propaganda, and across religious and ethnic difference to see the father, the son, the uncle, the man.

We now know that the vast majority of those who have languished in this modern day heart of darkness are not dangerous enemies of the United States. We know the prison has held boys like Yasser al Zahrani, a 16-year-old picked up in 2002 — in the wrong place at the wrong time — and who took his own life while in his fifth year at Guantanamo. We know that innocent men remain there, who continue to protest their confinement and inhumane treatment with hunger strikes. We know that their torment must end right away.

Justice Delayed Is (Still) Justice Denied
The president's executive order acknowledges that most of the Guantanamo detainees have been held for at least four years, and many for more than six years, without charge. One more year is too long. Witness joins with the Center for Constitutional Rights in calling for the closure of Guantanamo within 100 days. (See CCR's detailed plan for its quick closure.)

On the disposition of the detainees, Witness calls for a) the immediate transfer of those already cleared by the Department of Defense to their home countries — or to other third countries, such as Portugal or Switzerland, willing to take them; b) the transfer of those who can be charged with crimes to federal prisons in the U.S., to be followed soon thereafter by c) trials in federal criminal court. WAT agrees with Congressman John Murtha that such detainees can be held in U.S. prisons just as safely as at Guantanamo. Finally, while the transfers are in process, WAT calls for an immediate end to solitary confinement, the closure of Camps 5 and 6, greater detainee access to medical and legal assistance, and the full restoration of their Geneva Convention rights.

Changing the Discussion
For too long, the Bush administration's line that Guantanamo holds "the worst of the worst" has held sway in the public discourse. As a result, today, we see disproportionate concern — even panic — over the possible transfer to US prisons of those detainees who might stand trial and the question of what to do with detainees who have been tortured but may still be guilty of serious crimes. These concerns obscure the fact that Guantanamo was never about bringing detainees to justice: it was a site for abusive interrogations, beyond the reach of the law, that entirely destroyed the possibility for real justice. We must make a clean break with the entire "legal" regime of the Bush administration, and move the detainees into a genuine and uncompromising system of due process. No special courts. No detention without charge and trial.

The discussion must also shift to why the rights of habeas corpus and other legal protections won by Guantanamo detainees do not extend to the approximately 20,000 men, women, and children held in US prisons around the world. Guantanamo is just the tip of a vast network of extra-legal detention. What of Bagram? Abu Ghraib? Other facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere? What will the Obama administration do about the rest America's global gulag?

Transparency and the Rule of Law
Earlier in the week, Witness praised the president for declaring that "transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstone of this administration." When it comes to closing Guantanamo and ending the CIA's rendition and torture programs, "transparency and an end to seven years of torture and indefinite detention are two sides of the same coin," said Frida Berrigan of Witness Against Torture. "And we need more transparency in holding the responsible parties accountable for the immoral and illegal policies that have, in fact, made America less safe."

Torture and Accountability
The Attorney General-designate says unequivocally that "waterboarding is torture," knowing full well that interrogators waterboarded detainees at Guantanamo. The Pentagon's convener of military commissions at Guantanamo acknowledged that at least one detainee's case did not go forward because she concluded that he had been tortured. In short, these are allegations of war crimes. Other torture practices, which have received less attention than the notorious waterboarding, must also be addressed.

Witness Against Torture calls on President Obama to appoint a special prosecutor, armed with subpoena power, to begin investigations into possible war crimes by US personnel at Guantanamo and elsewhere in the American global detention system, as well as into the processes — carried out at the highest levels of our government — through which torture became US policy.

If President Obama is to keep his word on the central place of the rule of law in his administration, he must investigate the alleged crimes of the previous administration. "He might think it easier to put the divisions of the past eight years behind us by ignoring such allegations," said Berrigan. "But we cannot reliably prevent the crimes of the future unless we full understand, account for, and appropriately punish the crimes of the past. We fear that efforts to move forward without a process of justice, truth-telling, and reconciliation are doomed to fail."

100 days to close Guantanamo. Due process for the detained. Accountability. The return of the rule of law.

Contact: Matt Daloisio, 201-264-4424, daloisio@earthlink.net