| | |  Americas & Beyond | June 2009 
White House Denies Indefinite Detention Order
 Agence France-Presse
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June 28, 2009
| | At Camp Iguana, Guantanamo Bay, a detainee is seen through a plastic window. (Brennan Linsley/AP) | |
Washington - The White House dismissed reports that it has drafted an executive order allowing indefinite detention in the United States of some of the top terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
An administration official told AFP that no such draft order existed, though internal deliberations were taking place on how to deal with those inmates who could not be released or tried in civilian courts.
The source said that a task force established by the president was not due to present its recommendations until July, and that the administration would then work with Congress to find a solution to the conundrum.
The official was reacting to a report by The Washington Post that said the Obama administration "has drafted an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely."
The newspaper later revised its report to say the administration "is drafting" the executive order, among other changes.
White House officials were "growing increasingly worried" they may not be able to reach a deal with Congress on a new system for dealing with inmates, putting President Barack Obama's January deadline to close the camp in doubt, the Post said.
"Legislation could kill Obama's plans," one senior official told the newspaper.
If the White House cannot agree with lawmakers opposed to bringing what are allegedly the most dangerous terror suspects to US soil, an executive order issued by the president may be one option to establish a new detention system.
The Justice Department has kept mum on a possible long-term detention system before internal reviews of the 229 "war on terror" detainees remaining at the US naval base in southern Cuba are set to be completed on July 21.
"Civil liberties groups have encouraged the administration, that if a prolonged detention system were to be sought, to do it through executive order," an official told the newspaper.
Although transfers to the United States for indefinite detention would be rare, Al-Qaeda operatives captured in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and possibly the Horn of Africa would be held in battlefield facilities, an administration official told the Post.
Suspects captured elsewhere could be transferred to the United States to face trial in federal courts, be handed over to local authorities or returned to their home countries.
In a major May speech designed to grab back control of the debate over national security policies, Obama raised the prospect of holding the most dangerous Al-Qaeda detainees indefinitely in US "super-max" prisons.
"We must recognize that these detention policies cannot be unbounded. They can't be based simply on what I or the executive branch decide alone," Obama said at the time.
Since Obama's inauguration in January, 11 detainees have been either released or transferred, one has committed suicide and another has been sent to New York to face terror charges in a federal court.
The Obama administration is "strongly considering" criminal charges in federal court for self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three other detainees accused of being involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, the Post said.
Walid bin Attash, accused of being involved in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, could be among those held indefinitely, a senior official told the newspaper.
Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress last week that fewer than 25 percent, or 60, of the remaining Guantanamo detainees would likely be charged in federal courts, while 50 others have been cleared for transfer or release.
But the other half of the remaining detainees, the Post noted, "present the greatest difficulty" because they cannot be prosecuted in either a federal court or a military trial.
Evidence against these detainees is either classified, was provided by foreign intelligence services or was obtained through harsh interrogation techniques approved by former president George W. Bush.
Several officials involved in the Justice Department's reviews told the newspaper they had agreed with the Bush administration's conclusion that up to 90 detainees can be neither charged nor released. |
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