Obama Looks To Close Down Guantanamo Bay
 Wednesday, November 12th, 2008  by Connie T.

President-elect Barack Obama has said that he will close Guantanamo Bay, aka Gitmo, during his presidency. According to his campaign, the Obama administration will immediately review the files of the 250 detainees at Guantanamo as soon as Barack takes office.

"President-elect Obama has said throughout his campaign that the legal framework at Guantanamo has failed to successfully and swiftly prosecute terrorists, and he shares the broad bipartisan belief that Guantanamo should be closed," said Obama's foreign policy advisor, Denis McDonough. How and where to try the detainees has yet to be determined.

The White House confirmed last week that President George W. Bush has no plans to close Gitmo Bay before leaving office on January 20th.

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is located at the southeastern end of Cuba, and is opposed by the Cuban government because of alleged discrepancies between the lease and international law. The Bush Administration has maintained that Guantanamo detainees are not protected under the Geneva Convention, which prohibits harsh interrogation methods and torture.

Obama has called Guantanamo a "sad chapter in American history."

Laurence Tribe, a professor in law at Harvard and one of Obama's legal advisors, has said that a revamped version of the current court system for detainees needs to be established.

"It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts," Tribe said.

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