Obama to sign order to close Guantanamo within 1 year: aide

No change in Canada's position on Omar Khadr: PMO

CBC News

This sketch by court artist Janet Hamlin shows (from top) Khalid Sheik Mohammad, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al Shibh and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, also known as Ammar al Baluchi. (Janet Hamlin/Pool/CBC)

U.S. President Barack Obama will sign an executive order Thursday to shut down the infamous U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay within a year.

A draft of the order was obtained Wednesday by the Associated Press. While the draft was not dated, a senior Obama aide said the president intends to sign the order on Thursday.

"In view of the significant concerns raised by these detentions, both within the United States and internationally, prompt and appropriate disposition of the individuals currently detained at Guantanamo and closure of the facility would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice," the draft order said.

Between 60 and 120 prisoners at the prison camp, which currently houses 245 detainees, may be deemed low-threat and transferred to other countries for rehabilitation or release, an administration official said Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, a 120-day adjournment was granted for all war-crimes cases before the military commission, including that of Canadian Omar Khadr.

In this sketch by a courtroom artist, Canadian defendant Omar Khadr attends a hearing Monday at the U.S. military commissions court for war crimes, at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Janet Hamlin/Pool/Associated Press)

A closure of the prison facility would pave the way for Khadr, 22, to be repatriated to Canada, potentially to undergo judicial process here. The Prime Minister's Office, however, downplayed suggestions that it is re-considering the government's long-held position not to intervene in the case.

The Conservative government's position on the Khadr case hasn't changed from that of previous Liberal governments that were in power when Khadr was first detained in 2002, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokesman, Kory Teneycke, said Wednesday.

"Our position is that the determination of his guilt or innocence on those charges needs to take place in a court of some fashion, and that we will wait for the outcome of a judicial process before looking at what the other options are," Teneycke told CBC News on Wednesday from Ottawa.

His comments came after Defence Minister Peter MacKay suggested the government was reconsidering its position after U.S. President Barack Obama stated "very clearly" to military commission judges that the proceedings were to be suspended.

"Clearly, Canada and Mr. Khadr’s counsel and everyone involved in these cases will be reassessing their positions," MacKay told reporters in Ottawa.

MacKay added, however, that the question of whether Canada would ask for U.S. officials to repatriate Khadr should be answered by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

Teneycke said MacKay was likely trying to say that the government was "watching very closely what is happening in the U.S., and [that] we'll react to changes when they occur."

He also refused to speculate on whether Khadr could face a judicial process in Canada, saying it was "exactly the hypothetical question that we're really not going to engage in at this time."

"The fact that the situation may change at some point in the future doesn't mean that it's changed today," Teneycke said.

Khadr, who is the only Westerner remaining in detention at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, is accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in July 2002, when he was 15.

Harper has remained firm on his position not to intervene in the Toronto-born Khadr's case, insisting the U.S. judicial process must take its course.

Guantanamo a 'disgrace': Ignatieff

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff on Wednesday reiterated his call for the Harper government to get involved in the case.

"Our party has said for a year that Canada has to repatriate Khadr, and that we have to close Guantanamo," Ignatieff said in French at a news conference in Montreal. "I love the United States, but Guantanamo is a disgrace."

Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, Khadr's military-appointed lawyer, told CBC News the adjournment should hasten the return of Khadr to Canada, and that the prime minister can no longer "hide behind" the proceedings at Guantanamo Bay.

"There is now no excuse, no reason whatsoever, for the prime minister not to do what really in our view has always been the right thing and intervene and get Omar Khadr, this Canadian citizen, back to Canada for the help and support that he needs," Kuebler said.

The halt of proceedings by Col. Patrick Parrish, the U.S. military judge overseeing Khadr's case, came Wednesday at the request of Obama, who has stated his desire to end the military commissions process and close the prison and sought the temporary adjournment while his administration decided on permanent measures.

The adjournment does not withdraw the charges against Khadr or expunge any evidence presented against him at this week's pretrial hearings, the CBC's Susan Ormiston reported from Guantanamo Bay.

Khadr's defence team had wanted Parrish to stay the charges, but did not oppose the prosecution motion to suspend the proceedings.

Khadr is accused of:

• Murder in violation of the law of war.
• Attempted murder in violation of the law of war.
• Conspiracy.
• Providing material support for terrorism.
• Spying.

His legal team has said evidence presented against him was coerced through aggressive interrogation, as well as torture.

Trial of 9/11 co-accused also halted

Just hours after Khadr's case was adjourned, another military judge also halted proceedings in the separate death penalty case of the five accused conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, despite the delay being opposed by the accused, who have all expressed a desire to plead guilty and achieve "martyrdom."

"We should continue so we don't go backward, we go forward," Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, told the judge, Col. Stephen Henley, ahead of his ruling on Wednesday.

The CIA has admitted to subjecting Mohammed to waterboarding, or drowning and resuscitation, a practice legal experts, human rights groups and even some within the military commission process set up by former president George W. Bush have condemned as torture.

Relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, who were at the base this week to observe pretrial hearings, told reporters they oppose any halt to the trials.

"The safest place to have these trials is Guantanamo Bay. If they were to move to the homeland it would endanger all of us," said Lorraine Arias Believeau of Barnegat, N.J., whose brother, Adam, was killed in the attacks.

With files from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press

Obama Plans Guantanamo Close, US Trials

MATT APUZZO and LARA JAKES JORDAN |

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In this June 6, 2008 file photo, reviewed by the U.S. Military, a guard stands at a gate at the Camp Delta detention compound, which has housed foreign prisoners since 2002, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Obama's advisers are crafting plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and prosecute terrorism suspects in the U.S., a plan the Bush administration said Monday was easier said than done. Under the plan being crafted inside Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and others would be charged in U.S. courts, where they would receive constitutional rights and open trials.

But, underscoring the difficult decisions Obama must make to fulfill his pledge of shutting down Guantanamo, the plan could require the creation of a new legal system to handle the classified information inherent in some of the most sensitive cases.

Many of the about 250 Guantanamo detainees are cleared for release, but the Bush administration has not able been to find a country willing to take them.

Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final.

The plan being developed by Obama's team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But as details surfaced Monday, it drew criticism from Democrats who oppose creating a new legal system and from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. mainland.

Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said the president-elect wants Guantanamo closed, but no decision has been made "about how and where to try the detainees, and there is no process in place to make that decision until his national security and legal teams are assembled."

Obama seeks a break from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday that President Bush has faced many challenges in trying to close the prison.

"We've tried very hard to explain to people how complicated it is. When you pick up people off the battlefield that have a terrorist background, it's not just so easy to let them go," Perino said. "These issues are complicated, and we have put forward a process that we think would work in order to put them on trial through military tribunals."

But Obama has been critical of that process and his legal advisers said finding an alternative will be a top priority. One of those advisers, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, acknowledges that bringing detainees to the U.S. would be controversial but said it could be accomplished.

"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."

The tougher challenge will be allaying fears by Democrats who believe the Bush administration's military commissions were a farce and dislike the idea of giving detainees anything less than the full constitutional rights normally enjoyed by everyone on U.S. soil.

"I think that creating a new alternative court system in response to the abject failure of Guantanamo would be a profound mistake," Jonathan Hafetz, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represents detainees, said Monday. "We do not need a new court system. The last eight years are a testament to the problems of trying to create new systems."

Senate Judiciary Committee member John Cornyn, R-Texas, said it would be a "colossal mistake to treat terrorism as a mere crime."

"It would be a stunning disappointment if the one of the new administration's first priorities is to give foreign terror suspects captured on the battlefield the same legal rights and protections as American citizens accused of crimes," Cornyn said Monday, noting that the Senate overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding Senate bill last year opposing bringing detainees to the U.S.

Obama did not vote on that measure. He has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide "a framework for dealing with the terrorists," and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.

An Obama administration will want to avoid the criticisms that have marked the Bush administration's military commissions. Human rights groups and defense attorneys have condemned the commissions for lax evidence rules and intense secrecy. Some military prosecutors have even quit in protest.

"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. "It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard."

Some weren't so sure.

"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. "And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system _ trying to establish that would be very difficult."

Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few options.

Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises many problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.

That means something different would need to be done if detainees couldn't be released or prosecuted in traditional courts. Exactly what remains unclear.

"I don't think we need to completely reinvent the wheel, but we need a better tribunal process that is more transparent," Schiff said.

According to three advisers participating in the process, Obama is expected to propose a new court system and may appoint a committee to decide how such a court would operate. Some detainees likely would be returned to the countries where they were first captured for further detention or rehabilitation. The rest could probably be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts, one adviser said. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, which have been private.

One challenge will be figuring out what to do with the 90 or so Yemeni detainees _ the largest group in the prison. The Bush administration has sought to negotiate the release of some of those detainees as part of a rehabilitation plan with the Yemeni government. But talks have so far been fruitless.

Waleed Alshahari, who has been following Guantanamo issues for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, said the plan being discussed by the Obama team was an improvement over the current system. But he said he expects most detainees to be released rather than stand trial.

"If the U.S. government has any evidence against them, they would try them and put them in jail," Alshahari said. "But it has been obvious they have nothing against them. That is why they have not faced trial."

Whatever Obama decides, he should move quickly, Tribe said.

"In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark," Tribe said. "It has to be dealt with."