SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
HELD
AT BAY
Unlike the Bush administration, the Obama administration
has been relatively hands off when
it comes to media restrictions at
Guantanamo, letting officials on
the ground set the rules.
Still, it was under Obama that
four reporters, including the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg,
widely considered the dean of the
Guantanamo press corps, were
banned from Guantanamo for life
in May 2010 for disclosing the
name of a witness whose identity is under a protective order,
despite the fact that his name
was already public. The reporters
HUFFINGTON
03.03.13
“[OBAMA] WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY
FAIRLY CLEARLY AS THE MAN WHO
FAILED TO CLOSE THIS ABOMINATION.”
fought the ban, and the Pentagon
overturned it that July.
The new courthouse, in many
ways, is the end result of a long
debate about how to try the detainees. The Bush administration
— which housed the suspected
terrorists at Guantanamo in order
to avoid the due process required
under the U.S. criminal justice
system, as well as the Geneva conventions’ prohibitions on torture
— adamantly opposed the idea of
Obama signs
an executive
order to shut
down the
prison on Jan.
22, 2009.