January 23, 2010
ASSOCIATED PRESS
As one of his very first acts in the White House, President Obama signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects within a year.
The one-year mark arrived Friday — and it will likely be a year or more before Obama makes good on his promise.
He has not offered a new deadline.
Unless Obama decides to change course, to close Gitmo the president must still find support in Congress to pay for what’s being dubbed “Gitmo North” — Illinois’ Thomson Correctional Center — a super-secure prison near Downstate Sterling for some of the detainees he wants to continue holding. Gov. Quinn says that Illinois should receive “at least” $145 million from the federal government for the Thomson prison.
Obama must also get additional money, likely hundreds of millions of dollars, to provide extra security to put some suspects on trial in federal courts.
Len Goodman, a Chicago lawyer who last week returned from a visit to Guantanamo, said the delays have only embittered his client Shawali Khan, an Afghan detainee who was captured in 2002 and has long claimed he is innocent.
“His level of frustration is greater than I’ve ever seen it,” said Goodman. “Everyone had high hopes for Obama, but sadly I think nothing has changed from Bush to Obama, except the conditions are better inside for the detainees. But all in all, it’s just promises made and promises not kept.”