As one of his first acts in Office– a long overdue one– Obama signed an Executive Order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center within the year. What’s more, Obama’s order also included directives to end torture (such as waterboarding) in U.S. interrogration practices, shutter CIA “black site” prisons abroad, and end the practice of “extraordinary renditions.” In my class on Tuesday, we were discussing what sorts of things we would like to see our new President do first, and I said then (on Tuesday) that I wanted to see Guantanamo Bay shut down tomorrow. I only had to wait one extra day.
Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, called it “a good day for the rule of law.”
Goodbye, and good riddance, Gitmo. We won’t soon wash the stains of that offense from our record.