Obama orders halt to Guantanamo trials

President Barack Obama has ordered a halt to the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, marking the first step towards keeping his promise to shut the controversial detention camp.  Within hours of assuming the presidency on Tuesday, Mr Obama told military prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay to seek a 120-day pause in the trial of Khaled Sheikh [...]

Conservatives call on Bush to free Muslim Uighurs

A group of conservatives is chastising the Bush administration for refusing to free 17 Turkic Muslims being held without charges at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying their continued detention defies legal principles and “undermines our standing in the world.”
The 10 conservatives, including legal scholars and officials who worked for Republican presidents, said the Uighurs — a [...]

Obama planning US trials for Guantanamo detainees

The move would be a sharp deviation 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. Obama’s Republican challenger, John McCain, had also pledged to close Guantanamo. But McCain opposed criminal trials, saying the Bush administration’s tribunals should [...]