The Guantanamo Review Task Force was created by
Executive Order 13492 issued by
President of the United States Barack Obama on January 22, 2009, his second full day in office.
United States Attorney General Eric Holder announced
Matthew G. Olsen
Matthew Glen Olsen (born February 21, 1962) is an American attorney who has served as the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division since 2021. He is the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Born in Farg ...
as Executive Director of the task force on February 20, 2009. The task force was charged with determining which
Guantánamo detainees can be transferred (released), which can be prosecuted for crimes they may have committed, and, if neither of those is possible, recommending other lawful means for disposition of the detainees.
The task force was an inter-agency task force, with the
U.S. Department of Justice coordinating the efforts of officials from the
U.S. Department of Defense, the
U.S. Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
, and the
Department of Homeland Security. The final report was issued January 22, 2010,
[
] but not publicly released until May 28, 2010. The ''Washington Post'' reported that the "administration sat on the report in the wake of the
attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day because there was little public or congressional appetite for further discussion of its plan to close the military detention center."
[
]
Of the 240 detainees considered, the report recommended that 126 detainees should be transferred to their home country or to another country that was willing to accept them, 36 be prosecuted in either federal court or a
military commission
Military justice (also military law) is the legal system (bodies of law and procedure) that governs the conduct of the active-duty personnel of the armed forces of a country. In some nation-states, civil law and military law are distinct bodie ...
, 48 be held indefinitely under the laws of war and 30 Yemenis should be approved for transfer if security conditions in Yemen improved.
[
][
] As of January 2017, 41 detainees remain at Guantanamo.Congressional Representative
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ad ...
Frank Wolf criticized the task force claiming it was subjected to political interference from the White House.[
]
References
External links
*
* {{cite web , url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85670#axzz1bpi9rKy4 , title=Executive Order 13492 , publisher=The American Presidency Project , date=January 22, 2009 , accessdate=October 25, 2011
Guantanamo Bay detention camp