President Obama is expected to issue an order today to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison and halt all terror trials, according to a draft of the order.
The executive order was one of three expected imminently on how to interrogate and prosecute al Qaeda, Taliban or other foreign fighters believed to threaten the United States.
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“In view of the significant concerns raised by these detentions, both within the United States and internationally, prompt and appropriate disposition of the individuals currently detained at Guantanamo and closure of the facility would further the national security and foreign-policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice,” the draft order said.
But the terrorist mastermind of the 9/11 attacks quickly objected to delaying his case – saying he wants a swift death sentence.
“We should continue so we don’t go backward, we go forward,” Khalid Sheik Mohammed said at a hearing for his long-delayed trial on charges of killing 3,000 people.
Mohammed and three al Qaeda co-defendants denounced a judge’s agreement to halt their trial at the request of Obama.
The judge acted after the new president asked for a 120-day freeze in the prosecution of 21 Guantanamo prisoners facing war-crimes charges.
Obama aides also circulated a draft of a pending executive order that goes much further and would close Gitmo within a year.
During the presidential campaign, Obama had vowed to close the much-criticized naval prison and handle the terror trials in traditional courts, rather than the tribunals created in the Bush administration.
Another Guantanamo judge responded to Obama yesterday by halting the case against Omar Khadr, a Canadian accused of murdering a GI during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002.