MEDFORD, Mass. (UWIRE) — President Barack Obama rescinded his 2-year-old directive banning military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay on Monday. In a new executive order, Obama clears the way for resuming military trials at the naval base. This is regrettable, considering the president campaigned on — and committed to, once taking office — closing Guantanamo within a year of his inauguration. Still, the concession is a prudent one. Guantanamo is a nearly impossible issue, one that may be black-and-white in moral terms but is very gray in practice, and the reforms that the president has included in his most recent order alleviate much of what Americans have found so distasteful regarding the military base.
In order to deal with the 172 prisoners currently detained at the naval base, the new executive order reinstates a system allowing prisoners to be tried by military courts. Numerous obstacles have stood in the way of trying prisoners in civilian court and have forced them into legal limbo and indeterminate detention. The new executive order remedies this by allowing prisoners either to be tried on-site by a military tribunal or to make a plea bargain.
Because many of the detainees were tortured in an effort to obtain information, evidence gained from such tactics would be thrown out of court, weakening the prospect of conviction. The new order attempts to solve this problem by requiring compliance with international treaties barring inhumane treatment. But a fundamental problem remains: Because evidence obtained under duress is inadmissible — even in these military tribunals — the government faces a “Sophie’s choice” between releasing or illegally detaining people it reasonably believes to be terrorist threats to the United States. This is the fundamental problem of Guantanamo, and the Daily does not profess to have a ready solution.
Perhaps most important of all, the order establishes a process of periodic review by several federal agencies of the prisoners’ threat to our security. This will decide whether prisoners should be tried, released or transferred to a third-party country. Reviews of each detainee must occur within one year of this order and at least once every three years after that. In the sea of difficult options the administration faces, this step is laudable in that it gives detainees at least some framework for legal recourse.
Nonetheless, the new executive order fails to address many core issues pertaining to Guantanamo. The reinstatement of military tribunals merely reopens an avenue that is widely considered less desirable than civilian trials. Administration officials have insisted that the president remains committed to closing the base in the near future, but the order sheds little light on when that will be. And because Obama made it clear the order only applies to current and not future detainees, it is unclear how the base will be used in coming years.
The administration faces only bad options when it comes to the detention camp, and it is commendable that Obama has acknowledged his mistake in prematurely steering away from military tribunals.
Nonetheless, the new decision has left the long-term plans for Guantanamo up in the air. We do not hold the answer. But if it is indeed Obama’s intention to close Guantanamo, we can only hope that his administration devises a well-thought-out plan of action before making yet another promise to the American public. Commendable as this executive order is, it is far from resolving an issue that has remained a sore point in the United States for years.
 
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