Obama suspends Gitmo trials

In one of his moves after taking office U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the suspension of military trials at the Guantanamo Bay base.

The action- deliver last night via Defense Secretary Bob Gates- ordered all military trials to be paused until May 20th. According to documents filed at the prison camp, the directive was made "in the interest of justice and at the direction of the president of the United States."

The move is a strong signal that the Obama administration will close the controversial prison located on the eastern tip of Cuba. Last month, Pentagon officials reportedly drafted a plan to shut down the jail and Obama said in yesterday’s inauguration speech that “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”

This morning one judge at Gitmo accepted the newly inaugurated president’s request:

A military judge has agreed to President Barack Obama's request to suspend the Guantanamo war crimes trial of Canadian Omar Khadr.

It is the first in a series of delays sought by Obama as his administration reviews the legal system for prosecuting alleged terrorists.

The written order came Wednesday in the Khadr case. He is accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan in 2002.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, washingtonpost.com, AP, wsj.com, Reuters