Obama to sign series of anti-torture orders

by Stephen Collinson

WASHINGTON, (AFP) – President Barack Obama was to sign Thursday a series of executive orders to close the Guantanamo "war on terror" prison, end harsh interrogation tactics and shutter secret prisons, marking a dramatic reversal of policy from his predecessor.

The announcement that Obama would close Guantanamo within a year and issue more intelligence policy changes came after a whirlwind first full day in power, when Obama also dove into tricky Middle East diplomacy and ordered a troop drawdown in Iraq.

The new president, determined to honor his vow to forge fundamental political change, also called in top economic chiefs for a progress report on the dark domestic crisis he inherited from George W. Bush.

From Thursday, he will have his top foreign policy lieutenant on the job: Hillary Clinton was confirmed as secretary of state by the Senate on a 94-2 vote Wednesday and the Middle East will top her agenda of problems.

The president was to kick off the day by signing an executive order that would start the process of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, a White House official said.

"The detention facilities at Guantanamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order," said the draft order, posted on the website of the American Civil Liberties Union and confirmed by a White House source.

White House counsel Greg Craig told Democratic and Republican lawmakers late Wednesday "to expect 'several' executive orders on Guantanamo Bay," the Washington Post said citing sources familiar with the briefings.

The orders involve "altering CIA detention and interrogation rules, limiting interrogation standards in all US facilities worldwide to those outlined in the Army Field Manual, and prohibiting the agency from secretly holding terrorist detainees in third-country prisons," it said.

A revised version of the Army Field Manual was released in 2006, explicitly banning controversial techniques such as beating, using dogs to intimidate them, electric shocks and waterboarding, which critics say is tantamount to torture.

The New York Times said the "orders would bring to an end a Central Intelligence Agency program that kept terrorism suspects in secret custody for months or years."

Earlier, at the start of his first full day as president, Obama spent a few poignant moments alone in the Oval Office, reading a private letter left for him by Bush when he ceded power on Tuesday.

Then, flexing his diplomatic muscles in the Middle East for the first time, Obama telephoned Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Obama "used this opportunity on his first day in office to communicate his commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term," his spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

During the 2008 presidential election campaign, Obama had vowed to meet top military brass on his first day in office and order them to start planning a withdrawal from Iraq, and Wednesday, he followed through on the promise.

"I asked the military leadership to engage in additional planning necessary to execute a responsible military drawdown from Iraq," Obama said in a statement.

The meeting included US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, the top US war commander in the Middle East and Central Asia David Petraeus and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Obama also sought to make a splash on his ambitious domestic agenda, in line with a promise to purge the influence peddling and corruption staining US politics by signing a string of executive orders dealing with political ethics.

"Let me say it as simply as I can. Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," he said, at a swearing-in ceremony for senior staff members.

The orders tightened rules on contact between lobbyists and members of the government and restricted contact between former administration members with ex-colleagues when they leave public service.

With many Americans feeling the economic pinch, Obama also clamped a salary freeze on top staff earning more than 100,000 dollars a year.

"During this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington," Obama said.