Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 03/2009

War About Terror: Civil Liberties and National Security After 9/11

Daniel B. Prieto

February 2009

Council on Foreign Relations

Abstract

President Barack Obama, in one of his first moves in office, reversed some of the most controversial detention and interrogation policies of the Bush administration. His three executive orders mandated the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility within a year, and suspended both military commission proceedings and the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program. But the interagency task force established by the executive orders has a difficult task ahead: it must not only determine the future of the remaining detainees at Guantánamo, but also shed light on how to detain and interrogate future terrorist suspects in a manner consistent with American law and American values.