President Obama lifts the ban on military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay

Air Date: March 11, 2011

Hour 1

Military hearing room at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base ( Brennan Linsley/AP)

On Monday, President Obama approved the resumption of military trials for detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ending a two-year ban on such proceedings. He had vowed to close the prison when he ran for office in 2008. In this latest decision the White House said it remains committed to trying some suspects in U.S. federal courts, a process which has been met with bipartisan opposition in Congress. The President also issued an executive order setting up a new review process for detainees who have yet to be tried or who are being detained indefinitely as military combatants. Our guests in this hour of Radio Times are Karen Greenberg, Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law and the Heritage Foundation‘s Charles Stimson who served as Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Detainee Affairs in the Bush Administration.

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[audio: 031111_100630.mp3]

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