Review of Detention Policy Options | |
Type | Executive order |
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Executive Order number | 13493 |
Signed by | Barack Obama on 22 January 2009 |
Summary | |
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Executive Order 13493 is an Executive Order issued by United States President Barack Obama ordering the identification of lawful alternatives to the detention of captives in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. [1] The full title of the order is Executive Order 13493 - Review of Detention Policy Options. In his previous order, Executive Order 13492, Obama had ordered the camps' closure within a year, but Guantanamo Bay detention camp has still yet to be closed. As of December 2023 [update] , 30 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay. [2]
Executive Order 13493 was a follow-up to Executive Order 13492; in it, Obama had laid out the Special Interagency Task Force. Its job was to find lawful options of places to relocate prisoners. [3]
Either Co-Chair was responsible to designate offices and employees within departments. Other agencies could request to work on the Special Interagency Task Force with the approval of the Co-Chairs and the heads of the agency they came from.
The Co-Chairs were in charge of meetings; they determined agendas and directed the agency's work. The Co-Chairs could make and direct subgroups that were staffed only by workers of the Special Interagency Task Force.
"The mission of the Special Task Force shall be to conduct a comprehensive review of the lawful options available to the Federal Government with respect to the apprehension, detention, trial, transfer, release, or other disposition of individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations, and to identify such options as are consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice." [4]
The task force was for administrative purposes within the Department of Justice who supported and funded the Special Task Force.
The Special Task Force was directed to give the President a report through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and the Council to the President on the operation of the task force.
The Co-Chair could terminate the task force when its duties were complete. It issued its final report in January 2010.
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The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison within the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Gitmo, on the coast of Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. As of April 2023, of the 779 people detained there since January 2002 when the military prison first opened after the September 11 attacks, 740 had been transferred elsewhere, 30 remained there, and nine had died while in custody.
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Muhammed Murdi Issa Al Zahrani is a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba from August 5, 2002, until November 22, 2014. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 713. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1969, in Taif, Saudi Arabia.
Army Field Manual 2 22.3, or FM 2-22.3, Human Intelligence Collector Operations, was issued by the Department of the Army on September 6, 2006. The manual gives instructions on a range of issues, such as the structure, planning and management of human intelligence operations, the debriefing of soldiers, and the analysis of known relationships and map data. The largest and most newsworthy section of the document details procedures for the screening and interrogation of prisoners of war and unlawful combatants.
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Executive Order 13492, titled Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities, is an Executive Order that was signed by United States President Barack Obama on 22 January 2009, ordering the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. This was signed at the same time as Executive Order 13493, in which Obama ordered the identification of alternative venues for the detainees.
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The Periodic Review Boards administrate a US "administrative procedure" for recommending whether certain individuals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba are safe to release or transfer, or whether they should continue to be held without charge. The boards are authorized by and overseen by the Periodic Review Secretariat, which President Barack Obama set up with Executive Order 13567 on March 7, 2011.
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