WaPo: GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Jan. 21 -- In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.
Army Col. Patrick Parrish promptly put one of the cases on hold Wednesday morning, and the disposition of several others is expected to become clear later in the day. Parrish is overseeing the case involving Omar Khadr, a Canadian accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15. Khadr's trial was about to begin, but the defense did not object to a delay until May 20 and Parrish issued the necessary order.
Some military prosecutors aren't happy:
The legal maneuver appears designed to provide the Obama administration time to refashion the prosecution system and potentially treat detainees as criminal defendants in federal court or have them face war-crimes charges in military courts-martial. It is also possible that the administration could re-form and relocate the military commissions before resuming trials.
The motion prompted a clear sense of disappointment among some of the military officials here who had tried to make a success of the system, despite charges that the military tribunals were a legal netherworld. Military prosecutors and other commission officials here were told not to speak to the news media, according to a Pentagon official.
"It's over; I don't want to say any more," said one official involved in the process.
Some of what's on tap for the first day, Obama will meet with military leaders to talk about withdrawal from Iraq:
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