The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact: Tel: +44 (0) 20 7413 5566,After hours: +44 7778 472 126,Email:,press@amnesty.org

USA: President Obama's First 100 Days on Counter Terrorism in Numbers

Three executive orders and one memorandum
were signed by President Barack Obama on 22 January 2009, ordering the
closure within a year of the US detention centre in Guantanamo; an end
to the CIA's long-term secret detention programme and the banning of
"enhanced" interrogation techniques; a review of detention and detainee
transfer policy, and a review of the case of Ali al-Marri, the one
"enemy combatant" held on the US mainland at the time of inauguration.

WASHINGTON

Three executive orders and one memorandum
were signed by President Barack Obama on 22 January 2009, ordering the
closure within a year of the US detention centre in Guantanamo; an end
to the CIA's long-term secret detention programme and the banning of
"enhanced" interrogation techniques; a review of detention and detainee
transfer policy, and a review of the case of Ali al-Marri, the one
"enemy combatant" held on the US mainland at the time of inauguration.

One Guantanamo detainee has been released since President Obama took office.

Approximately 240 detainees are still held in Guantanamo.

No Guantanamo detainee has been charged by the new administration. Ali al-Marri has been charged for trial in federal court.

At least three dozen people believed to have been
held in the USA's secret detention programme remain unaccounted for,
their fate and whereabouts unknown.

More than 500 men continue to be detained without
charge, trial or judicial review of their detentions at the US air base
in Bagram, Afghanistan.

The Justice Department reveals that the CIA had destroyed 92 interrogation
videotapes made in the secret detention program. The tapes may have
contained evidence of torture and other human rights violations.

Memos released by the Obama administration record that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 and Abu Zubaydah 83 times in August 2002, in the USA's secret detention programme.

No person has been brought to justice for torture
or enforced disappearance - both crimes under international law --
committed in the CIA programme. 0 victims of human rights violations were given meaningful access to redress and remedy.

See Amnesty International's report "Mixed messages: Counter terror and human rights President Obama's first 100 days"

Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all. Our supporters are outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world - so we work to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity. We have more than 2.2 million members and subscribers in more than 150 countries and regions and we coordinate this support to act for justice on a wide range of issues.