Hours after taking the oath of office, President Barack Obama called for a halt to the Guantánamo tribunals, directing military prosecutors to seek a 120-day "continuance" (legalese for postponement) in proceedings underway at the prison camp against five accused 9-11 co-conspirators, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The US Department of Defense Jan. 18 announced it had transferred six detainees out of Guantánamo Bay. The detainees, four of whom were sent to Iraq, one to Algeria, and one to Afghanistan, were found to be eligible for transfer after what the DoD called "a comprehensive series of review processes." About 245 detainees remain at the facility, with roughly 60 eligible for transfer or release. The Afghan who was transferred, named Bismullah, was cleared of enemy combatant status "based on new information." The other five retained the enemy combatant designation.

Mohammed el Gharani, 21, of Chad, held for seven years at the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, was ordered released Jan. 14 by federal district Judge Richard Leon (Washington DC), who found that the government had not proven that Mohammed el-Gharani was an "enemy combatant." "The government's evidence was a mosaic of allegations" Leon said in his ruling, calling the claims against el-Gharani "murky." He ordered that el-Gharani be released soon either to Saudi Arabia, where he was raised and his family lives, or Chad. (Reuters, Jan. 14)

From Witness Against Torture, Jan. 8:

WASHINGTON – On Sunday, January 11 – the seven-year anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantanamo – more than 200 human rights advocates will join 60 people who are beginning a nine-day fast to encourage President-Elect Barack Obama to keep his promise to shut down Guantánamo and end torture in his first days of office.

President-elect Barack Obama's tilt to the right became obvious immediately after his historic victory, with the appointment of Rahm Israel Emanuel, a pro-Israel hardliner, as chief of staff. Our December Exit Poll was: "Barack Obama: ruling class pawn or avatar of freedom?" We received the following responses:

Media accounts are generally not recalling the similar incidents earlier this year. Why is nobody seeing patterns here? From Network World, Dec. 22:

Undersea robot searches for severed cables
A robot submarine was scouring the seabed 200 meters under the Mediterranean Sea on Monday trying to locate the ends of undersea cables that were cut on Friday, disrupting voice and Internet traffic.

We recently noted that the ACLU is calling for President-elect Barack Obama to close Guantánamo Bay prison camp his first day in office. Now the Pentagon says it is working on a plan to close the camp—but, based on a new Obama interview in Time magazine, the time frame being posed for the closure is two years. From Reuters, Dec. 18:

A new report by the US Army War College's Strategic Institute warns of massive domestic unrest in the wake of converging crises that it terms a "strategic shock," and discusses the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used at home. "Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security," reads the Nov. 8 report, "Known Unknowns: Unconventional 'Strategic Shocks' in Defense Strategy Development" by Nathan P. Freier of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).