Abstract
President Barack Obama's executive order to close down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba within a year raises a raft of issues – not the least of which is what to do with the 247 detainees currently housed there. Their legal fate is one of many problem areas in the global war on terror that former President Bush left for the new president. In addressing this thorny question, President Obama said in his order that the closure would be "consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice…."