User:Geo Swan/Forever prisoner

The term forever prisoner was coined following the completion of the Guantanamo Joint Review Task Force's re-appraisal of all the individuals held in Guantanamo.

When he was a candidate for United States President Barack Obama asserted he would close the controversial Guantanamo detention camp, in Cuba. During his first day in office President Obama signed three executive orders related to Guantanamo. One of them established the Guantanamo Joint Review Task Force to re-appraise whether the individuals held in Guantanamo merited continued detention, or war crimes charges. The Task Force was to make all its recommendations within a year.

The George W. Bush Presidency had initially argued that the Executive Branch could hold individual without ever revealing their identity to the outside world, and without ever explaining to those individuals why they were being held, and without ever offering them an opportunity to try to refute the allegations against them. When the judicial branch intervened, the Bush Presidency did, eventually, publish their names. The Supreme Court ruled that individuals had to be told why they were being held, and had to be given an opportunity to try to refute the allegations ag