Closing Guantanamo Prison May Force New Rules for Trying Terrorists

The prospect of closing the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has sparked a broad and intensifying debate over key aspects of America's antiterrorism policy.

While advisers to President-elect Obama agree that Guantánamo must close, there is no accord yet over how best to achieve it in a way that signals real change while not endangering US national security.

"We very much need a clean, decisive break from current [Bush administration] policies," says Sarah Mendelson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, who wrote a September report on closing Guantánamo. "Only a bold shift is going to convey to the world that we have turned a page on post-9/11 counterterrorism policies."

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