• Listen to this segment

The U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been one of the most controversial symbols of the Bush Administration’s so-called War on Terror. Victims of the 9/11 terror attacks were flown in on Monday to personally witness the first day of a pre-trial military hearing for five alleged suspects in the act. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed led his four fellow Guantanamo inmates in seeking a guilty plea from the onset, in a sense challenging the military court system to put them to death. President-elect Barack Obama has criticized the tribunal process and indicted in the presidential campaign his desire to close the detention facility down. Meanwhile in other news, Supreme Court justices agreed to review the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri which would decided on the constitutionality of indefinite detentions of persons under the supposed war-time authority of the Presidency. The ongoing proceedings of the military tribunal of the five 9/11 attack suspects at Guantanamo along with a coming Supreme Court decision on the al-Marri case are just a few of the challenges that will present themselves to the incoming Obama administration. Before speculating about the future, in terms of Guantanamo Bay, Vincent Warren, Executive Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights speaks about how how the nation got there in the first place in this talk recorded by Global Voices for Justice.

GUEST: Vincent Warren, Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights

Special Thanks to Global Voices for Justice for Recording this Talk