*Guantanamo Watch keeps you up to date with all the latest developments in Obama’s plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.*

Latest
25th November 2009
"A key official in the Obama administration's effort to remake detention policy and close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay has resigned... He has helped craft policies that will allow hundreds of prisoners held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan to challenge their indefinite detention under a new review system... His departure comes at a critical moment for the administration..." Washington Post
 

Missing Deadline
20th November 2009
"President Barack Obama will miss his self-imposed Jan. 22 deadline to close down the military detention center at Guantánamo Bay... 205 detainees remain in the prison, and a "goodly number" may be relocated before the end of the year, says another senior Administration official." Time

"A path and a process..."
19th November 2009
“President Barack Obama admitted yesterday what his aides and other Washington insiders have known for months: that his deadline for closing the controversial Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba on 22 January – the first anniversary of his coming into office – will not now be met… ‘We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantanamo will be closed next year,’ he added, but declined to offer a new date.”
Page 4, The Independent

One Step closer
21st October 2009
“The US has moved one step closer to Barack Obama's goal of closing Guantanamo Bay after Congress passed a measure to allow detainees to face trial in America.” Sky News

REM and Pearl Jam campaign against music as torture
Tuesday 20th October 2009
The National Campaign to Close Guantanamo launches, backed by musicians including REM and Pearl Jam who oppose music being used as a torture tool. BBC News

Worrying News
27th September 2009
“Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledges that closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will likely take longer than planned… it shouldn't be a problem to extend it and we'll just see whether that has to happen or not." CNN News

The Initial Order
Thursday 22nd January 2009
Barack Obama issues an Executive Order demanding “the appropriate disposition of individuals currently detained by the Department of Defense at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (Guantánamo) and promptly to close detention facilities at Guantánamo”. Whitehouse Gov

“Promptly” in this case means, “in a year” – January 2010 is proposed as the date for the closure.