Washington - The administration of US President Barack Obama was considering issuing a new executive order that would revive presidential authority to jail terrorism suspects indefinitely, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The article, written by the Washington Post in conjunction with the private investigative newsroom ProPublica, quoted three unnamed senior government officials with knowledge about the discussions inside the White House.
Such an order would revive the declaration by former president George W Bush that he had authority, under the laws of war, to indefinitely imprison suspects without charges or trial because they were not members of a foreign military.
The move would address the fate of some of the more than 200 prisoners left at the Guantanamo prison operated by the US Navy on Cuba. Obama faces resistance in Congress to his plans to close the facility by 2010, and most of the 50 US states are resisting the idea of holding the suspects in their home jails.
Some countries have offered to take the prisoners, such as the Bahamas.
White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told the Post there was no executive order and no decision made to issue such an order.
But a person identified as a senior administration official told the Post that civil liberties groups were urging the White House to use an executive order if a "prolonged detention system were to be sought." An executive order could be more easily rescinded than legislation.
In May, Obama announced he would revive the Guantanamo military tribunals for trying terrorist suspects, in a continuation of the controversial commissions established by Bush. He said new rules to protect defendant rights would be put in place, such as banning evidence obtained through inhumane interrogation methods.
Civil rights groups that had urged Obama to bring the cases into federal courts quickly criticized his decision, arguing the Bush-era system is damaged beyond repair.
About 20 detainees face trials at Guantanamo, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged conspirators in the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks. If convicted, the five men could be executed.
Guantanamo became a symbol of excess in Bush's war on terrorism and badly damaged US credibility in the world. During the presidential campaign, Obama was a harsh critic of Guantanamo and Bush's tribunals because they did not afford defendants with adequate rights.
Obama is struggling with what to do with prisoners who can be neither charged and tried in regular federal courts nor released.
Only one Guantanamo prisoner has been brought to the US to stand trial - Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian detainee charged in connection with the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Dar Es Salaam that took 11 lives.
His next appearance in New York federal court is Thursday.
