Washington — President Obama issued orders closing the detention center at the Guantánamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba within a year and placing new restrictions on interrogation of terrorism suspects.

“The message we are sending around the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly,” Obama said at a January 22 White House signing ceremony. “We are going to do so effectively and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our ideals.”

The new president’s executive order to close Guantánamo calls for an immediate case-by-case review of each of the remaining 245 detainees.

In a separate order, Obama called for the end to harsh interrogation methods for terrorism suspects, requiring that all counterterrorism and intelligence officials abide by the U.S. Army Field Manual on human interrogation methods.

The Army manual was produced in 2006 in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. It explicitly prohibits torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

“This is me following through on not just a commitment I made during the campaign, but an understanding that dates back to our Founding Fathers, that we are willing to observe core standards of conduct not just when it's easy, but also when it's hard,” Obama said.

Under the new executive orders, an interagency committee made up of the attorney general, the secretaries of state, defense, and homeland security, and top military and intelligence officials will review the status of detainees as part of the complicated legal process needed to close the Guantánamo facility.

The United States wants to try 80 of the prisoners on terrorism charges. It has cleared 50 others for release, but cannot return them to their home countries out of concern for their safety, according to defense officials. Several European countries, including Portugal, Ireland and Switzerland, have pledged their support for efforts to close Guantánamo.

“We are not, as I said in the inauguration, going to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals. We think that it is precisely our ideals that give us the strength and the moral high ground to be able to effectively deal with the unthinking violence that we see emanating from terrorist organizations around the world,” Obama said.

“We intend to win this fight,” Obama said. “We're going to win it on our terms.”

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