Guantanamo Bay closure 'is not enough'

Mr Obama signed the order on Thursday evening, calling for the torture camp to be closed by no later than a year's time.

He also ordered all US army personnel to follow the army field manual while interrogating detainees. The manual prohibits threats, coercion, physical abuse and waterboarding.

However, human rights lawyers' organisation Reprieve expressed concern at the administration's plans to consider more "aggressive interrogation methods," which it warned are "inhuman and ineffective."

Faulty intelligence obtained by such methods led to major errors by the Bush administration, with tragic consequences, most clearly in the Iraq war, they pointed out.

A spokesman said: "We therefore call on Obama to explicitly outlaw 'no-touch' techniques such as music torture, and thus to draw a clear line under the Bush administration's failed intelligence strategy.

"We further urge full transparency and accountability with regard to the torture administered during the Bush years, in order to learn from these mistakes."

A spokesman for Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC) insisted that "Obama could do better."

While giving a cautious welcome to the executive orders, SACC noted that President Obama has so far made no commitment to permanently abandon trial by the notorious military commissions and said that his comments during the signing ceremony indicated that some Guantanamo prisoners may continue to be held indefinitely without trial.

The spokesman said: "The one-year timetable set out in the executive order to close Guantanamo is far too long and the order gives far too much leeway to intelligence and security agencies that have already dragged the reputation of the US through the mud.

"And we see no sense at all in Obama's plans to send more troops to Afghanistan. They will add petrol to the flames of the war that spawned the human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay and that continue to threaten the peace of the world."

He added: "The language of the order to close Guantanamo conveys a welcome sense of urgency. It talks of 'promptly' closing the prison camp, 'prompt' reviews of the facts relating to the prisoners and 'prompt' arrangements for the 'disposition' of the prisoners.

"Unfortunately, none of this promptness has found its way into the concrete measures contained in the order."