After Guantanamo: President Obama has ordered the closing of the prison at Guantanamo and pledged to respect American values in the fight against terrorism. Will his actions make the U.S. safer?

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: NATIONAL

Consider the case of Mohammed al-Qahtani, the man authorities believe trained to be the "20th hijacker" in the 9/11 attacks. Al-Qahtani was captured near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in December 2001 and sent to the Guantanamo detention camp, where he has been held since. Last month, just before President Barack Obama took office, a senior Pentagon official said that she believed the interrogation methods used on Al-Qahtani at Guantanamo amounted to torture. As a result, it is unclear whether a man who may pose a real threat can now be fairly prosecuted.

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The Al-Qahtani case encapsulates many of the issues facing the Obama administration as it changes some of the most disputed counter-terrorism policies of the Bush administration. Two days after his inauguration, President Obama ordered the Guantanamo prison closed within a year, all secret C.I.A. prisons around the world shut down, and an end to harsh interrogation methods.

But those executive orders leave unanswered many of the details of exactly how all this will be accomplished without risking the safety of the American people.

NOT ALL CLEAR-CUT

"We're inheriting a very difficult situation," says Vice President Joe Biden. "Not all of it is clear-cut."

Human-rights groups have long maintained that the Bush administration trampled on civil liberties in its effort to protect the nation from additional terrorist attacks. Critics decried the indefinite holding of prisoners at Guantanamo, the use of electronic wiretaps without warrants, the use of interrogation tactics some consider torture on terrorism suspects, and the practice of "rendition"--taking terrorism suspects to other countries where they can be held and interrogated in secret.

On the campaign trail, Obama called such policies wrong and counterproductive. And even in his inaugural address, he sought to send a signal to the world that he intends to conduct the war against terrorism differently.

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals," the President said.

Senior officials in the new administration have been echoing that theme. Dennis C. Blair, the new director of national intelligence, called Guantanamo "a rallying cry for terrorist recruitment" and said U.S. intelligence agencies "must respect the privacy and civil liberties of the American people, and they must adhere to the rule of law."

Closing Guantanamo and banning coercive interrogation "is the...