President Barack Obama

Documents & Texts from the White House

15 December 2009
Presidential Memorandum--Closure of Dentention Facilities at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

SUBJECT: Directing Certain Actions with Respect to Acquisition and Use of Thomson Correctional
Center to Facilitate Closure of Detention Facilities at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

By the authority vested in me as President and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40, 115 Stat. 224), and in order to facilitate the closure of detention facilities at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, I hereby direct that the following actions be taken as expeditiously as possible with respect to the facility known as the Thomson Correctional Center (TCC) in Thomson, Illinois:

1. The Attorney General shall acquire and activate the TCC as
   a United States Penitentiary, which the Attorney General
   has determined would reduce the Bureau of Prisons' shortage
   of high security, maximum custody cell space and could be
   used for other appropriate inmate or detainee management
   purposes. The Attorney General shall also provide to the
   Department of Defense a sufficient portion of the TCC to
   serve as a detention facility to be operated by the
   Department of Defense in order to accommodate the
   relocation of detainees by the Secretary of Defense
   in accordance with paragraph 2 of this memorandum.
   
   
2. The Secretary of Defense, working in consultation with the
   Attorney General, shall prepare the TCC for secure housing
   of detainees currently held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval
   Base who have been or will be designated for relocation,
   and shall relocate such detainees to the TCC, consistent
   with laws related to Guantanamo detainees and the findings
   in, and interagency Review established by, Executive
   Order 13492 of January 22, 2009.

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

The Secretary of Defense is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA

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