February 5, 2009 Closing of Guantanamo Bay is Subject of Feb. 18 Panel at the Library of Congress

On January 22, 2009, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order directing the Central Intelligence Agency to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba within a year. Some individuals and groups view this as a risky step because the facility known as “Gitmo” is perceived as a secure location to conduct trials of terrorist suspects. Others welcome the move, but believe it could take longer than one year to accomplish. The Law Library of Congress will sponsor a panel discussion titled “Looking Beyond Gitmo: U.S. and Foreign Approaches Toward Legal Treatment of Terrorist Suspects.” The 90-minute program will be held at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18, in the Mumford Room, located on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building at 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public but seating is limited and advance reservations are suggested at (202) 707-9834, bmoo@loc.gov. Panelists include Charles D. Stimson, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former deputy assistant defense secretary for detainee affairs at the Pentagon; and Law Library of Congress legal specialists Clare Feikert, Louis Fisher and Ruth Levush. The panel will be moderated by Peter Roudik, assistant director of legal research and head of the Eastern Law Division in the Law Library of Congress. Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its Web site at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a new, personalized Web site at myLOC.gov. Founded in 1832, the Law Library makes its resources available to members of Congress, the Supreme Court, other branches of the U.S. Government and the global legal community, and sustains and preserves a universal collection of law for future generations. With more than 2.6 million volumes, the Law Library contains the world’s largest collection of law books and other resources from all countries and provides online databases and guides to legal information worldwide through its Web site at www.loc.gov/law/.