WASHINGTON—Moving to claim what he described as "the moral high ground," President Barack Obama took a series of steps Thursday to dismantle the most widely condemned components of the Bush administration's war on terror.
Obama issued three executive orders to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within a year, close the CIA's network of secret overseas prisons and end the agency's use of interrogation techniques that critics describe as torture.
But on a day meant to demonstrate a clean break with the policies of his predecessor, Obama put off many of the most difficult decisions on what the United States will do with detainees and left room to revisit whether the CIA should still have permission to use coercive methods when questioning captives.
Nonetheless, human-rights advocates hailed the steps, and Obama was applauded during a State Department visit when he said, "I can say without exception or equivocation that the United States will not torture."
In a ceremony in the Oval Office, Obama described the orders as more than the fulfillment of a campaign commitment. He said they also reflect "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."
The flurry of orders prompted immediate changes at the CIA and elsewhere. Hours after the documents were signed, CIA Director Michael Hayden issued a statement to the agency's workforce instructing officers to comply "without exception."
Although the orders left the impression of swift action, many of their key provisions will take time to implement.
The Obama administration will give itself a year, for example, to close the Guantanamo Bay facility, a timeline that will allow the government to determine which detainees should be tried, which should be transferred to other countries, and what to do with new accused terrorists captured by the U.S.
There are 245 detainees in the prison. The question of what to do with them is a delicate one that balances the desire to close a facility widely seen as damaging to the United States' international standing with the risks of releasing people who many believe pose a serious threat.
Some Republicans accused the White House of acting rashly and without sufficient concern for potential risks.
"This is an executive order that places hope ahead of reality—it sets an objective without a plan to get there," Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.
A second order banned the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. For the first time, CIA interrogators would be required to abide by a U.S. Army field manual that limits interrogators to 19 approved techniques and eschews harsh questioning practices.
But Obama appeared to leave an opening for the CIA to again have expanded authorities. The order calls for the creation of a special task force, led by the attorney general, to study whether the field manual is adequate and to recommend "additional or different guidance for other departments or agencies."
Administration officials stressed that there was no intent to create a loophole.
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