Thursday, November 19 - President Barack Obama conceded yesterday that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will not close within the one year mandated by the Executive Order he signed on January 22, 2009. This is a disappointment but not a surprise.

On January 22, 2009, after signing the Executive Order to close Guantanamo, President Obama committed his administration to closing the prison—long a symbol of U.S. terror and lawlessness—within a year. Since that time, the process of releasing or relocating or prosecuting the 200 plus men still detained at Guantanamo has become mired in bureaucratic machinations, Congressional grandstanding and fear-mongering, and legal foot-dragging. In the meantime, the president seems to have lost interest in the issue altogether.

So, it is with resolute-- but heavy-- hearts that we in Witness Against Torture once again turn our attention to the sad business of marking January 11, 2010 and the eighth year of torture, abuse and detention at Guantanamo. We have committed to a fast and daily vigil from January 11 through January 22-- the day by which the president said Guantanamo would be closed.