WOMAN POWER: Hillary Rodham Clinton is sworn in as the 67th US secretary of state by Kathleen Oberly, associate judge, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, in the presence of former President Bill Clinton. (EPA)

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama issued a number of executive orders yesterday aimed at dismantling some of the more contentious elements of his predecessor’s war on terror, including the closure of the prison at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba within 12 months.

Another order will close down so-called “black site” detention facilities run by the CIA with the help of European security agencies. This order also reasserts the US Army Field Manual as the guidebook for interrogation of prisoners of war, instructions that bar torture techniques that the Bush administration had approved. There are at least eight black sites, though more are said to be located in Eastern Europe. The total number of offshore detention centers has never been revealed to the public.

After signing his executive orders, Obama met newly appointed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department. He named former Senate Majority Leader (1989-1995) George Mitchell the Middle East envoy. Mitchell played an important role in negotiating peace in Northern Ireland with the signing of the Belfast Peace Agreement in 1998. Former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke was also named envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, two of the world’s hot spots. Holbrooke was instrumental in getting through the Dayton peace accord that ended the Bosnian War.

Obama issued an executive order imposing a stay in the case of Ali Al-Marri, the only so-called enemy combatant being held on US soil. Trials of Guantanamo Bay prisoners have been suspended for 120 days pending a review.

“The United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly and we are going to do so effectively and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals,” the president said during the signing ceremony of the executive orders.

There are currently about 245 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison, which was opened in 2002 in a facility that had formerly housed Haitian immigrants caught by US authorities before landing on US shores. At least 525 detainees have already been released and five have died in custody: four by apparent suicide and one from cancer.

Meanwhile, Hillary Rodham Clinton was welcomed yesterday at the State Department where she began her tenure as secretary of state in an Obama administration that vows to boost America’s authority using what has been called smart power, the strategic use of diplomacy that had been scrapped by the previous administration in favor of American unilateralism.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved the nomination of Clinton on Wednesday after a one-day delay forced by Republicans who wanted to continue debating her husband Bill Clinton’s overseas fundraising activities. The delay had the effect of denying Clinton a confirmation vote on inauguration day, when six other Cabinet members were approved.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who sought the delay, praised Clinton’s abilities on Wednesday and voted in favor of her nomination. She was confirmed 94 to 2.

After ascending to America’s top diplomatic post, Clinton called foreign leaders, received briefings on intelligence matters and diplomatic security and took a tour of the State Department building. Clinton is the third woman to serve as chief US diplomat after Madeleine K. Albright and Condoleezza Rice.

After being approved for her post, Clinton greeted over 1,000 cheering State Department employees. America’s 67th secretary of state gave a 10-minute speech in which she asked staffers to speak honestly with each other and to “think outside the proverbial box” when it came to their duties.

Obama’s staff has also moved quickly to undo more of the Bush administration’s regime of secrecy, repealing an executive order that granted former presidents and vice presidents the ability to keep documents secret long past the 12 years currently allowed by the law. This is widely viewed as a rebuke to the past eight years of the Bush administration.

In announcing the order, Obama admitted it would even tie his own hands. “Going forward, any time the American people want to know something that I or a former president wants to withhold, we will have to consult with the attorney general and the White House counsel whose business it is to ensure compliance with the rule of law,” said Obama. “Information will not be withheld just because I say so. It will be withheld because a separate authority believes my request is well-grounded in the Constitution.”

Dennis C. Blair, Obama’s pick for head of US intelligence, also testified yesterday to the Senate Intelligence Committee at his confirmation hearing, pledging to follow Obama’s directive to handle counterterrorism efforts in accordance with the US Constitution “consistent with the rule of law.”

If approved, Blair, a Naval officer who previously headed US forces in the Pacific, would head the powerful National Security Agency, the CIA and 14 other intelligence agencies of the US government.

During his testimony, Blair said he would protect civil liberties and oppose any surveillance activities inside the US that “circumvent established processes,” an indirect reference to the previous administration’s attempts to bypass decades-old laws pertaining to acquiring warrants before establishing wiretapping activities.

— With input from agencies