Barack Obama is a constitutional scholar and he has said Guantanamo must be closed, therefore his ground work is prepared and no would be able to say they didn’t see this coming.

If he is to lay down the gauntlet that will let all nations know his intentions will be to rebuild the reputation of this country, then ON DAY ONE, as his FIRST act, he must write his first executive directive;

"America will honor the Geneva convention and stop all practices which might be considered torture"

I would like him at the very same time to state as a FACT;

"with torture we create new enemies and we inspire new attacks against this nation, with torture we gather LESS information/

Torture harms this country and we will eliminate any practice that might be considered a violation of treaties this country has been signatory, there will be no torture from today forward"

not surprisingly, the ACLU agrees

“This past administration has left us with a disastrous legacy of bad policy, abuse of power, and civil liberties violations,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington Legislative Office of the ACLU. “The next president, whoever he is, must immediately begin the process of undoing this far-reaching assault on our nation’s freedoms and core values, and the ACLU’s ‘to do’ list provides a detailed road map for achieving that.”

The ACLU action plan breaks down its proposals into actions the next president should take in his first 24 hours, 100 days and year in office. On his first day, the next president should issue an executive order unequivocally banning torture and extraordinary rendition and he should order the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison.

I agree Guantanamo should be closed but that cannot happen on day one from a simple order, there will be logistics that need to be addressed, for instance where to put those who might actually be a threat, where to send those who might need political asylum, so that can’t happen immediately from a simple executive order.

However the practice of torture can and must stop from the next president’s very first day in office, it must be his very first act as president of this nation