Shortly after his inauguartion Barack Obama signed orders to shut the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay by January 2010.

That deadline will not be met partly as a result of resistance White House officials encountered from members of Congress opposed to moving prisoners to US soil and from other countries they had hoped would accept detainees.

One year after his inauguration how much has been achieved? Clive Stafford Smith, founder and director of Reprieve, will be at the Frontline Club to examine President Barack Obama’s record of Guantanamo Bay as well as the detention facilities at Bagram and Abu Ghraib. To what extent has President Barack Obama succeeded in propelling the United States away from the Bush administration’s use of torture and extraordinary rendition?

Moderated by BBC correspondent Jon Manel who has reported on Guantanamo and this month presented the programme “Closing Guantanamo”
Last year he recorded exclusive first broadcast interviews with former detainee, Binyam Mohamed and the U.S. Guantanamo Closure Special Envoy, Daniel Fried. 

Photo courtesy of Scorpions and Centaurs through a Creative Commons license