Obama’s Plan to Indefinitely Hold Gitmo Prisoners Unconstitutional

US political analyst Henry Norr said "US President Barack Obama's executive order allowing detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to be held indefinitely is unconstitutional."

"Basically, what they are doing is detaining people indefinitely without charges, without putting them before a court of law. And that is unconstitutional in this country," said Berkeley-based political analyst a Press TV interview on Thursday.

The Obama administration plans to implement an executive order that legitimizes indefinite detention of inmates without trial at US military's Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.

The US Congress has passed a legislation that blocks the Department of Defense from using any money to transfer Guantanamo prisoners to the US.

It also says the Pentagon can't spend funds on any US facility aimed at housing detainees moved from Guantanamo.

"So, they are just making up these rules to justify what they seem to want to do. There is no real basis in law for it, I think," Norr said.

"What Congress seems to want is that they [Guantanamo detainees] should stay forever in Guantanamo with no charges, no verdict of guilt? Some of them could be guilty of crimes, some of them probably aren't. But no one would ever know, and they'd just be left there to rot indefinitely. It is a terrible outcome," he added.

The Guantanamo detention facility was established in 2002 by the Bush administration. Almost 800 detainees have been brought to the prison camp since October 7, 2001, when Washington began the war on Afghanistan.

International Red Cross inspectors as well as released detainees have described various acts of torture in the prison camp, including extensive use of waterboarding, sleep deprivation, beatings and confinement in small, cold cells.