[1][2][3] The boards are authorized by and overseen by the Periodic Review Secretariat, which President Barack Obama set up with Executive Order 13567 on March 7, 2011.
On July 21, 2013, Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that the announcement that the Boards would finally be convened followed a "flurry of emails" to the captives' attorneys—after years of delay.
[5] Rosenberg noted that the announcement from Norton C. Joerg, a former officer and senior lawyer with the United States Navy, came at the height of the most widespread Guantanamo hunger strike.
During the second review, on January 28, 2014, that of Abdel Malik al Rahabi, nine reporters and four human rights workers were allowed to observe a video-link to the 19 minute unclassified portion of the hearing.
[4] Warning of the danger of recidivism, that same day eleven Republican Senators wrote a letter encouraging the President to immediately suspend the Board and to prohibit the transfer of any detainees.