THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 20, 2009
President Obama Announces End to Orange Jumpsuits
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, President Barack Obama announced that detainees formerly referred to as enemy combatants will no longer wear orange jumpsuits. In an agreement with Cambio manufacturing of Low Pointe, North Carolina, and UNITE HERE union Local #1984, new purple jumpsuits will be manufactured and phased in over a 38-month period for detainees in Guantanamo, Bagram, and 14 other key locations around the world.
President Obama said, "I’m confident that we will put the era of orange jumpsuits behind us, and am committed to ordering the use of orange jumpsuits only as necessitated by legitimate national security demands and consistent with my constitutional authority and responsibilities. While this change will be too swift and drastic for many, it will not satisfy extremists on the left including activists at afterdowningstreet.org. But we must move forward undeterred."