Shutting Guantanamo and CIA prisons is bigger than the image. It's about rewriting the model on terrorism.

Assuming they have a solid plan on how to deal with the detainees, this is a great step before the world.

President Obama is expected to sign executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, government officials said.

However, I also want to point out that this represents part of a fundamental shift in the frame of the battle against terrorism from a "war" model, back to a more "criminal" model.

The "war" model was essential as part of the executive power grab (and in "war politics",) but it also had the effect of creating and elevating the force of our enemies, setting up Al Qaeda as a great and mortal force of history, an ideology capable of threatening our own.

Within the "criminal" model, the executive power is diminished, but Al Qaeda is more accurately represented as a bunch of crooks and bandits corrupting world order, creating a broader "tent" on our side.

It is no longer a "clash of civilizations" or an ideological war against the Muslims. In the "criminal" model, there is more room for moderate Muslims and Muslim governments on our side. We are not, de facto, pitting the friendlier Arab governments against their people.

There's alot of work to do to repair the damage and the sense of "enemy," but even in the inaugural speech, Obama began to set a new tone. This, the closing of the symbols of war, is a first step along that path.