WASHINGTON (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)
President Barack Obama Thursday vowed not to back down on closing Guantanamo Bay despite raging controversy, branding the camp a "mess" and decrying Bush-era anti-terror tactics as based on fear.
In a major speech designed to grab back control of the debate over national security policies, Obama also raised the prospect of holding the most dangerous al-Qaeda detainees indefinitely in U.S. "super-max" jails.
He also pleaded with Americans to turn away from recriminations about the anti-terror tactics of the Bush years to come together to find solutions to "some of the most complicated questions that a democracy can face."
" By any measure, the costs of keeping it open far exceed the complications involved in closing it " U.S. President Barack Obama Obama insisted he had been right to order the closure of the "war on terror" detention camp in Cuba within one year, saying it had stained the U.S. image abroad, infringed bedrock U.S. values and was a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda.
"By any measure, the costs of keeping it open far exceed the complications involved in closing it," Obama said at the National Archives, in the literal and metaphorical shadow of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. |
 |
Political headache " We are cleaning up something that is quite simply -- a mess -- a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges " Obama Obama said the camp, and related anti-terror policies of the Bush administration, had left his administration with a deep, and daily political headache.
The prison has long been the target of criticism by international human rights groups and many foreign governments, which accused the Bush administration of condoning torture of inmates held there.
"We are cleaning up something that is quite simply -- a mess -- a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges."
Obama also took aim at the harsh anti-terror methods the Bush administration adopted after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and promised to tell the American people the truth and to encourage oversight of his decisions.
"I also believe that all too often our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight," said Obama, who has banned harsh CIA interrogation tactics branded by critics as torture. |
Human rights groups have condemned the Guantanamo tribunals and said they are rigged Obama also said his administration may seek to transfer some of the most dangerous al-Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo Bay to U.S. "super-max" top security jails -- a step highly unpopular with Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
Obama said that while some detainees could be prosecuted in the U.S., others would be sent to other countries. European allies have so far been reluctant to accept more than a handful of detainees.
"We are not going to release anyone if it would endanger our national security, nor will we release detainees within the United States who endanger the American people," Obama said.
"Where demanded by justice and national security, we will seek to transfer some detainees to the same type of facilities in which we hold all manner of dangerous and violent criminals within our borders." |
|
Probing anti-terrorism abuses " I have opposed the creation of such a commission because I believe that our existing democratic institutions are strong enough to deliver accountability " Obama The president also rejected the notion, popular with many in his own Democratic Party that a kind of independent truth commission should be set up to probe anti-terrorism abuses in the Bush era.
"I have opposed the creation of such a commission because I believe that our existing democratic institutions are strong enough to deliver accountability," he said.
"The Department of Justice and our courts can work through and punish any violations of our laws," he said.
The administration also Thursday announced that the U.S. government will bring a top al-Qaeda suspect held at the detention center to trial in New York. |
Gitmo prisoners have described severe torture and inhumane treatment Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused in 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, would be the first former detainee at the U.S. naval base where some 240 terrorism suspects are held, to face trial in a civilian court in the United States.
Obama stepped to center stage just a day after his plan to close the "war on terror" camp suffered a rebuke in the Senate, and following a tough FBI warning not to bring detainees to U.S. soil. |
