President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he believes the United States military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can be closed next year, but he acknowledged for the first time that he will not meet his original January deadline.
The U.S. leader also said Americans should not be "fearful" of the prospect that five men accused of masterminding the September 11, 2001 attacks will go on trial in New York City, a notion that has sparked vocal domestic opposition.
Guantanamo -- we had a specific deadline that was missed
"Guantanamo -- we had a specific deadline that was missed," Obama told U.S.-based NBC television, in one of a flurry of interviews he gave in Beijing as his Asia tour winds down.
Obama had vowed during his first week in office in January this year that he would close Guantanamo within a year of taking office, saying that the prison camp does not adhere to U.S. standards on human and civil rights.
The White House has said however that it will continue to push for the facility's closure, and is moving to repatriate some detainees who have been cleared for release while seeking countries willing to provide asylum to others.
Obama urges calm
I think this notion that somehow we have to be fearful, that these terrorists possess some special powers that prevent us from presenting evidence against them, locking them up and exacting swift justice, I think that has been a fundamental mistake
Obama also urged calm among Americans when it came to putting the alleged plotters of the 9/11 attacks on trial.
"I think this notion that somehow we have to be fearful, that these terrorists possess some special powers that prevent us from presenting evidence against them, locking them up and exacting swift justice, I think that has been a fundamental mistake," he told CNN, according to early excerpts of its interview.
The U.S. leader told NBC television that he did not anticipate serious negative fallout from the coming capital punishment trial in New York of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
"I don't think it would be offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him," Obama told NBC, expressing "confidence" in the government's case.
"What I'm absolutely clear about is that I have complete confidence in the American people and in our legal traditions, and the prosecutors, tough prosecutors, from New York who specialize in terrorism."
Moved to New York
We know that we can prosecute terrorists in our federal courts safely and securely because we have been doing it for years
Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that five men accused of plotting the attacks, including Mohammed, would be moved from Guantanamo Bay to New York for prosecution.
The five terror suspects face trial at a courthouse just steps from Ground Zero, where thousands lost their lives after hijacked airliners were flown into the two World Trade Center towers.
Holder's announcement, made while Obama visits Asia, prompted furious reactions from a number of victims' families and outrage among Republican lawmakers.
Republican Senator John McCain, Obama's former election rival, warned the decision sent "a mixed message about America's resolve in the fight against terrorism.
"We are at war, and we must bring terrorists to justice in a manner consistent with the horrific acts of war they have committed," he said.
In remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Holder defended his decision to try Mohammed and the others in criminal courts and said classified material will also be protected during the trials.
"We know that we can prosecute terrorists in our federal courts safely and securely because we have been doing it for years," he said. "And at the end of the day, it was clear to me that the venue in which we are most likely to obtain justice for the American people is in federal court."
He also said the judges who will preside over the trials will be able to prevent Mohammed from turning them into a circus, another concern of Republicans as well as some family members of the almost 3,000 who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I'm not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will have to say at trial -- and no one else needs to be either," Holder said. He also said that after discussions with New York officials that he believed the trials could be held safely.
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