Obama refuses to retreat on closing Guantanamo

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is staunchly defending his decision to close the Guantanamo prison facility, calling it "a mess," and saying he won't do anything to endanger the American people.

In fact, Obama said the very existence of the Cuban prison facility compromised U.S. national security and served as a recruiting point for the al-Qaida network.

He argued in a speech Thursday that roughly 500 detainees already had been released by the Bush administration and said operating the Guantanamo facility "set back the moral authority that is America's strongest currency in the world." The president spoke to an audience of military lawyers in a cavernous hall of the National Archives, standing before a display of the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence.