Obama: Gitmo undermines security, must be closed

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama’s plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, slammed into a wall of Republican opposition Tuesday, stopping cold Obama’s hope for a bipartisan effort to “close a chapter” that began in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The long-awaited proposal, which was requested by Congress, is Obama’s last attempt to make good on an unfulfilled campaign promise by persuading Congress to change the law that prohibits moving detainees accused of violent extremist acts to U.S. soil. Fourteen years after the facility opened and seven years after Obama took office, the president argued it was “finally” time to shutter a facility that has sparked persistent legal battles, become a recruitment tool for Islamic militants and garnered strong opposition from some allies abroad.

“I don’t want to pass this problem on to the next president, whoever it is,” Obama said in an appearance at the White House. “If we don’t do what’s required now, I think future generations are going to look back and ask why we failed to act when the right course, the right side of history, and justice and our best American traditions was clear.”

Despite the big ambitions, Obama’s proposed path remained unclear. The plan leaves unanswered the politically thorny question of where in the U.S. a new facility would be located. It offered broad cost estimates. The White House described it as more of a conversation starter than a definitive outline.