Obama defends plan to close Gitmo

CNN) – President Obama said Thursday that the military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has made America less safe.

„The record is clear: rather than keep us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security,“ he said during an address on national security at the National Archives in Washington.

„It is a rallying cry for our enemies. It sets back the willingness of our allies to work with us in fighting an enemy that operates in scores of countries. By any measure, the costs of keeping it open far exceed the complications involved in closing it.“
He said that the facility resulted in the creation of more terrorists than it detained, and he said that over the last seven years, the system of military commissions at Guantanamo succeeded in convicting „a grand total of three suspected terrorists.“
Obama’s plans to close the prison have been met with opposition from both sides of the aisle in Congress. Following in the steps of House Democrats, Senate Democrats on Tuesday rejected the administration’s request for $80 million to close the Guantanamo facility.
They instead asked that Obama first submit a plan spelling out what the administration will do with the prisoners when it closes the prison. And on Thursday, Obama pledged not to release any Guantanamo Bay detainees who threaten the United States.
„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 – namely, highly secure prisons that ensure the public safety.“
Obama noted that nobody has ever escaped from any of the federal „supermax“ prisons.
The Senate passed a measure Wednesday that would prevent the detainees from being transferred to the United States. The measure passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in a 90-6 vote. A similar amendment has passed the House.
The moves by the Democratic-controlled Congress are considered a sharp rebuke to Obama.
In his speech Thursday, the president defended his decision to ban torture, saying he could not „disagree more“ with proponents of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding.
„As commander in chief, I see the intelligence, I bear responsibility for keeping this country safe, and I categorically reject the assertion that these are the most effective means of interrogation,“ he said.
„What’s more, they undermine the rule of law. They alienate us in the world. They serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists and increase the will of our enemies to fight us, while decreasing the will of others to work with America. They risk the lives of our troops by making it less likely that others will surrender to them in battle, and more likely that Americans will be mistreated if they are captured.
„In short, they did not advance our war and counter-terrorism efforts; they undermined them, and that is why I ended them once and for all.“
Obama said the Bush administration took America’s national security „off course“ after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
After September 11, „faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions,“ he said.
„I believe that many of these decisions were motivated by a sincere desire to protect the American people. But I also believe that all too often, our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight; that all too often trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions.“
Obama said that instead „of strategically applying our power and our principles, too often we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford. And during this season of fear, too many of us – Democrats and Republicans; politicians, journalists and citizens – fell silent.“
„In other words,“ he said, „we went off course.“
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the most outspoken critics of Obama’s policies, was slated to give an opposing argument Thursday morning. Cheney has charged that Obama’s national security decisions have left the United States more vulnerable to attack.
Cheney was expected to challenge the Obama administration’s rationale for closing the Guantanamo detention center, arguing, in the words of one adviser, „our values are not abrogated by prioritizing security for innocents over rights for terrorists.“
The former vice president also will respond to the controversy surrounding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who last week charged that the CIA misled Congress about the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. Cheney will defend the CIA, the sources said.