Obama concedes defeat in Guantanamo closure
Obama concedes defeat in Guantanamo closure date
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By Alistair Potter. |  |
Wednesday, 18, Nov 2009 05:11
By Richard James.
Barack Obama has conceded that his plans to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison camp in January may not be met.
The US president signed an executive order on his second full day in office ordering the Cuban detention centre to be closed within a year.
However, he has since faced stiff opposition to the plans, especially among Republicans, to relocate some of the detainees to US soil.
Speaking with Fox News during his current trip to Asia, Mr Obama said the January 22nd deadline would most probably be missed, but he was still hopeful to achieve the goal sometime next year.
In an interview with Major Garrett in Beijing, the US president said: "People, I think understandably, are fearful after a lot of years where they were told that Guantanamo was critical to keep terrorists out.
"We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantanamo will be closed next year," he added. "I'm not going to set an exact date because a lot of this is also going to depend on cooperation from Congress."
Last week the Obama administration announced five men, including the alleged September 11th mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried in a federal court in New York.
In a separate interview with CNN, Mr Obama said the residents of the US city need not be "fearful" of the prospect of the men returning to the scene of the Twin Towers attack that left around 3,000 people dead.
"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 said, according to early excerpts of the interview.
Mr Obama is due in South Korea later today in the latest stage of his whirlwind Asia tour which has already seen him visit Japan, Singapore and China.