Obama's Speech: Guantanamo Will Close

Obama was like a righteous fisherman reeling us back in, reminding us of our values among documents such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives. Gitmo will close, he said. The prison created more terrorists than it detained.

"As Commander-in-Chief, I see the intelligence, I bear responsibility for keeping this country safe, and I reject the assertion that these are the most effective means of interrogation. 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."

Obama recognized the views of the left and the right but said Americans aren't absolutists.

We see that, above all, in how the recent debate has been obscured by two opposite and absolutist ends. On one side of the spectrum, there are those who make little allowance for the unique challenges posed by terrorism, and who would almost never put national security over transparency. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who embrace a view that can be summarized in two words: "anything goes." Their arguments suggest that the ends of fighting terrorism can be used to justify any means, and that the President should have blanket authority to do whatever he wants - provided that it is a President with whom they agree.

Both sides may be sincere in their views, but neither side is right. The American people are not absolutist, and they don't elect us to impose a rigid ideology on our problems. They know that we need not sacrifice our security for our values, nor sacrifice our values for our security, so long as we approach difficult questions with honesty, and care, and a dose of common sense. That, after all, is the unique genius of America. That is the challenge laid down by our Constitution. That has been the source of our strength through the ages. That is what makes the United States of America different as a nation.

More than anything, Obama says Gitmo represents constant and ongoing legal challenges. Why? Because Gitmo challenges the Constitution. This point is often missed by the talk radio and tea party wing:

I knew when I ordered Guantanamo closed that it would be difficult and complex. There are 240 people there who have now spent years in legal limbo. In dealing with this situation, we do not have the luxury of starting from scratch. We are cleaning up something that is - quite simply - a mess; a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges that my Administration is forced to deal with on a constant basis, and that consumes the time of government officials whose time should be spent on better protecting our country.

Indeed, the legal challenges that have sparked so much debate in recent weeks in Washington would be taking place whether or not I decided to close Guantanamo. For example, the court order to release seventeen Uighur detainees took place last fall - when George Bush was President. The Supreme Court that invalidated the system of prosecution at Guantanamo in 2006 was overwhelmingly appointed by Republican Presidents. In other words, the problem of what to do with Guantanamo detainees was not caused by my decision to close the facility; the problem exists because of the decision to open Guantanamo in the first place.

He also said he believed that Bush-Cheney had the interests of the nation at heart but they were misguided, which is why Obama tends to look forward.
It was maddening that the media gave Cheney equal billing (Cheney gave a speech too) when he's not our president and what he says doesn't matter. We voted out Bush-Cheney policies. We now know all that went down and as Obama said in his speech, Americans chose two candidates who believed that torture is wrong and Gitmo should be closed.
How dare Cheney undermine Obama's work. I couldn't even bring myself to watch Cheney growl and I'm not inclined to post his speech either. It's irrelevant.
Anyway, here is Obama's speech transcript and full video:

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Obama Orders Closure of Guanatanamo and CIA Secret Prisons

MSNBC: Moving quickly to reverse his predecessor's policies on the treatment of terror suspects, President Barack Obama on Thursday signed an executive order to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison within a year.

He also signed an executive order to require that all U.S. interrogations of terror suspects must now conform to the U.S. Army Field Manual, a move meant to restrict what the CIA can do. The president created an interagency task force to advise him on detainee policy.

Obama also ordered CIA's secret prisons closed:

NYT: WASHINGTON — President Obama signed executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, government officials said.

The orders, which are the first steps in undoing detention policies of former President George W. Bush, rewrite American rules for the detention of terrorism suspects. They require an immediate review of the 245 detainees still held at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to determine if they should be transferred, released or prosecuted.

Obama's Tough Guantanamo Decisions

Swamp: Reports about the complexities that President-elect Obama will have to unknot in order to redeem his promise to close Guantanamo probably help explain why the Bush Administration's initial approach to the prisoners was to essentially lock them up and throw away the key.

Of course, the Constitution doesn't say the nation's chief executive is allowed to sidestep the laws of the land to avoid solving difficult problems which is why we're arguably where we're at now.

The Obama plan which hasn't been finalized amounts to releasing some prisoners outright and bringing the rest to the U.S. where they would either be tried in regular courts or special ones created to deal with those cases involving classified material.

The plan is likely to be controversial with criticism already coming from the left and right.

Obama team determined to find a way:

At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday that President Bush has faced many challenges in trying to close the prison.

"We've tried very hard to explain to people how complicated it is. When you pick up people off the battlefield that have a terrorist background, it's not just so easy to let them go," Perino said. "These issues are complicated, and we have put forward a process that we think would work in order to put them on trial through military tribunals."

But Obama has been critical of that process and his legal advisers said finding an alternative will be a top priority. One of those advisers, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, acknowledges that bringing detainees to the U.S. would be controversial but said it could be accomplished.

"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."