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Obama: We Won't Make Gitmo Deadline

Pres tells Fox's Major Garrett prison will close after Jan 2010

By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 18, 2009 5:40 AM CST

(Newser) – Guantanamo Bay prison won't close by the January deadline he set when he took office, President Obama admitted today, but he still hopes to shut it next year. Obama is "not disappointed" in missing the deadline, he says in a FoxNews interview airing this morning, since closing the facility is "technically hard" and people are understandably "fearful after a lot of years where they were told that Guantanamo was critical to keep terrorists out," the Washington Post reports.

Speaking from Beijing, Obama declined to set a new date for the closing, which he said depends on cooperation from Congress. Gitmo is a sore point between the US and China, since the US earlier this year refused to return Chinese Uighurs to China for fear they'd be treated as political prisoners, instead sending them to Bermuda and Palau.

President Barack Obama attends his working lunch with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the Diaoyutai Guest House in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009.
President Barack Obama attends his working lunch with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the Diaoyutai Guest House in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 39 comments
godawgs
Nov 19, 2009 12:17 PM CST
please explain how complicated it is to stop illegally wiretapping people. How is tricky when the current President (obama) is actually expanding his ability to spy on his own people. During the campaign it was so simple, we were going to shut down GITMO because it was a symbol of evil, it didn't really sound so complicated then. We weren't going to hold people indefinitely without charging them with something. Remember that? How are those things working out for the current President? He is still continuing on the same practices he preached against as a candidate. It will just take you a little longer to notice it.
tomodachi
Nov 18, 2009 12:52 PM CST
@godawgs: LOL... GWB tried to control the Iraqi oil and failed miserably... killing over 4000 US military heroes in the process... wasting over $3 Trillion hard earned taxpayer dollars... and leaving the oil companies (and Middle East oil barons) fatter beyond their wildest dreams. GWB ended up giving Iraq to Iran. But yes godawgs... GWB planned to invade Iraq long before he found (what he thought was) a justifiable reason.
tomodachi
Nov 18, 2009 12:48 PM CST
No ilguy... what's happening here is the logistics of fixing GWB's f'ups. It takes time... especially since there's so many things to fix. Just remember... it wasn't Obama who thought the best way to fight the so called war on terror... was to abduct people he thought MIGHT be "terrorists" and hide them away from due process... so he could torture them without silly things like the Geneva Convention rules getting in the way. This was GWB's law... not the US law... Not the Obama administration's fault. Obama did right to criticize GWB.
 

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