By Wajid Ali Syed – Washington Correspondent for Asian Tribune
Washington, 22 May, (Asiantribune.com): President Obama has vowed to prosecute Guantanamo Bay detainees in US federal courts when possible and transfer some to prisons within the US borders.
Speaking at the National Archives on Thursday he said he intends to reform military commissions to try those detainees and create a new legal process to detain terrorists who cannot be prosecuted yet who pose a clear danger to national security.
The Senate has already rejected President Obama's request for $80 million to close the detention center - because of lack of details about what would be done with the 240 detainees held in the prison.
Obama outline his approach to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center and said use of such techniques at Guantanamo set back the moral authority of the United States.
The prison was to be a tool of counterterrorism, Obama said, but it became a tool of al-Qaida recruiting. "Indeed, the existence of Guantanamo likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained," the president said. The prison, he added, has weakened American national security and has become a rallying cry for US enemies.
Some have argued that interrogation methods such as water-boarding are necessary, Obama noted. "I could not disagree more," he said. "I categorically reject the assertion that these are the most effective means of interrogation."
He has also opposed releasing photos of detainees taken by US personnel between 2002 and 2004. "It was my judgment – informed by my national security team – that releasing these photos would inflame anti-American opinion, and allow our enemies to paint US troops with a broad, damning and inaccurate brush, endangering them in theaters of war," he explained.
- Asian Tribune -
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