WATCH: Obama Calls For The Closing Of Guantánamo Bay Prison, An
End To Post-9/11 Mentality
April 30th, 2013 12:58
pmJason Sattler
President Obama called
for the closure of the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay and encouraged the
use of federal courts to prosecute terrorists, during a
press conference in the White House
Briefing Room Tuesday morning.
“Well, it is not a
surprise to me that we’ve got problems in Guantánamo, which is why, when I was
campaigning in 2007 and 2008 and when I was elected in 2008, I said we need to
close Guantánamo,” the president said, in response to a question about the ongoing
hunger strike at the camp that has been reportedly joined by
more than 100 prisoners.
“I continue to believe
that we’ve got to close Guantánamo,” he said. “I think — well, you know, I
think it is critical for us to understand that Guantánamo is not necessary
to keep America safe. It is expensive. It is inefficient. It hurts us in terms
of our international standing. It lessens cooperation with our allies on
counterterrorism efforts. It is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to
be closed.”
However, both
Republicans and Democrats resisted moving the prisoners to a facility inside
the United States. The 2011 Defense Authorization Bill
prohibited ”the use of funds to modify or construct facilities in the
United States to house detainees transferred from United States Naval Station,
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.” The president signed the bill but announced that he would
try to repeal or mitigate these restrictions in the future. Obama’s critics
have pointed out that even if the president has objected to the camp’s
location, he still supports the “core injustice”
being practiced there: indefinite detention.
The president insisted
Tuesday that the continued use of the camp was not sustainable.
“I mean, the notion that
we’re going to continue to keep over a hundred individuals in a no-man’s-land
in perpetuity, even at a time when we’ve wound down the war in Iraq, we’re
winding down the war in Afghanistan, we’re having success defeating al Qaeda
core, we’ve kept the pressure up on all these transnational terrorist networks,
when we’ve transferred detention authority in Afghanistan — the idea that we
would still maintain forever a group of individuals who have not been tried —
that is contrary to who we are, it is contrary to our interests, and it needs
to stop,” he said.
He then articulated the argument
his government has made implicitly in the way it handled the arrest of the
Boston bombing suspect: The federal justice system can handle terrorists who
attack the United States.
“I mean, we’ve got a whole bunch of individuals who have been
tried who are currently in maximum security prisons around the country,” he
said.
“Nothing’s
happened to them. Justice has been served. It’s been done in a way that’s
consistent with our Constitution, consistent with due process, consistent with
rule of law, consistent with our traditions. The — the individual who attempted
to bomb Times Square — in prison serving a life sentence. Individual who tried
to bomb a plane in Detroit — in prison serving a life sentence. A Somali who
was part of al-Shahab [sic] who we captured — in prison.”
He
went on do a quick genealogy of how America got into this situation. “And I
understand that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, with the traumas that had
taken place, why, for a lot of Americans, the notion was somehow that we had to
create a special facility like Guantánamo, and we couldn’t handle this in — in
a normal, conventional fashion,” he said. “I understand that reaction.”
But
he then suggested it’s time to phase out that approach.
“But
we’re now over a decade out,” he said. “We should be wiser. We should have more
experience at — in how we prosecute terrorists. And this is a lingering, you
know, problem that is not going to get better. It’s going to get worse. It’s
going to fester.”
The
president also addressed the potential use of chemical weapons in Syria —
something he has said would be a “game changer” in the conflict. Here
Obama again sought to contrast himself with the post 9/11 mentality by
stressing caution on evidence related to weapons of mass destruction.
“And
what we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of
Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used
them; we don’t have chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened,”
he said. “And when I am making decisions about America’s national security and
the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use,
I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts.”
If
the regime of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad had indeed used such weapons,
the president did not promise a direct military conflict. Instead he said that
“we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us.”
Fox
News’ Ed Henry, who asked about Syria, also confronted the president with
discredited rumors his
channel has been circulating that survivors of the Benghazi attacks were being
prevented from speaking to the public. Obama said he would look into them.
Responding
to a reporter who asked about a comment from Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) that
Obamacare’s implementation is looking like a “train wreck,” the president
pointed out that a huge chunk of the law was already in effect, helping
millions of Americans.
“But
I think the main message I want to give to the American people here is despite
all the hue and cry and, you know, sky-is- falling predictions about this
stuff, if you’ve already got health insurance, then that part of ‘Obamacare’
that affects you, it’s pretty much already in place,” he said. “And that’s
about 85 percent of the country. What is left to be implemented is those
provisions to help the 10 to 15 percent of the American public that is unlucky
enough that they don’t have health insurance.”
The
president closed his press conference by saying he largely supports the
immigration reform bill that has come out of the Senate’s “Gang of Eight.” But
he came back to the mic to comment on Jason Collins, who became the the first
active athlete in one of America’s four major professional sports leagues to
admit he is gay.
“I
think America should be proud that this is just one more step in this ongoing
recognition that we treat everybody fairly,” he said. “And everybody’s part of
a — part of a family, and we judge people on the basis of their character and
their performance, and not their sexual orientation. And so I’m very proud of
him.”
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