Obama Mounts ("impassioned") Defense of Plans to Close Guantánamo

[usregimechange]

Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Obama spoke at the National Archives building in Washington on Thursday.


WASHINGTON — Despite stiff resistance from Congress, President Obama said Thursday that he intended to transfer some detainees from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to highly secure facilities inside the United States. He also proposed “prolonged detention” for terrorism suspects who cannot be tried, a problem he called “the toughest issue we face.”

In a speech at the National Archives here, Mr. Obama gave a full-throated defense of his antiterrorism policies and his commitment to closing the Guantánamo prison. With Republicans painting him as weak on terror, and Democrats increasingly nervous about transferring terrorism suspects to the United States, the White House sought to reclaim a debate over which even some of his allies said he had lost control.

“We are not going to release anyone if it would endanger our national security,” Mr. Obama declared, adding, “As we make these decisions, bear in mind the following fact: Nobody has ever escaped from one of our federal supermax prisons, which hold hundreds of convicted terrorists.”

In describing his plans for the roughly 240 terrorism suspects still held at Guantánamo Bay, Mr. Obama accused his predecessor, George W. Bush, of having embarked on “a misguided experiment” that resulted in “a mess.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/us/politics/22obama.html?hp

[Clio the Leo]

1. Check out the Founding Father (aka Great White Man) fourth from the left...

.... up there in that painting.

Seems to be looking down on #44 rather impressed with what he just heard.



I know, reading too much in to it ..... but it's art ...... it's subjective. :)

(who is that guy I wonder? ..... I'm gonna go with Jefferson.... I think it's Jefferson.)

[Clio the Leo]

3. ... ah, it's James Wilson.....

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/faulkner/

And coincidentally, the painter's name is "Barry." :)

[NYC_SKP]

4. Or is it John Rutledge?

It's hard to see but there are three tightly crowded together at the far right.

The Constitution Mural, Painted by: Barry Faulkner in 1936

From left to right: (Front Row) Edmund Randolph, Nathaniel Gorham, John Dickinson, John
Rutledge, James Wilson, Oliver Ellsworth, Charles Pinckney, James Madison, Elbridge Gerry,
William Samuel Johnson, George Mason, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Rufus King,
William Paterson, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Gouverneur Morris,
Alexander Hamilton, George Read.
(Back Row) William R. Davie, John Langdon, Luther Martin, Roger Sherman,
Gunning Bedford, Jr., and Abraham Baldwin.

[Clio the Leo]

6. Whoops, I forgot the link...

.... this page has a mouse over thingy that says it's Wilson.

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/faulkner/

[elleng]

2. 'Impassioned?'

SCHOLARLY!!!

[bluestateguy]

5. Doing this is sure turning out to be a pain in the ass

If closing a single prison that houses less than 300 people is this cumbersome, I can't imagine how hard it will be to get health care done or DADT repealed.

[vaberella]

7. That's the whole point. I think people don't really "get" how many problems he faces.

There's a "mess" as O said in the White House he has to deal with it every day because it's a big mess.