Obama admits Guantanamo won't close by Jan. deadline

News Type: Event — Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 9:13 AM EST

Article Source: The Washington Post

politics, obama, barack-obama, terrorism, democrats, democrat, torture, war-on-terror, delay

BEIJING -- President Obama directly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay will not close by the January deadline he set, but he said he hoped to still achieve that goal sometime next year.

Obama refused, however, to set a new deadline.

In an interview in the Chinese capital with Major Garrett of Fox News , Obama claimed he was "not disappointed" that the Guantanamo deadline had slipped, saying he "knew this was going to be hard."

"People, I think understandably, are fearful after a lot of years where they were told that Guantanamo was critical to keep terrorists out," Obama said. Closing the facility, he added, is "also just technically hard."

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4.6

0.3

{"commentId":10746484,"authorDomain":"donstahoe"}

I am American

well DUH, anyone expect him to keep his word? NOT ME

{"commentId":10746484,"threadId":"727221","contentId":"3515303","authorDomain":"donstahoe"}

4 votes

#1 - Wed Nov 18, 2009 9:38 AM EST

{"commentId":10746610,"authorDomain":"nweiss7"}

grouse14Deleted

{"commentId":10746841,"authorDomain":"killfile"}

Killfile

Not that it's any less his responsibility, but the deadline was set by his staff and set ambitiously as well. It was a poor political decision to set a hard deadline and... well... now the White House has to eat crow by admitting they won't hit it.

{"commentId":10746841,"threadId":"727221","contentId":"3515303","authorDomain":"killfile"}

2 votes

#3 - Wed Nov 18, 2009 9:54 AM EST

{"commentId":10746859,"authorDomain":"chinaownsus"}

ChinaOwnsUS

Obama has changed his priority from closing down Gitmo to closing down America.

{"commentId":10746859,"threadId":"727221","contentId":"3515303","authorDomain":"chinaownsus"}

3 votes

#4 - Wed Nov 18, 2009 9:54 AM EST

{"commentId":10750908,"authorDomain":"Nic-24"}

Nic-24

We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantanamo will be closed next year," he said. "I'm not going to set an exact date because a lot of this is also going to depend on cooperation from Congress."

How much of this statement is legit versus side-stepping? I agree with Killfile that it was ambitious to set a January goal of closing Gitmo, but I suppose they wanted to placate us somehow. I am disappointed that much of the Bush era mistakes remain intact.

{"commentId":10750908,"threadId":"727221","contentId":"3515303","authorDomain":"Nic-24"}

#5 - Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:37 PM EST

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KILLFILE

Backyard

Obama admits Guantanamo won't close by Jan. deadline

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