Obama admits defeat on Camp X-Ray closure
President Barack Obama admitted yesterday what his aides and other Washington insiders have known for months: that his deadline for closing the Camp X-Ray prison inside the Guantanamo Bay naval base on 22 January – the first anniversary of his coming into office – will not now be met.
"I knew it was going to be hard," Mr Obama told an interviewer with Fox News, before leaving China for South Korea on the last leg of his Asian tour.
"We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantanamo will be closed next year," he added, but declined to offer a new date.
The pledge to close Guantanamo was part of Mr Obama's push to dissociate himself from the anti-terror policies of George Bush. At the same time, he also outlawed the use of torture on terror suspects.
However, the Guantanamo promise has proved hard to honour, not least because of the difficulty of deciding where the detainees should go. Other countries have been reluctant to take the inmates, but holding them in facilities on American soil is proving to be equally problematic.
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Comments
Apparently yes. True to form, he started bailing out his Wall Street wheeler-dealer buddies as soon as he stepped into the White House. No delays or difficulties there, shoveling trillions of taxpayer money into the pockets of inveterate Wall Street gamblers went off like a breeze. So did escalating Bush's pipeline war and spreading it to Pakistan. No problem there either. But whenever it comes to doing something for non-crooks, non-billionaires, that does not involve destroying the planet, or torturing or killing people, Obama has the dangdest time getting anything done. Gitmo? Aww shucks? Jobs? Aww shucks. Climate action? Aww shucks. Palestine? Aww shucks. Iran? Aww shucks. Gays in the military? Aww shucks. Prosecuting torturers? Aww shucks. Health care? Aww shucks.
Deceit, Destruction & Death
He is beginning to do much of nothing about everything.
No the star everyone thought he would be, I an totally disgusted with this one. Guess the Israeli lobby tells them what to do just in the UK.
344 US House of Representatives voted to condemn the Goldstone report on Israel /Gaza War http://wp.me/p4271-1xO
Israeli Lobby Groups in Britain http://www.indybay.org/news...