TERRORISM | 21.05.2009

Obama seeks support for Guantanamo closure after Senate rebuke

 

Obama suffered a rare bipartisan defeat in the Senate

US President Barack Obama is to deliver a speech on national security after his own Democrats joined with Senate Republicans and voted overwhelmingly to block the closing of the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison.

 

President Obama will seek to regain control of the Guantanamo Bay discussion Thursday with a major address on national security, just a day after a rare bipartisan defeat for the popular president.

The Senate voted 90-6 to strip the $80 million (58 million euros) Obama requested for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison from spending legislation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This sharp rebuke puts Obama in a political tight spot at home and abroad and could get in the way of the fulfilment of his promise to close the prison in the first year of his presidency. Obama signed the executive order calling for the closure on January 22, just days after taking office, proving that he was serious about reversing some of the controversial policies of his predecessor George W. Bush. But now Obama has just months to decide what to do with the 240 remaining inmates, many of whom have not been charged.

"We've made some hasty decisions that are now going to take some time to unwind," said presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs. "And closing Guantanamo Bay, obviously, is one of those decisions."

Criticism from all sides

While Obama's move to close the prison was welcomed internationally, many Americans are skittish about having these suspected terrorists in their own states. Fearing a backlash from these voters, members of the Senate and House of Representatives from both parties have resisted bringing the detainees into the US.

"Democrats under no circumstances will move forward without a comprehensive, responsible plan from the president," said Senate majority leader Harry Reid. "We will never allow terrorists to be released into the United States."

Many of the inmates have yet to be charged

FBI director Robert Mueller also has concerns about bringing the detainees into the American prison system.

"The concerns we have about individuals who may support terrorism being in the United States run from concerns about providing financing to terrorists, radicalizing others with regard to violent extremism, the potential for individuals undertaking attacks in the United States," Mueller said.

Mueller said he hoped Obama's speech would "outline a comprehensive strategy for keeping America safe."

Obama has also come under fire for reversing his position on other related issues. Many Obama supporters and civil liberties groups were angered when he announced plans to re-institute Bush-era military tribunals for terror suspects and to block the release of photos of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Little support from Europe

Obama's failure to persuade his fellow Americans to accept Guantanamo inmates into their country could further undermine his administration's efforts to get allies in Europe to take in some of the detainees themselves.

Since Obama took office, one man has been transferred to Britain and another to France, but other European nations have either refused entirely or given conflicting responses.

Steinmeier isn't sure former Guantanamo Bay inmates belong in Europe

While Germany's Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said Germany would consider taking in former inmates, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has repeatedly spoken out against the idea.

The US has pushed Germany to take in a group of inmates of China's Uigher minority, a mainly Muslim group that Beijing considers terrorists. Munich, in the southern German state Bavaria, is home to around 500 Uighurs, the largest known community in exile.

Steinmeier, who is running as the Social Democrats' candidate for chancellor this year, told the news magazine Der Spiegel this week that accepting any large number of Uighers would create political tensions with the Chinese government.

hf/AFP/AP/dpa
Editor: Nick Amies

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