Wire: Still Lacking Plans to Close Guantanamo, Obama Blames Bush

Off the Wire:

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2009 -- Newswires reported this morning that President Barack Obama on Thursday made a speech at the National Archives in an attempt to quell a domestic backlash against his efforts to close the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Obama made his speech a day after the U.S. Senate, controlled by fellow Democrats, handed him a stinging rebuke by blocking funds to close the camp until he presents a plan on what to do with the 240 terrorism suspects held there.

Obama had vowed in his first days in office to close the detention camp located at a U.S. Naval base in Cuba within a year.

Obama's speech appeared to stop short of providing a plan to close the detention camp.

Obama today said some terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo could be tried in U.S. courts and be held in U.S. prisons.

Blaming Bush, Obama in his speech said, "I knew when I ordered Guantanamo closed that it would be difficult and complex. There are 240 people there who have now spent years in legal limbo. In dealing with this situation, we do not have the luxury of starting from scratch. We are cleaning up something that is -- quite simply -- a mess; a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges that my Administration is forced to deal with on a constant basis, and that consumes the time of government officials whose time should be spent on better protecting our country."

(Report from newswire sources.)

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