Guantanamo sparks Obama's first fight with Congress (News Feature)

By Mike McCarthy May 22, 2009, 1:46 GMT

Washington - The question of what to do with detainees held at the Guantanano Bay prison camp has thrust US President Barack Obama into the biggest political fight of his young presidency.

Seeking to quell the rising tide against him in Congress, Obama went before the nation on Thursday with a major address to assure Americans that he will not release detainees who remain a threat to national security.

Obama accused Congress of using fear as a political tactic in voting to block the transfer of any of the detainees to prisons on US soil. Obama did not single out opposition Republicans. His own centre-left Democrats joined the minority party in the towering 90-6 defeat of an 80-million-dollar spending request to begin closing the controversial prison.

'I've heard words that are calculated to scare people rather than educate them - words that have more to do with politics than protecting our country,' Obama said.

Obama's order to close Guantanamo by January 2010 drew widespread praise from Democrats, Republicans, civil-rights groups and the European Union, but he has since encountered stiff resistance from all sides on the question of what to do with the remaining 240 detainees.

Only two countries, Britain and France, have combined to take two prisoners off his hands, and congressional opposition to bringing Gitmo inmates to the United States places him in a further dilemma. Lawmakers, fearing a backlash from voters, do not want to see any of the detainees end up in their home states or districts.

They argued in shooting down Obama's budget request that transferring the prisoners to US soil unnecessarily places the American public at risk. Obama countered that keeping Guantanamo open hurts the US image in the world and undermines the war on terrorism.

'The problem of what to do with Guantanamo detainees was not caused by my decision to close the facility,' Obama said. 'The problem exists because of the decision to open Guantanamo in the first place.'

Former vice president Dick Cheney, who has hit the airwaves in recent weeks to defend the policies during the Bush years, shot back in speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington that began minutes after Obama concluded.

Cheney credited congressional Democrats for joining Republicans to criticize Obama over Guantanamo, and argued there were no good alternatives to keeping the prison open. He accused Obama of making a snap decision to close Guantanamo without considering the consequences.

'The administration has found that it's easy to receive applause in Europe for closing Guantanamo,' Cheney said. 'But it's tricky to come up with an alternative that will serve the interests of justice and America's national security.'

Democrats insist that Obama first provide a plan before they dole out the money, but the president offered up few new details in his speech on Thursday. He did, however, say that some of the detainees will be brought to prisons inside the United States.

Obama said that the maximum-security facilities in the United States are adequate for holding dangerous detainees, and already house hardened criminals and previously convicted terrorists.

He cited the cases of Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted in the first attack on the World Trade Center, and Zacarius Moussaoui, who was convicted of conspiracy for his role in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Both are serving life sentences in federal prisons.

'If we try those terrorists in our courts and hold them in our prisons, then we can do the same with detainees from Guantanamo,' Obama said.