Despite his claims that progress is being made in closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, President Barack Obama acknowledged on Wednesday that the administration won't make the January 2010 deadline he set when he took office, according to Michael Carden of the American Forces Press Service.
"We had a specific deadline that we missed," President Obama told reporters accompanying him on a weeklong trip to Asia. He added that his administration won't set a new deadline, but does expect the facility shut down sometime next year.
"We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate Guantanamo will be closed next year," Obama told Fox News Channel's Major Garrett, during an exclusive interview.
"I'm not going to set an exact date, because a lot of this is also going to depend on cooperation from Congress," he told Garrett.
According to a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, Obama signed an executive order in January that suspended military commissions for detainees held at Guantanamo and ordered the detention facility closed within a year. Congress recently approved reforms to the Military Commissions Act, allowing officials to move forward with determining how and where the detainees are tried.
Decisions this week to pursue the prosecution of 10 Guantanamo detainees pave the way toward resolving the disposition of others there and eventually closing the detention facility, a senior Defense Department official said on background Nov. 13.
Justice department officials announced last Friday that the five detainees accused of conspiring to commit the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks will be tried in federal court in New York. Another five, one of whom is accused of orchestrating the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, will be charged in military commissions.
"The announcement today in terms of the prosecutable detainees was basically Round 1," the official said. "I think now that we have the process in place [and] we have the prosecution teams in place, ... the process will move along at a fairly efficient rate."
There are many Americans angered over President Barack Obama's decision to bring 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York City to stand trial in civilian court, some saying that terrorists are receiving preferential treatment over US soldiers.
He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer and columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. Kouri appear regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc.
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Comments
It's not quite an "exclusive" interview with FOX. He also talked to CNN, NBC, and CBS.
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