Obama links refugee worries to resistance on closing Gitmo

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses while answering a reporters question during a meeting with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila, Philippines, Thursday, November 19, 2015.

Likening the fierce opposition to closing Guantanamo among lawmakers to “rhetoric” against resettling Syrian refugees in the U.S., Obama conceded that the recent attacks will further complicate his proposal.

[Obama]said that the rhetoric around Guantanamo “alienates Muslim-Americans” in the same way that the rhetoric around refugees does, and said the detention center “has been an enormous recruitment tool for organizations like ISIL”.

“It’s part of how they rationalize and justify their demented, sick perpetration of violence on innocent people”, said Obama.

“We can keep the American people safe while shutting down that operation”.

A Defense Department team recently finished surveying seven sites in Colorado, SC and Kansas that could be the next address for a few of the 112 detainees now housed at Guantanamo Bay. The Pentagon has surveyed prisons in Colorado, Kansas, and SC to assess their viability but has not completed cost assessments for the options, which allegedly led to the delay.

Republicans have vowed that they will resist the president’s plan.

The White House announced Wednesday it would veto the bill because the proposed requirements “would provide no meaningful additional security” for the country.

Obama, who ran a campaign platform based on closing the facility, is running out of time before he leaves office.

As a candidate and as U.S. president, Obama has argued that indefinite detention, “enhanced interrogation” and pictures of caged males in orange leap fits violated America’s ethos and handed militants a potent recruiting software.

Wilson said US Attorney General Loretta Lynch backed up statements that laws passed in Congress prevent the president from moving detainees. “And it’s not necessary for us to keep our people safe”.

Despite concern from lawmakers, Obama has threatened to use executive action to close the military prison, which Sen. But that was held up without explanation, and Obama did not specify any new timeline. McCain has been largely supportive of Obama’s efforts to close the facility, but has criticized the administration for dragging its feet on submitting a plan that he could support and present to members of Congress. Paris is exactly a reason why we need to close Gitmo.

“Before the attacks, I would have said December, (but) now I don’t know”, the official said.