Obama vows to close Guantanamo ‘once and for all,’ but questions remain

WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed to “once and for all” close the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer most detainees to a facility in the United States, submitting a plan short on specifics and unlikely to make headway with opponents in Congress.

Obama cast his proposal as a moment to turn the page on a facility that for years has raised nettlesome legal questions, become a recruitment tool for violent extremists and garnered strong opposition from some allies abroad.

“I don’t want to pass this problem onto the next president, whoever it is,” Obama said, in an appearance at the White House.

“If we don’t do what’s required now, I think future generations are going to look back and ask why we failed to act when the right course, the right side of history, and justice and our best American traditions was clear.”

Despite the big ambitions, Obama’s proposed path to closure remained unclear.

It leaves unanswered the politically thorny question of where in the U.S. a new facility would be located and whether it could be completed by the end of Obama’s term.

Relocating detainees to U.S. soil is currently prohibited under American law and lawmakers have shown little interest in removing the restrictions.

Republican leaders in Congress showed no interest in having that conversation on relocation.

“We will review President Obama’s plan but since it includes bringing dangerous terrorists to facilities in U.S. communities, he knows that the bipartisan will of Congress has already been expressed against that proposal,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Obama had yet to convince Americans that moving detainees to U.S. soil is “smart or safe.”

“It is against the law — and it will stay against the law,” Ryan said.

Even Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war and an advocate of closing the prison, called Obama’s report a “vague menu of options,” which does not include a policy for dealing with future terrorist detainees.