President Barack Obama sought today to quell a domestic backlash against his efforts to close the internationally condemned US prison at Guantanamo Bay and roll back some of the most divisive Bush-era anti-terrorism policies.
Mr Obama made his case in a much-anticipated speech a day after the US Senate, controlled by fellow Democrats, handed him a stinging setback by blocking funds to shutter the prison until he presents a detailed plan on what to do with the 240 terrorism suspects held there.
Countering Mr Obama's criticism of the "mess" he said he had inherited from the previous administration, former vice president Dick Cheney said recent reversals of past policies amounted to "recklessness cloaked in righteousness and would make the American people less safe."
Mr Obama, who succeeded Republican George Bush on January 20th, had vowed in his first days in office to close the detention centre, located at a US naval base in Cuba, within a year as part of his effort to repair America's tarnished image abroad.
But implementing a revamped approach on detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects has proved more difficult than his administration expected.
"We uphold our most cherished values not only because doing so is right, but because it strengthens our country and keeps us safe," MR Obama said at the National Archives as he outlined his Guantanamo strategy and tried to wrest back control of the debate.
Seeking to calm the public's fears that some Guantanamo detainees could eventually be released on US soil, he insisted he would not authorise the freeing of anyone who would "endanger the American people".
But he said some terrorism suspects could be tried in US.courts and be held in super-maximum-security US prisons.
Mr Obama's speech, however, appeared to fall short of the kind of specifics demanded by friends and critics alike.
Reuters