Obama: Gitmo Likely Won’t Close Soon

MARY BRUCE
ABC News
January 12, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama said this weekend that he does not expect to close Guantanamo Bay in his first 100 days in office.

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“I think it’s going to take some time and our legal teams are working in consultation with our national security apparatus as we speak to help design exactly what we need to do,” Obama said in an exclusive “This Week” interview with George Stephanopoulos, his first since arriving in Washington.

“It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize,” the president-elect explained. “Part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication. And some of the evidence against them may be tainted even though it’s true. And so how to balance creating a process that adheres to rule of law, habeas corpus, basic principles of Anglo-American legal system, by doing it in a way that doesn’t result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up.”

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This article was posted: Monday, January 12, 2009 at 4:22 pm

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