Obama stands by decision to close Guantanamo

President Obama delivered a strong defense of his approach to fighting terrorism Thursday, insisting he is right to ban torture and close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and flatly pledging that "we can and will defeat al-Qaida." In a 50-minute address at the National Archives, the president lamented what he called "a return of the politicization" of national security and chided both sides of the debate for arguing from "opposite and absolutist ends."

Obama blamed the Bush administration for "hasty decisions" and policies on torture and Guantanamo, an issue on which he suffered a setback this week when Congress refused to give him the money to close the controversial facility.

"We don't have the luxury of starting from scratch," he said. "We are cleaning up something that is, quite simply, a mess; a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges that my administration is forced to deal with on a constant basis and that consumes the time of government officials whose time should be spent on better protecting our country."

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in a 33-minute address at the American Enterprise Institute, insisted that the Bush-Cheney policies were anything but a mess and had bequeathed a much safer and more secure country to Obama. In one stinging line after another, Cheney rebuked Obama, Congress and the media for criticisms of policies he defended.

Perhaps with Cheney in mind, Obama said: "I know some have argued that brutal methods like waterboarding were necessary to keep us safe. I could not disagree more. As commander in chief, I see the intelligence ... and I categorically reject the assertion that these are the most effective means of interrogation."

On Guantanamo, he said there are "no easy answers," and he raised the specter of "30-second commercials" designed to frighten people and intimidate Congress. To head those off, he pledged: "I am not going to release individuals who endanger the American people. Al-Qaida terrorists and their affiliates are at war with the United States, and those that we capture -- like other prisoners of war -- must be prevented from attacking us again." He said U.S. prisons are capable of holding such detainees.

The president promised "stricter legal tests" before invoking "state secrets" privilege in court cases and he pledged always to permit congressional oversight. "I will never hide the truth because it is uncomfortable," he said. "I will deal with Congress and the courts as co-equal branches of government." Both he and Cheney stated opposition to a "truth commission" to investigate Bush policies, but there was little else they agreed on.

Cheney contended the White House has given "less than half the truth" about waterboarding, which he said was used against only three terrorists. The techniques, he said, "were legal, essential, justified, successful, and the right thing to do." He mocked the reaction in Congress, calling it "nothing but feigned outrage based on a false narrative," adding he has rarely seen "so much contrived indignation and phony moralizing."