Obama tries to convince Americans of his Guantanamo policy

"In all of the areas that I have discussed today, the policies that I have proposed represent a new direction from the last eight years," he said in a nationally-televised speech on national security. "We will vigorously protect our people while forging a strong and durable framework that allows us to fight terrorism while abiding by the rule of law," Obama noted. Defending his plan to close the detention facility at U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba within one year, the president said explicitly that "there is no question that Guantanamo prison set back the moral authority that is America's strongest currency in the world." "Instead of building a durable framework for the struggle against al-Qaida that drew upon our deeply held values and traditions, our government was defending positions that undermined the rule of law," said Obama. "Indeed, part of the rationale for establishing Guantanamo in the first place was the misplaced notion that a prison there would be beyond the law -- a proposition that the Supreme Court soundly rejected," he said. "Meanwhile, instead of serving as a tool to counter-terrorism, Guantanamo became a symbol that helped al-Qaida recruit terrorists to its cause," said Obama, Kazinform cites Xinhuanet. See www.chinaview.cn for full version.