President Barack Obama speaks on counterterrorism during a speech at the National Defense University on May 23, 2013 at Ft. McNair in Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama outlined plans yesterday to limit the use of drone strikes against extremists abroad and took steps to break a deadlock on closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison.
In a major foreign policy speech after two weeks of fending off domestic scandals, Obama limited the scope of what his predecessor, George W Bush, had called a global war on terror after the 9/11 attacks.
“Our nation is still threatened by terrorists,” Obama said at Washington’s National Defence University. “We must recognise however, that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11.”
He said the US will only use drone strikes when a threat is imminent, a change of the policy of launching strikes against a significant threat.
He said the Defence Department will take the lead in launching drones, as opposed to the practice of the CIA taking charge. Any drone strike will be launched only when a terror suspect cannot be captured. The US will respect state sovereignty and limit strikes to Al Qaeda or associated targets, he said. “And before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured — the highest standard we can set.”
Faced with congressional opposition, he has been frustrated by his inability to carry out a 2008 campaign pledge to close the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A hunger strike by 103 of the 166 detainees has put pressure on him to take action. “There is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened,” he said.
He announced steps to get some prisoners out. He lifted a moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen out of respect for that country’s reforming government.
He called on Congress to lift restrictions on the transfer of terror suspects from Guantanamo and asked the Defence Department to identify a site to hold military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees. “Where appropriate, we will bring terrorists to justice in our courts and military justice system,” he said.
He said he would pick a senior envoy to handle detainee transfers, a position vacant since January. Reuters
