Guantanamo: US President Barack Obama has found himself politically isolated in the fight to close down the detention facility in Guantanamo by January 22, 2010. Almost six months after his executive order, only 11 detainees have been released from GTMO. So will the President be able to deliver on his word?
"The process where by Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now," Obama had said in Cairo amid applause.
Despite the enthusiastic applause, closing GTMO is proving to be complicated for President Obama. Congress has passed a bill that refused to clear government funds to close down the infamous prison.
Sixty five per cent of the American public opposes the otherwise popular President's plan, especially if it means bringing any of the 229 prisoners currently locked up in Guantanamo to American jails.
"The argument on one side for keeping it open, is look - it's the safest securest detention facility in the world, the world needs a place like GTMO, the American people don't want those folks here, clearly European countries and the rest of those countries in the world don't want these folks - and so as long as it's transparent and safe and secure, why close it," said Charles Stimson, former deputy assistant defence secretary for detainee affairs.
Obama says closing GTMO will make America safer.
"This has been a symbol in the world of how the US disregards human rights. This has been a propaganda gift to people who want to do harm to the United States," said Larry Cox, Amnesty International.
Guantanamo also houses terrorists who cannot be prosecuted because information gleaned from them was collected by using controversial interrogation techniques.
"That remains an extremely difficult problem - what to do with these prisoners. The torture to which some of them have been subjected makes it much more difficult, because it makes it impossible to try them in a legitimate tribunal," said Mark Danner, author of US Torture: Voices from Black Sites.
During his Presidential campaign, Barack Obama described Guantanamo as a "sad chapter in American history" and promised to close it down. But with strong opposition from a large percentage of the American public, and without a clear plan as to what to do with released detainees, the unflappable president may have found a task even he can't handle.