Guantanamo bay centres won’t close so soon: Obama

Obama has said that Guantanamo Bay detention centres is unlikely to close in the first 100 days of his Presidency.

US President-elect Barack Obama,who while electioneering had pledged to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention centres as his first priority,now says that it is unlikely to happen in the first 100 days of his Presidency.

“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 on ABC News programme This week.

“It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realise,” the president-elect explained in what analysts say is an indication that he now plans to take a more measured approach than what he had advocated during his campaign.

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The Guantanamo Bay prison holds some 250 war on terror suspects,mostly from Afghanistan.

“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,” Obama said.

He said they need to “balance 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”.

But Obama unequivocally said that the infamous detention centres will be closed and vowed that his administration will not torture terror suspects.

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“I don’t want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution.

“That is not only the right thing to do but it actually has to be part of our broader national security strategy because we will send a message to the world that we are serious about our values,” he said.