domingo, 11 de enero de 2009

Guantanamo bay Obama bay

Obama: Guantanamo center might not close within first 100 days

On "This Week," president-elect defends Holder, talks of challenges in closing prison

Jill Zuckman | Reporting from Washington

President-elect Barack Obama today urged Congress to move quickly on a stimulus package to calm what he called the worst recession since the Great Depression.

"We can't afford three, four, five, six more months where we're losing half a million jobs per month. And the estimates are that if we don't do anything, we could see 4 million jobs lost this year," Obama said during an appearance on ABC's "This Week."

The president-elect is looking for Congress to pass what could wind up being a $1-trillion package of direct spending and tax cuts by the President's Day weekend. If it doesn't, he said, "Then Congress is going to hear from me."

During the interview, which was taped Saturday, Obama acknowledged that not everything he promised to do during the campaign would be able to happen quickly, given the country's economic quagmire.

"Our challenge is going to be identifying what works and putting more money into that, eliminating things that don't work, and making things that we have more efficient," he said. "Not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace we had hoped."

In particular, he said, he was unlikely to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in the first 100 days of his presidency.

"It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize -- and we are going to get it done -- but part of the challenge ..... is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom who may be very dangerous, who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication," Obama said.

While some evidence against terrorism suspects may be tainted by the tactics used to obtain it, Obama said, that doesn't change the fact there are "people who are intent on blowing us up."

The president-elect described homeland security as his top priority, adding that terror attacks like the ones in Mumbai could happen here.

"We are going to have to stay vigilant, and that's something that doesn't change from administration to administration," he said.

"The dangers are always there. I think you have to anticipate, having seen the mayhem in Mumbai, there will be possible copycats," said Obama.

On the economy, Obama also said that while he's focused "on a pretty heavy lift" in getting Congress to pass his economic stimulus package, he also plans to look at how the nation pays for government and how to make the system more efficient. That will include a structural deficit with entitlement programs that eat up the federal budget.

Asked if that would require sacrifice from everyone, Obama said: "Everybody's going to have to give. Everybody's going to have to have some skin in the game."

During the interview, Obama defended his nominee for attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., and predicted the Senate would confirm him despite questions about actions he took leading toPresident Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich, among others.

"If the criteria for getting confirmed was never making a mistake, no one would get in," said Obama, noting that Holder was responsible for prosecuting "the most powerful Democrat on the Hill," former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois. "You can't find a guy more qualified."

Obama also said he and his wife, Michelle, are looking at Washington-area churches in order to find a new place to worship. He said he wants to be a part of Washington, but also does not want to disrupt parishioners with the security burdens that would be imposed on them.

In other family news, the president-elect said the Obamas are choosing between a Labradoodle and a Portuguese Water Dog for daughters Malia and Sasha, and are starting to look for a puppy in shelters.
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