Barack Obama, Guantanamo Bay | featured news

President Barack Obama's vow to try again to close the Guantanamo Bay prison remains a tough sell in Congress....

In one of his first acts as commander in chief, President Obama in 2009 signed an executive order to close the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was part of a campaign promise the president made, to close the camp and "determine how to deal with those who have been held there." But four years on, the controversial prison remains open.

President Barack Obama lifted a two-year freeze on new military trials at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and suggested on Monday Congress was hurting national security by blocking his attempts to move some trials into U.S. civilian courts.

President Obama acknowledged for the first time that his administration would miss a self-imposed deadline.

Thomson Correctional Center is a top option to house Guantanamo transfers. The Obama administration says the Defense Department could hold proceedings against terrorism suspects at the rural site.

White House counsel Greg Craig, who's leaving in early January, has been the subject of repeated questions about his future since late summer. Centered on talk that Obama's promise to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison by January had gone awry under Craig's leadership, the questions were settled Friday when the White House announced Craig's departure.

An Obama administration task force has so far cleared 75 of the remaining 223 Guantanamo prisoners for release as part of its effort to close the detention camp, a military spokesman said on Monday.

Obama considering plan to create courtroom-within-a-prison complex on U.S. soil to house Gitmo detainees

Stymied by Congress so far, the White House is considering issuing an executive order to indefinitely imprison a small number of Guantanamo Bay detainees considered too dangerous to prosecute or release, two administration officials said Friday.

A plan under consideration by the Obama administration would permit Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees facing the death penalty ...