White House chief of staff: Obama to make good on Guantanamo pledge
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will make good on a promise to close the US naval prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, his chief of staff Denis McDonough said on Fox News Sunday.
Obama will first present a long-awaited plan to Congress about how to close the facility, and seek its approval, McDonough said in an interview. If Congress fails to act, the White House will determine what steps to take, he said.
"He feels an obligation to the next president. He will fix this so that they don't have to be confronted with the same set of challenges," McDonough said.
Obama pledged during the 2008 presidential election campaign that he would close the military prison, which housed foreign terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. That pledge, still unfilled, has been a feature of his annual State of the Union addresses to the nation ever since.
