WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama Friday had an "emotional" meeting with families of victims of the USS Cole bombing and the September 11 attacks to explain his plans to close the Guantanamo Bay 'war on terror' camp.
The White House said the meeting with around 40 family members lasted an hour, and the president told his guests that he wanted the meeting to be "just the beginning of a dialogue" about shuttering the site.
It came the day after a Pentagon judge withdrew charges against a Saudi detainee at the camp accused of complicity in the deadly October 2000 attack on the Cole in Yemen.
The move was designed to fall in line with Obama's executive order issued shortly after taking office for a 120-day delay in proceedings against terror suspects at held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba camp.
John Clodfelter's son Kenneth died in the Cole attack and said he went into the meetings with very "negative" feelings about the closure plan, but was won over by Obama.
"Just his demeanor, he really felt what he was saying. He was very honest, he really wants our help in trying to resolve this issue," said Clodfelter.
"I think this president has the possibility of being one of our very best presidents because of the way he is as a human being."
Retired navy commander Kurt Lippold, who was at the helm of the Cole during the attack which killed 17 US sailors, said Obama met the families and immediately gave them a run-down of his plans to close the camp.
"It was very emotional," he said, adding that the president then took questions from the families.
Obama "agreed to have an open door," Lippold said, though he expressed reservations about the fact that no procedures had yet been put in place to close the camp or dispose of its inmates.
In a statement, the White House said that Obama "made it clear that his most important responsibility is to keep the American people safe."
The president "explained why he believes that closing Guantanamo will make our nation safer and help ensure that those who are guilty receive swift and certain justice within a legal framework that is durable, and that helps America fight terrorism more effectively around the world."
Obama says that Guantanamo Bay has become a powerful symbol for terrorist recruitment around the world, threatens the US image overseas, and represents an abrogation of US values.
He has vowed to close the camp within a year and has tasked top officials with working out what to do with the inmates -- many of whom have been kept in detention for years without trial or being charged.
Saudi national Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was due to be arraigned on Monday, at Guantanamo Bay and the Pentagon prosecutor had sought the death penalty for him.
Born in Mecca, Nashiri, 43, was accused of conspiring to help two Islamic extremists who steered an explosives-laden barge alongside the US Navy destroyer Cole, which was docked at the port of Aden, Yemen. The attackers then detonated themselves and their load.
The Cole attack killed 17 US sailors and wounded dozens of others. The blast punched a 12-meter (40-foot) hole in the ship's side.
Nashiri was arrested in 2002, and held in a secret CIA prison for almost four years before being transferred to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay.
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