Delicate balance

Another major topic of the speech is the "balance of security and transparency", which the president used to defend his recent contradicting decisions of releasing Bush-era legal memos on interrogation policies and then blocking a release of photos that show US personnel abused prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"National security requires a delicate balance," Obama said.

In April, the president supported the release of memos which showed the former Bush administration authorized harsh interrogation techniques on terror suspects, but he soon found things slipping out of his hand.

Civil right groups and the left wing of the Democratic Party used the memos to make their case for prosecution of top Bush-era officials.

Republicans fought back, accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats of also being implicated in the authorization of those techniques.

Former vice president Dick Cheney seized the opportunity to launch a media offensive against the Obama administration's national security policy.

He even gave an address on Thursday to make his own case and counter Obama's speech.

On May 13, to avoid an all-out bipartisan fight, Obama reversed his position on the abuse photos, announcing that he will block the court-mandated release of these photos and will instruct his lawyers to prepare for a legal fight.

Obama noted in Thursday's speech that, "in each of these cases, I had to strike the right balance between transparency and national security."

The president also made it clear he opposes creating a "truth commission" proposed by some congressional Democrats to probe into torture, prisoner abuse and other legal allegations against the former Bush administration.

"We will not be safe if we see national security as a wedge that divides America -- it can and must be a cause that unites us as one people, as one nation," he said.

As the president is trying to convince his country that he can solve the thorny issue of Guantanamo and other related issues of torture and abuse, there is still no consensus on the issue in Washington.

The Republicans such as Cheney oppose closing Guantanamo, while Obama's allies in the Congress have sided with Republicans to demand a detailed plan on Guantanamo.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to deny the president's request for 80 million US dollars to close Guantanamo.

The bill also bars detainee transfers to the United States or its territories, while Obama said the country's "supermax" prisons are enough to hold those prisoners. 

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2009)