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Obama announces plans to close detention facility

"Keeping this facility open is contrary to our values," Obama said.

Guantanamo Bay prison

According to him, his plan sets up a last-year confrontation with Congress about a campaign promise made eight years ago. Terrorists use Guantanamo as propaganda to recruit, and maintaining it harms U.S. national security.

"It's been clear that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay does not advance our national security," Obama said from the Roosevelt Room at the White House. "It undermines it."

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"Keeping this facility open is contrary to our values," Obama said. "It undermines our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law."

He added: "Fifteen years after [the September 11 attacks] we’re still having to defend a facility where not a single verdict has been reached in those attacks. Not a single one. When I first ran for president it was widely recognized that this facility needed to close ... There was bipartisan support to close it."

Gitmo 2 in Ghana

The government of Ghana’s decision to accept the two detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih, who are believed to have ties to  Al Qaeda, has provoked a firestorm of controversy and outrage among Ghanaians, with many expressing fear that the move would undermine Ghana’s internal security and expose the country to attacks from religious extremists.

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This raged fears by some Ghanaians that the presence of the two poses a threat to the country's security with the Catholic Bishops Conference, Christian Council of Ghana and political parties condemning government's decision to accept the ex-Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

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