Reactions to Obama's speech
The Associated PressSome reactions to President Barack Obama's speech Thursday on detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay and national security, as well as former-Vice President Dick Cheney's response.
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"President Obama proved again today that being honest with the American people about the threats we face, without resorting to hyperbole and fear mongering, is how responsible leaders conduct themselves in dangerous and difficult times." — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
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"It's disappointing that the president dismissed the concerns of the American people and a strong bipartisan majority in Congress about releasing these terrorists or importing them into our local communities." — House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
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"It's time to act on our principles and our constitutional system. Those who we believe to be guilty of heinous crimes should be tried. They should be punished severely. Our courts and our prisons are more than up to the task." — Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
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"Are we really going to insist that the jihadist with a suitcase nuke captured in Times Square be read his Miranda rights, potentially closing off the chance to garner valuable intelligence that might save hundreds or thousands of American lives? Embracing a strategy in which the criminal justice paradigm is used to fight terrorism is misguided and reckless." — Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
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"The two speeches offered a stark and revealing contrast. The president wants to protect the country while upholding and strengthening our time-tested constitutional principles, while the former vice president offered the same misleading scare tactics and flawed approach to national security that Americans repudiated in the last election." — Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
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"The American people don't want to know how closing Guantanamo Bay will make us more popular, they want to know how closing Guantanamo Bay will make us safer." — Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.
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"Tough decisions are required to undo the shortsighted, ill-conceived choices made over the last eight years. We are fortunate to now have a president that is tough enough, smart enough, and with enough foresight to fight for policies that will restore the sacred principles established in the Constitution by our founding fathers. The direction the president is advocating will make us safer and stronger as a nation." — Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va.
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"I think in many ways he's just trying to satisfy the left. It was rhetorically effective, but not very satisfying. He never acknowledged the fact that we haven't been attacked for almost eight years." Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.
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"I am very encouraged by the president's focus on the future and his commitment to work with Congress to address complex and sometimes difficult national security issues. ... I do not believe the current system can bring terrorists to justice in a way that ensures convictions can withstand judicial scrutiny." — Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo.
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"Today President Obama said the right words about returning to the rule of law and reclaiming America's moral authority. Now he needs to ensure his actions reflect American values and the rule of law. ... Revising the military commissions is a mistake. It is a system so broken, so discredited, that it cannot be saved by any amount of administrative or legislative duct tape." — Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International.
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"President Obama is absolutely right to emphasize that ignoring our values undermines rather than enhances America's security. But allowing detention without trial creates a dangerous loophole in our justice system that mimics the Bush administration's abusive approach to fighting terrorism." — Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
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"We welcome President Obama's stated commitment to the Constitution, the rule of law and the unequivocal rejection of torture. But unlike the president, we believe that continuing with the failed military commissions and creating a new system of indefinite detention without charge is inconsistent with the values that he expressed so eloquently at the National Archives today." — Anthony Romero, executive director American Civil Liberties Union.
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"I continue to be troubled that the president and certain Democratic leaders use rhetoric that creates an image of a military that was systematically torturing prisoners. These comments vastly overstate any errors committed by the U.S. military, thereby unfairly marring the integrity and reputation of the fine men and women who risk their lives for us every day." Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
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"I share his concern that we must ensure our national security needs and our Constitutional values continue to coexist, and that the rule of law must supersede politics. ... While others may spend all their time defending the mistakes of the past, I am encouraged that our president is focused squarely on the future." — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
(This version CORRECTS Harry Corrects Reid to D-Nev. not R-Nev., in last graf.)