President Barack Obama recalled his order to close the prison at Guantánamo in a speech at the National Archives on May 21, 2009. He said: ” ‘There is also no question that Guantánamo set back the moral authority that is America’s strongest currency in the world. Instead of building a durable framework for the struggle against al Qaeda that drew upon our deeply held values and traditions, our government was defending positions that undermined the rule of law. In fact, part of the rationale for establishing Guantánamo in the first place was the misplaced notion that a prison there would be beyond the law–a proposition that the Supreme Court soundly rejected. Meanwhile, instead of serving as a tool to counter terrorism, Guantánamo became a symbol that helped al Qaeda recruit terrorists to its cause. Indeed, the existence of Guantánamo likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained.’ ”
– Barack Obama (courtesy White House Archives), “Verbatim: Obama’s May 2009 Detainee Policy Speech,” The Miami Herald, May 21, 2009