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CNN is reporting:

Reid says Cheney's speech helps Democrats; Boehner says Cheney helps GOP
Republicans slam Obama's plan to close Guantanamo Bay prison, seek details
Opinions differ on whether U.S. should house detainees in supermax prisons
Source: Former President Bush was traveling, missed the back-to-back speeches

President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney offered competing views on how to keep America safe in back-to-back speeches Thursday.

Obama said his administration is trying to clean up "a mess" left behind by the Bush administration.

Cheney stood up for the Bush administration's security record, arguing that Obama has weakened the country's ability to combat al Qaeda and other extremists.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman wrote off Cheney's address as something more beneficial to Democrats than Republicans.

"He is such a wildly unpopular figure trying to defend such discredited policies that Democrats would like to be able to find a way to pay him to give more of these kinds of speeches," Jim Manley said.

In the past two months, the former vice president has become a frequent critic of the new administration in numerous national media interviews.

But House Minority Leader John Boehner said Cheney's voice boosts his party's cause.

"Listen, Dick Cheney has been around this town for the last 35 years -- 40 years.

Republicans were quick to side with Cheney on Obama's plan to close Guantanamo, with Rep. Lamar Smith charging that the president should "put Americans' safety ahead of an image problem he himself created by making a campaign promise to close Gitmo."

"The administration asserts that transferring terrorists from a detention facility on an isolated island to a prison inside the U.S. will make Americans safer.

Obama's plans to close the detention center have been met with opposition from both sides of the aisle in Congress.

They instead asked that Obama first submit a plan spelling out what the administration will do with the prisoners when it closes the prison.

Both chambers of Congress also passed similar measures that would prevent the detainees from being transferred to the United States.

He also pointed out that no one has ever escaped from a federal "supermax" prison.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, whose district houses a supermax prison, adamantly does not want detainees brought to that prison.

"The president did not say where people would go who were convicted under military tribunals or who are to be released by courts or who are in the 'too dangerous to release' category, so his plan today really has a lot of gaps in it," he said.

And Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said it would be "dangerous, naive and a threat to America's national security" to put detainees on U.S. soil.

But Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said he thinks the U.S. can safely house terror detainees. Watch Durbin's suggestions on how to handle the detainees »

"The president is right in saying Guantanamo is more than a detention facility.

Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference, accused the president of continuing to "to bow to world opinion" when it comes to Guantanamo.

"Let me say emphatically: Mr. President, public safety comes before public relations.

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor said closing the prison is "too complex an issue to rush to resolution."

"At the end of the day, when it comes to terrorism, no detail is too small, and we must have only one priority: the safety and security of the American people," he said.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said "political rhetoric has entirely drowned out reason and reality" in the debate over where to put the detainees.

"Our criminal justice system handles extremely dangerous criminals, and more than a few terrorists, and it does so safely and effectively.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised Obama's address as "a sensible, balanced approach to the treatment of detainees and to the handling of state secrets."

One decision that pleased some conservatives was Obama's move to restart former President Bush's military commissions.

Former Navy lawyer Charles Swift, who won a landmark Supreme Court ruling that knocked down the Bush administration's system of military commissions, said U.S. laws already cover the "vast majority" of cases the Obama administration will face.

"The previous administration sought ways around the law," he said.

Swift said Cheney's defense of waterboarding "mystifies me."

"I want to ascribe to people the best of motives, and I presume that the former vice president believes for whatever reason that force is the only thing that works," he said.

As far as former President Bush's thoughts on the dueling speeches, he didn't watch them.

A source close to Bush said the former president was traveling at the time, en route to New Mexico, where he is the keynote speaker Thursday night at a fundraising dinner for a scholarship program for students at Artesia High School.

Telegraph is reporting:

Barack Obama and Dick Cheney clash on terror.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused Barack Obama of putting American lives at risk in a disdainful broadside just minutes after the president gave an impassioned defence of his anti-terror policies.

By Toby Harnden in Washington

Last Updated: 8:07PM BST 21 May 2009

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has accused Barack Obama of putting American lives at risk.

Americans were offered startlingly contrasting visions of how to deal with the threat of militant Islamists in rival addresses by the two men, who were speaking less than a mile from each other in Washington.

Each laid out, in at times bitingly personal language, opposite interpretations of the eight-year record of President George W. Bush.

Mr Obama said: "Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions.... our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight... our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions."

Mr Cheney responded that there had been no terrorist attack on the United States in the 2,689 days after the al-Qaeda strikes of 2001 because it had "followed through" and "stayed true to our word" by going on the offensive.

"For all the partisan anger that still lingers, our administration will stand up well in history, not despite our actions after 9/11, but because of them," he said.

In what was billed in the US media as the "clash of the Titans", Mr Obama's speech was followed within minutes by Mr Cheney.

The speech by Mr Cheney, a low-key vice-president who has since emerged as Mr Obama's fiercest foreign policy critic, had been scheduled first.

In the event, Mr Cheney delayed his speech until after the new president's had finished to ensure maximum coverage.

Two minutes after Mr Obama finished, and broadcast on most television channels, Mr Cheney took to the podium at the American Enterprise Institute, a hawkish conservative think tank, to deliver a stinging, sarcastic rebuttal.

Although he did not mention Mr Obama by name, it was clear who his target was as he blasted "feigned outrage based on a false narrative" and "contrived indignation and phoney moralising" from those who condemned Bush era interrogation techniques as torture.

Neither did Mr Obama mention Mr Cheney's name but no one doubted who he was referring to when he hit out at those who "want to re-fight debates that have been settled, in some cases debates that they have lost".

The former vice-president painted Mr Obama, who had hailed "the power of our most fundamental values" as a hypocrite.

In a jibe at Mr Obama's much-vaunted rhetorical powers, he said: "If fine speechmaking, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field."

Mr Obama was attempting to damp down a backlash against his attempt to close the Guantánamo Bay prison by next January and transfer its 240 detainees to other facilities.

"Instead of serving as a tool to counter terrorism, Guantánamo became a symbol that helped al Qaeda recruit terrorists to its cause," he said.

Some prisoners would have to be kept in jails on American soil, he insisted.

Mr Cheney said that Mr Obama's decision to close Guantánamo within a year was an ill-thought out gesture designed to boost his popularity abroad.

"The administration has found that it's easy to receive applause in Europe for closing Guantánamo, but it's tricky to come up with an alternative that will serve the interest of justice and America's national security."

He added: "I think the president will find upon reflection that to bring the worst of the worst terrorists inside the United States would be cause for great danger and regret in the years to come."

BBC News reported:

Judge rules on terror detainees

A federal judge has ruled that the US government can detain terror suspects indefinitely, if they helped plan or carry out the 9/11 attacks.

Detainees who "substantially support" the Taliban or al-Qaeda but are not members cannot be held indefinitely, however, the judge decided.

Some Guantanamo detainees will neither be tried nor released.

Judge John Bates based his ruling on the authority granted to the president by Congress in 2002.

US President Barack Obama has pledged to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

But Congress has blocked funding for the closure of the camp until the White House decides what to do with its inmates.

Military tribunals

Many members of Congress are opposed to the transfer of any detainees onto US soil.

The White House is currently deciding which detainees can be tried, which can be released, and which can be neither tried nor released.

It has previously indicated that between 50 and 100 detainees cannot be tried because of a lack of admissible evidence, but are deemed too dangerous to be released.

In his opinion, Judge Bates ruled that the president "has the authority to detain persons that the president determines planned, authorised, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on 11 September 2001, and persons who harboured those responsible for those attacks".

"The president also has the authority to detain persons who are or were part of Taliban or al-Qaeda forces or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed (i.e., directly participated in) a belligerent act in aid of such enemy armed forces," he added.

But he could "find no authority in domestic law or the law of war, nor can the government point to any, to justify the concept of 'support' as a valid ground for detention".

Last week, President Obama announced that he would restart the military tribunals used by the Bush administration to try some of the terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Obama changed the rules of the tribunals, adding some protections for detainees, but his decision still angered civil liberties campaigners, who want the detainees to be tried in regular US courts.

The president is to make a speech on Thursday defending his detainee policies.

Fox News reported:

Obama Tries to Restore Order on Gitmo, After Senate Blocks Closure Funds.

President Obama will deliver a speech Thursday addressing plans to close the Guantanamo detention camp as Democrats back off support for funding the closure.

President Obama is trying to keep Democratic unrest from derailing his plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp after the Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to yank money for shuttering the prison.

The president is delivering a speech Thursday meant to shed light on how the administration expects to transfer 240 detainees off the island by January 2010.

The address appears overdue, considering the resistance and mixed messages coming from top-ranking Democrats over the issue on Capitol Hill.

By a vote of 90-6, the Senate approved an amendment to a war funding bill Wednesday that not only blocks supplemental funds from being used to close Guantanamo and move detainees to U.S. soil, but also orders that no funds already in U.S. coffers be redirected toward that purpose.

The Senate also overwhelmingly approved an amendment offered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that requires a classified threat assessment of each detainee at Guantanamo.

Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the vote to strip the $80 million Obama had wanted should not be seen as a rebuke to the administration but a "wake up call."

He said it is "up to the administration to fashion a plan that can win the support of the American people and members of Congress."

The amendment Wednesday also precludes the upgrade of any U.S. facility or the building of any new facility to house detainees.

The amendments complicating Guantanamo closure don't stop there.

Republicans used Wednesday's vote to build momentum against the prison's closure.

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Obama Remains Steadfast in Plan to Close Gitmo, Blisters Bush Administration

"If you were to close Guantanamo and move these people somewhere in the United States, you could not duplicate what is available there," said Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is also giving a dueling speech on national security Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute, bolstered in his escalating criticism of the administration by the Senate's Guantanamo vote.

Such developments make assurances from Obama that his plan is the best way to go all the more important.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that Obama will detail a "hefty part" of his plan for the detainees in his speech on Thursday.

"We agree with Congress that before resources, that they should receive a more detailed plan," Gibbs said.

But in a signal from the administration that patience could be wearing thin, Michele Flournoy, Obama's new Pentagon policy chief, said Wednesday that members of Congress must rethink their opposition to accepting these detainees into the United States.

Flournoy said it is unrealistic to think that no detainees will come to the United States, and that the U.S. cannot ask allies to take detainees while refusing to take on the same burden.

Without singling anyone out, Flournoy said lawmakers need to think more "strategically."

Democrats had been hammered by Republicans, many of whom don't want Guantanamo shuttered at all, over the possibility that detainees could be sent to live in the United States -- in prisons or otherwise.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that he thinks the prison can still close by January 2010.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., nearly had it both ways on Tuesday.

He first said, emphatically, that Democrats "will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States," and then said Democrats also don't want detainees to be transferred to U.S. prisons.

The suggestion was that the United States should not taken any prisoners under any circumstances, raising questions about where the Democratic leadership wants detainees to go should the closure plan be executed.

But Reid's spokesman walked back his statement, saying the leader went too far and would actually be open to putting them in American prisons, if the administration puts forward a plan to do so.

The discord between Reid's own words was emblematic of the clash among Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va, said on a Sunday talk show that he opposes the release into the United States of 17 Chinese Uighurs who were captured in Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001.

The administration is considering releasing them in Northern Virginia, something Webb vehemently opposes.

Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus, both Montana Democrats, have said emphatically that no detainees will be brought to their state.

Still, Inouye left the door open to bringing the prisoners to the U.S. eventually, refusing to rule out any opportunity to incarcerate detainees on U.S. soil.

Reid's No. 2, Dick Durbin of Illinois, told FOX News that while Democrats were very concerned about taking a vote defending moving prisoners to the United States, he is not opposed to it, adding that American prison facilities can hold these prisoners safely.

Durbin took on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor Wednesday, saying that while it's true no prisoner has ever escaped from the Guantanamo, "it's also true that no terrorists have ever escaped from U.S. supermax prisons."

He was one of the six lawmakers to vote against the amendment Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Republicans are not exactly unified on how to move forward, other than to say no detainees should be moved to the U.S. under any circumstances.

Some Republicans, like McConnell and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., say they want to keep Gitmo open, period.

"We're going to do everything we can to keep it open.

They found some window of support for their position when U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled Wednesday that the United States can continue to hold some prisoners in military detention indefinitely without any charges.

Others are emphatic that it should be closed.