Obama attacks Guantanamo 'mess'

Barack Obama has defended his decision to close the Guantanamo Bay US prison camp, saying it probably "created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained"."We're cleaning up something that is quite simply a mess," the US president said in Washington on Thursday, as he attempted to broker a consensus among officials who have rejected his plans to close Guantanamo."As commander-in-chief, I see the intelligence, I bare the responsibility of keeping this country safe and I categorically reject the assertion that these [the camp and military tribunal system] are the most effective ways of keeping this country safe," Obama said.The prison and the military tribunals were authorised by George Bush, his predecessor as US president, after the September 11, 2001, attacks.Obama stressed that efforts to reverse Bush-era policies such as Guantanamo had begun before he took office as president."In 2006, the supreme court invalidated the entire system," Obama said in his speech, delivered at the National Archives in Washington.