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Obama: LeBron ?Did the Right Thing? Wearing ?I Can?t Breathe? Shirt
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By: Yuvraj Singhuy
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Obama: LeBron ?Did the Right Thing? Wearing ?I Can?t Breathe? Shirt - Video
By Eric Bradner, CNN
updated 9:21 AM EST, Sun December 21, 2014
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama says he plans to push to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility during his final two years in office -- potentially fulfilling a major campaign promise that he hasn't yet accomplished.
"I'm going to be doing everything I can to close it," Obama said in an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley that aired Sunday on "State of the Union."
"It is something that continues to inspire jihadists and extremists around the world, the fact that these folks are being held," Obama said. "It is contrary to our values."
Related: Obama calls alleged North Korea hacking vandalism, not war
The President's comments follow a flurry of executive action at the start of what he called his "fourth quarter" in the Oval Office -- after Republicans walloped Democrats in November's midterm elections, taking control of both houses of Congress.
After the election, Obama quickly announced an overhaul of U.S. immigration rules and new regulations aimed at curbing environmentally-harmful emissions. He followed those moves this week with a deal that represented the biggest steps to thaw the economic freeze with Cuba in decades.
The Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention facility -- which Obama pledged to shut down as part of his 2008 campaign, but saw his plans thwarted when Congress passed a law prohibiting him from doing so -- could be another target ripe for executive action.
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Obama CNN Interview: vows to close Gitmo
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama says he doesn't consider North Korea's hack of Sony Pictures "an act of war."
"It was an act of cybervandalism," Obama said in an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley that aired Sunday on "State of the Union."
Obama said that the United States is going review whether to put North Korea back on a list of states that sponsor terrorism.
"We've got very clear criteria as to what it means for a state to sponsor terrorism. And we don't make those judgments just based on the news of the day," he said. "We look systematically at what's been done and based on those facts, we'll make those determinations in the future."
The President stuck by his criticism of Sony's decision to cancel its plans to release the movie "The Interview," which includes a cartoonish depiction of the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after the country threatened attacks against theaters that showed it.
Obama said in a Friday news conference that Sony made "a mistake," and that he wished the company had called him first. That led Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton to tell CNN that Obama and the public "are mistaken as to what actually happened." He blamed movie theater companies that opted not to show the film, saying they forced Sony's hand.
Related: Sony exec fires back at Obama
Investigators: Hackers stole Sony passwords
Obama shot back, saying: "I was pretty sympathetic to the fact that they have business considerations that they got to make. Had they talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what the story was."
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Obama to CNN: It was 'cybervandalism'
President Barack Obama speaks Friday at his last news conference of the year. (Alex Wong, Getty Images)
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama has been criticized as cautious on foreign policy, but the secret negotiations on Cuba suggest a willingness for bold and risky action, if he can keep tight control and rely on a few close aides.
It's a pattern Obama followed during clandestine talks with Iran that led to an interim nuclear deal and in under-the-radar discussions with China on a climate change agreement announced last month. Such diplomatic breakthroughs have buoyed Obama and might help counter charges that his responses to other international matters, including the rise of Islamic State militants and Russia's aggression in Ukraine, are weak and ineffective.
"Around the world, America is leading," Obama said Friday in a year-end news conference. He cited the announcement that he was normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than five decades of Cold War acrimony with the communist island nation and "turning a new page in our relationship with the Cuban people."
The secret talks with Cuba, like the negotiations with Iran and China, were carried out by a small number of officials who slipped in and out of Washington.
The Iran talks were handled by State Department officials William Burns and Jake Sullivan, who have since left the administration. The point person on China was White House counselor John Podesta.
Leading the Cuba mission from the White House were deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes and senior Latin America adviser Ricardo Zuniga, who met with Cuban officials nine times in Canada and at the Vatican.
In each instance, the advisers' close proximity to the president was intended to send a message to their counterparts that they were negotiating with Obama's full authority.
On other foreign matters, Obama has proved less willing to gamble, especially when potential military options are up for discussion. For example, his policy on Syria's civil war has been seen by critics and allies as slow and indecisive.
The president has faced questions, too, about whether he has acted aggressively enough in helping Ukraine counter Russia.
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Obama takes foreign policy risks, but on his own terms
Rand Paul School Prezi
errrthang used in this was for educational use only.
By: Iamindy33
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Rand Paul School Prezi - Video