With a vow to return the United States to the "moral high ground," US President Barack Obama Thursday launched a rollback of his predecessor's controversial policies with a firm directive to close the Guantanamo prison within a year. The move offered solace to critics at home and abroad who had clamoured for former president George W Bush to close the military camp that has held hundreds of terrorist suspects for years without charges.
"The United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism, and we are going to do so vigilantly, we are going to do so effectively, and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals," Obama said. "We intend to win this fight. We're going to win it on our terms."
With several strokes of the pen, Obama acted on his campaign pledge to restore America's moral standing in the world while surrounded by retired top military officers who had made a "passionate plea" for Guantanamo's closure. The officers wanted to restore "due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great, even in the midst of war," Obama said.
In other actions Thursday, Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton named special envoys for troubled regions, underscoring a commitment to renewing American diplomacy in the world: former senator George Mitchell for the Middle East peace process, and Richard Holbrooke, a former ambassador to the United Nations, to take on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Clinton promised a renewed focus on diplomacy and development aid as tools of US foreign policy and an end to the divisions of the past.
"I believe with all of my heart that this is a new era for America," she said, emphasising the need for "robust diplomacy and effective development" to secure America's future in the world. On the economic front, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs made use of his first and over-packed press briefing to reveal that the president would receive daily economic briefings with the same "renown professionalism" devoted to daily intelligence briefings.
Obama's top economic team moved closer to completion with the Senate Finance Committee's 18-5 vote to send Timothy Geithner's treasury secretary nomination to the US Senate, which could still confirm his appointment this week. If approved, Geithner will oversee Obama's plans to revive the US economy in the face of the worst recession in decades and prevent the collapse of the US financial system.
Geithner pledged to work with other countries to stem the global fallout from the US crisis, but he also signalled that the Obama administration would aggressively battle Asian powerhouse China to redress what the US deems is an unfair trade advantage. "Countries like China cannot continue to get a free pass for undermining fair trade principles," Geithner said.
Treasury secretary is one of the last key cabinet posts to be confirmed. Clinton was sworn in as secretary of state on Wednesday after a Senate vote, and six others were approved Tuesday. Attorney general-designate Eric Holder is still awaiting confirmation, along with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. There were lighter moments to the day - like the revelation that Obama, an inveterate BlackBerry user, now carries an ultra-secure smartphone - a US presidential first.
Often pictured on the campaign trail tapping away on his BlackBerry, had fought the looming strict limitations on electronic communications that his recent predecessors had accepted for security and legal reasons. An "enhanced" security solution was found to keep Obama from "getting stuck" in the presidential bubble of isolation from the rest of the world, Gibbs said.
In another case of foreign pressure to reverse US policies, a French cheesemaker sent a deluxe presentation box of Roquefort to the White House. Just five days before leaving office, Bush tripled the customs duty on Roquefort, a highly sought style of blue cheese, in retaliation for Europe's ban on the import of US-bred hormone-fed beef. Martin Malvy, president of the Roquefort-producing region of Midi- Pyrenees, made the delivery to the US embassy in Paris, saying he hoped for better relations under Obama.
CHRIS CERMAK ADDS: More than 100 journalists crammed into the White House's tiny press room - formerly an indoor pool - to hurl questions at US President Barack Obama's new press secretary Robert Gibbs on Thursday. Gibbs strolled into the room 10 minutes late for his first moment in the media glare, flanked by an eight-member entourage from the new president's communications staff.
"How are you all?" a smiling Gibbs asked as he surveyed the crowd of reporters gathered staring back at him. "I'm great." The good humour was not returned. Gibbs received a one-hour grilling from journalists on everything from the planned closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to Obama's plans for the shrinking economy and the embarrassing do-over of his swearing-in ceremony.
Perhaps it was the heat, all the more notable when compared to the sub-zero temperatures just outside the small room. Print journalists stood shoulder-to-shoulder with dozens of photographers and television cam operators for the first opportunity to challenge Gibbs. "We should sell tickets," Gibbs quipped. "Have it go to the deficit or something. The soft-spoken Gibbs handled the onslaught relatively calmly, cracking jokes with some reporters and confidently making his way through the sea of hands in the crowded room.
Gibbs exhibited little passion in his answers, a characteristic common to many his predecessors as White House press secretary. Having served as Obama's communications director for much of the gruelling two-year presidential campaign, Gibbs is no stranger to the press inquisition. The 37-year-old Gibbs, whose Alabama roots bring a southern drawl to the position, has been Obama's chief spokesman since he was elected to the US Senate in November 2004.
Yet those who expected the press secretary to represent the "change" that embodied Obama's presidential campaign will likely be disappointed. Gibbs ducked questions and used many of the same tactics of repetition and caginess employed by past press secretaries. He refused to "prejudge" the findings of a Guantanamo taskforce being formed by Obama, when asked about the administration's plans for the Cuban prison.
Asked many times over why Obama felt it necessary to take the oath of office a second time on Wednesday - after Chief Justice John Roberts erred on a word during Tuesday's inauguration - Gibbs repeatedly referred to the statement put out Wednesday night: It was taken out of "an abundance of caution." There were few mistakes during Gibbs' first press conference, but also little new information. Perhaps the most notable flub was when Gibbs blew the cover of a background briefing on Guantanamo that was held one hour before Gibbs took the stage.
The White House refused to allow reporters to cite by name the individuals who held the background briefing. Those efforts became moot as Gibbs repeatedly referred to "Greg" - presumably White House counsel Greg Craig - during the nationally televised briefing.