Obama signs bill despite reservations on terror suspects US President Barack Obama Saturday signed a huge defense bill into law despite his "serious reservations" that it seeks to force his hand on Guantanamo Bay and military trials for terror suspects. Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, added a signing statement to the $662 billion law, laying out objections to its constraints on detaining and prosecuting suspects, and directing government agencies on how to interpret them. "I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists," Obama said in the statement. He argued that recent US successes against Al-Qaeda had been possible because counterterrorism authorities had benefited from flexibility on dealing with suspects, which the bill called into question. "Against that record of success, some in Congress continue to insist upon restricting the options available to our counterterrorism professionals and interfering with the very operations that have kept us safe," Obama wrote.