White House struggles to lift cloud over detainees The day before Barack Obama took to the podium at the National Defense University in Washington, Khalid al-Odah had an hour-long Skype conversation with his son, now in his 12th year of detention in Guantánamo Bay, the US military base in Cuba. The retired, US-trained Kuwait Air Force officer said he had told his son, Fawzi al-Odah, 32, about the US president's speech, including initiatives to try to accelerate his long-stated, but so far failed, goal of closing the facility. "He can't follow these things easily, because he is in isolation," said Mr al-Odah, of his son. But he was not optimistic. Mr Odah's son is one of scores of the remaining 166 detainees who have been on a hunger strike for about two months, a reflection of their deep despair that they will ever be released, or given a trial. The 62-year-old said his son had struggled to stay alert during their call, arranged through the Red Cross, and was now being force-fed, like many detainees, by the military to keep him alive. He is all skin and bones. It's really horrible," he said. More than a decade after it was established in the shadow of the 9/11 attacks to house alleged terrorists, Guantánamo Bay still casts a shadow over US counter-terrorism policy. Congress, especially Republicans, have opposed Mr Obama's closure policy from the start, and after his re-election last year, extended and strengthened limits on transferring detainees out of the facility. More than half of the detainees have been cleared for release but the administration has been unwilling to risk repatriations in the face of congressional hostility. On top the obstacles placed in his way by Congress, Mr Obama has not followed through on his own initiatives, failing to establish a new process to review prisoner releases two years after promising it. Mr Obama tried to get his policy on track with his Thusday speech, calling on Congress to work with him to resolve numerous issues surrounding Guantanamo, including restrictions on detainee transfers. "Given my administration's relentless pursuit of al Qaeda's leadership, there is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened," he said. To the greatest extent possible, we will transfer detainees cleared to go to other countries. Where appropriate, we will bring terrorists to justice in our courts and military justice system," he said. And we will insist that judicial review be available for every detainee. To get a judicial process under way, Mr Obama has asked the Pentagon to designate a US site for holding military commissions. He said the difficult issue of the so-called "high-value detainees" not eligible for release, like Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, one of the 9/11 masterminds, could be eventually fixed "consistent" with the rule of law. Buck McKeon, a Republican, who as the chair of the House armed services committee is pivotal to congressional policy, said he was willing to reconsider the issue, with conditions. He said he needed to know what Mr Obama would do with "terrorist detainees who are too dangerous to release but cannot be tried," and how he would ensure detainees allowed to return home "do not return to the fight." "Podium platitudes cannot make up for solid answers to these questions," he said. The young Mr Odah was in Afghanistan at the time of 9/11 and was handed into US custody by the Pakistanis when he picked up on the border. He says he was in Afghanistan to teach. The US has never claimed he was a member of the Taliban or al-Qaeda, but still holds him. "Even if I am really confident that my son is innocent, that is not the issue," said his father. The issue is to give my son the right to defend himself and prove his innocence. Give him his day in court.