Obama Heckled Over Gitmo Closure

In his big counterterrorism speech on Thursday, President Obama reiterated his 2008 campaign pledge to close the U.S. prison at Guanatanamo Bay—but not before he was repeatedly heckled over the issue. The Huffington Post's Ryan Reilly tweeted that the heckler, who interrupted the speech for several minutes, was Medea Benjamin, an anti-war activist with the group Code Pink. As Benjamin was finally removed by security from the auditorium, Obama went off script to address the kerfuffle. "The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to," he told the crowd. "Obviously I do not agree with much of what she said, and obviously she wasn't listening to me in much of what I said. But these are tough issues and the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong." Obama, eventually, was able to say that he will ask Congress to lift the restriction on detainee transfers from Gitmo.