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WASHINGTON – John P. Clodfelter was skeptical when he went into a meeting Friday with President Barack Obama. But the Mechanicsville, Va., man left the White House reassured.
Clodfelter and his wife, Gloria, were among 40 family members of the victims of Sept. 11 and the USS Cole bombing who met with Obama, as he responded to their anger over delays in bringing terror suspects to trial.
The Clodfelters’ 21-year-old son, Kenneth, was one of 17 U.S. sailors killed in 2000, when al-Qaida suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the Cole, a guided-missile destroyer, as it sat in a Yemen port.
The White House meeting occurred a day after a senior Pentagon judge dropped charges against suspected Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the last active Guantanamo war crimes case.
Clodfelter said he and his wife had been under the mistaken impression that al-Nashiri and other terror suspects would be freed from the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
“I initially came into this meeting with very negative thoughts, thinking ‘Why the heck are you releasing these people?’” he said.
However, the Clodfelters said Obama told the families that he did not want to release terror suspects but restore order to the legal process. .
“He kind of calmed us down,” Gloria Clodfelter said. “I agree with him whole-heartedly that [Guantanamo] is a symbol for terrorists.”
Obama promised that this was just the beginning of a dialogue between victims’ families and the White House, something John Clodfelter said was lacking in the past.
“The president really wants the families to stay involved,” he said.
The meeting lasted about an hour and was at times emotional. Clodfelter presented Obama with an etching of the USS Cole that is surrounded by the faces of the 17 sailors killed in the bombing, so that Obama would not forget.
Clodfelter said being heard by Obama does help ease the pain of losing his son, a hull technician on the ship. Eight years later, Clodfelter still awaits justice.
“That should tell everyone that there’s something wrong,” he said.
The Pentagon last summer charged al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian, with "organizing and directing" the bombing and planned to seek the death penalty in the case.
Thursday's legal move upholds Obama's Jan. 22 executive order to halt terrorist court proceedings at Guantanamo, while the administration reviews the cases and how to go about closing the prison there. The ruling also gives the White House time to review the legal cases of all 245 terror suspects held there and decide whether they should be prosecuted in the U.S. or released to other nations.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said new charges could be brought against al-Nashiri later, and he will remain in prison for now.
The Bush administration has maintained it did not torture. Last year, al-Nashiri said during a Guantanamo hearing that he confessed to helping plot the Cole bombing only because he was tortured by U.S. interrogators. The CIA has admitted he was among terrorist suspects subjected to waterboarding, which simulates drowning, in 2002 and 2003 while being interrogated in secret CIA prisons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Amy Dominello at 202-662-7671 or adominello@mediageneral.com
Clodfelter and his wife, Gloria, were among 40 family members of the victims of Sept. 11 and the USS Cole bombing who met with Obama, as he responded to their anger over delays in bringing terror suspects to trial.
The Clodfelters’ 21-year-old son, Kenneth, was one of 17 U.S. sailors killed in 2000, when al-Qaida suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the Cole, a guided-missile destroyer, as it sat in a Yemen port.
The White House meeting occurred a day after a senior Pentagon judge dropped charges against suspected Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the last active Guantanamo war crimes case.
Clodfelter said he and his wife had been under the mistaken impression that al-Nashiri and other terror suspects would be freed from the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
“I initially came into this meeting with very negative thoughts, thinking ‘Why the heck are you releasing these people?’” he said.
However, the Clodfelters said Obama told the families that he did not want to release terror suspects but restore order to the legal process. .
“He kind of calmed us down,” Gloria Clodfelter said. “I agree with him whole-heartedly that [Guantanamo] is a symbol for terrorists.”
Obama promised that this was just the beginning of a dialogue between victims’ families and the White House, something John Clodfelter said was lacking in the past.
“The president really wants the families to stay involved,” he said.
The meeting lasted about an hour and was at times emotional. Clodfelter presented Obama with an etching of the USS Cole that is surrounded by the faces of the 17 sailors killed in the bombing, so that Obama would not forget.
Clodfelter said being heard by Obama does help ease the pain of losing his son, a hull technician on the ship. Eight years later, Clodfelter still awaits justice.
“That should tell everyone that there’s something wrong,” he said.
The Pentagon last summer charged al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian, with "organizing and directing" the bombing and planned to seek the death penalty in the case.
Thursday's legal move upholds Obama's Jan. 22 executive order to halt terrorist court proceedings at Guantanamo, while the administration reviews the cases and how to go about closing the prison there. The ruling also gives the White House time to review the legal cases of all 245 terror suspects held there and decide whether they should be prosecuted in the U.S. or released to other nations.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said new charges could be brought against al-Nashiri later, and he will remain in prison for now.
The Bush administration has maintained it did not torture. Last year, al-Nashiri said during a Guantanamo hearing that he confessed to helping plot the Cole bombing only because he was tortured by U.S. interrogators. The CIA has admitted he was among terrorist suspects subjected to waterboarding, which simulates drowning, in 2002 and 2003 while being interrogated in secret CIA prisons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Amy Dominello at 202-662-7671 or adominello@mediageneral.com