Obama: I Wish I Had Closed Gitmo My First Day in Office

If he could do it all over again, President Barack Obama says that he would have shut down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay his first day in office.

"I think I would have closed Guantanamo on the first day," Obama said Wednesday while speaking at the City Club of Cleveland, The Hill is reporting.

Obama said that he was lacking enough bipartisan support to close down the prison that holds alleged terrorists captured on the battlefield during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in a "deliberate fashion."

The prison at Gitmo has become propaganda fodder for terrorist groups against the United States, the president said.

While Obama promised during the 2008 presidential race that he would close down the prison, he has faced strong opposition from Republicans, who have voiced concern about where the prisoners would go.

Obama said during his State of the Union address in January that he "will not relent in my determination to shut it down."

A recent report released by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claims that almost 18 percent of detainees who are released from Gitmo return to the battlefield.

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