Obama implored Congress to close the much-maligned Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba and pledged to allow greater oversight of the drone program.

NPR: Obama Sees Narrower Terror Threat, Defends Drones

They include Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after his arrest in Pakistan, and Jawed Ahmad, a journalist with Canada's CTV who is at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, according to the group.

CNN: U.S. military frees Iraqi journalist

Obama is also expected to say the U.S. will make a renewed effort to transfer detainees out of the Navy-run detention center for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to other countries.

NPR: 4 Americans Killed Since 2009 In US Drone Strikes

The Obama administration's top-priority plan to shutter the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, suffered another major setback in Congress last month as the House Armed Services Committee approved by a unanimous 59-0 vote legislation that would prevent creation of a replacement prison in the United States.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Guantanamo here to stay?

The judge ruled Mohammad el-Gharani was not an enemy combatant and directed the military "to take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate the release" of el-Gharani from the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

CNN: Young Guantanamo prisoner ordered freed

On 11 January 2002 some 20 men detained in Afghanistan on suspicion of belonging to Al-Qaeda became the first inmates at a newly opened US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

BBC: Inside Guantanamo Bay