President Barack Obama calls for closing the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists and defends his use … Saying it's time "to fight terrorists without keeping America on a perpetual war-time footing," President Barack Obama invited Congress in a speech on Thursday to help him scale back the country's 12-year conflict against al-Qaida and its affiliates.

"America is at a crossroads. We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us," he warned in remarks at National Defense University.

Obama defiantly defended his use of drones to assassinate suspected extremists overseas, including Americans, but asked lawmakers to join him in setting modest new safeguards. He renewed his call for shuttering the Guantanamo Bay prison for alleged terrorists. And he announced efforts to find a better balance between investigations of national security leaks and the freedom of the press.

"Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations

BETHESDA, Md