Obama Fires Back at Cheney Over Gitmo Comments

President Obama, in a CBS News interview for "60 Minutes," fired back at Dick Cheney over the former vice president's claim that plans to close Guantanamo will make America less safe.

"How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney?" Obama said in the interview, according to experts released Saturday. "It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment."

Obama said the U.S. hasn't done a good job sorting out who should be released from the Guantanamo detention facility in Cuba because some freed detainees have rejoined terrorist groups.

But he said the Bush administration's policy of holding detainees for years on end with no trials is "unsustainable,' and has only fueled anti-American sentiments.

The interview, which is scheduled to air Sunday evening, also focused on the economic crisis and Timothy Geithner, Obama's embattled treasury secretary.

Geithner is staying, Obama said, joking that if Geithner tried to resign, he would say, "Sorry buddy, you've still got the job."

Geithner has been criticized over his handling of AIG after news broke this month that bailed-out company had doled out millions of dollars in bonuses. That controversy and criticism of Geithner's efforts to revive the economy have prompted some Republicans to call for his resignation.

Geithner is expected to unveil, as early as Monday, the administration's plan to relieve banks of the toxic loans that helped fuel the recession.

In the CBS interview, the president also says corporate executives need to better understand the public's outrage over bonuses. He says executives should get out of New York and spend time in Iowa or Arkansas where people are thrilled to be making $75,000 a year with no bonuses.