Obama says Guantanamo problems "not a surprise"

A hunger strike at Guantanamo has refocused attention on the world's most controversial detention center.

TEASER SOUNDBITE: U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SAYING:

"It is not a surprise to me that we've got problems in Guantanamo…when I was elected in 2008 I said we need to close Guantanamo.

In Eastern Afghanistan, the family of a Guantanamo inmate has this request for officials.

SOUNDBITE: UNNAMED MOTHER OF GUANTANAMO INMATE OBAIDULLAH, SAYING (Pashto):

"I urge President Karzai and the Americans to help us and to release my son. My granddaughter sometimes cries and asks us about her father. We keep telling her that her father is coming. We try to keep her hopeful, but she says that I'm lying to her and deceiving her, that her father is not coming."

Maryam was only several days old when her father was detained by U.S. forces in June of 2002.

Their plea came on the same day U.S. President Obama vowed to make a new push to close the Caribbean prison