Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Henry Niman who wrote (20955)	6/9/2005 5:09:35 PM
From: ThirdEye	Respond to of 361183

A little "good cop, bad cop" here? Rumsfeld Plays Down Idea of Closing Guantánamo Reuters Thursday 09 June 2005 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday played down the idea of closing the US detention center at Guantánamo Bay, saying such a move would raise questions about what would happen to the prisoners. "A whole lot of questions come to mind. If you closed it, where would you go," he told a news conference at NATO headquarters. Amid mounting complaints and calls for the facility to be shut down, including a broadside from former president and human rights champion Jimmy Carter, President Bush on Wednesday left open the door to its eventual closing. "We're exploring all alternatives as to how best to do the main objective, which is to protect America. What we don't want to do is let somebody out that comes back and harms us," Bush said in an interview with Fox News Channel when asked whether it should be shut down. Rumsfeld, asked about Bush's remarks, did not contradict his boss, but said he understood that what "the president said is that we're always looking at ways to improve our operations." The Pentagon earlier this week ruled out any prospect of shutting down the Cuba-based detention center and Rumsfeld on a stop in Norway on Wednesday reinforced that line. "I know of no one in the US government, in the executive branch, that is considering closing Guantánamo," he told reporters, within hours of Bush's comments being broadcast in the Fox News interview. During the NATO news conference, Rumsfeld said Washington's goal has been to ensure that people involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people or who were captured on battlefields in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere be kept off the street "so they don't kill more people." Aiming to prevent future attacks, the suspects have been interviewed, in some cases providing intelligence that saved lives, he said. In all, 70,000 to 80,000 people have been detained and the majority have been released, Rumsfeld said. The Pentagon has turned over suspects to their countries of origin "when we have been able to negotiate with the country an agreement that they would handle them in a way that was humane and appropriate," he said. It would like to release many more to Iraqi and Afghan governments but both lack appropriate prison and criminal justice systems. The aim is to have these suspects "off the street, but in the hands of the countries of origin for the most part," he added. Calls for closure of the Guantánamo prison camp for foreign terrorism suspects have risen since Amnesty International set off a furor last month by calling it a "gulag" and comparing it to the brutal Soviet system of forced labor camps in which millions died. Adding to the drumbeat, the United Nations said on Wednesday that 6,000 of Iraq's 10,000 prisoners were in the hands of the US military and that thousands are detained without due process in apparent violation of international law. Go to Original Bush Allows For Possibility Of Closing Guantanamo Camp The Associated Press Thursday 09 June 2005 US President George W. Bush yesterday left open the possibility today that the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, could be shut down following mounting criticism. Bush said in a television interview with Fox that "we're exploring all alternatives as to how best to do the main objective, which is to protect America." The Pentagon disclosed last week that US guards or interrogators at Guantánamo kicked, stepped on, and splashed urine on the Koran. The prison holds about 540 detainees. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with any crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantánamo Bay. The interrogators were hoping of extracting useful intelligence about the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. -------