Post by maruf on Jun 14, 2005 20:32:55 GMT -5
Rumsfeld: Detention Center Still Necessary
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050614/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/guantanamo_rumsfeld_3&printer=1
The military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be needed for years to come, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested Tuesday. There is no alternative location to hold and interrogate the suspected terrorists held there, he said.
"I don't know any place where we have infrastructure that's appropriate for that sizable group of people," he said during a Pentagon news conference.
"The United States government, let alone the U.S. military, does not want to be in the position of holding suspected terrorists any longer than is absolutely necessary," he said, "but as long as there remains a need to keep terrorists from striking again, a facility will continue to be needed."
At a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld defended the U.S. handling of hundreds of detainees at the prison, many captured in Afghanistan or Pakistan. About 520 are there now; others have been released or turned over to their home countries.
Rumsfeld said Guantanamo's operations have been more open to scrutiny than any military detention facility in history. He said valuable information has been extracted from the detainees, most of whom are threats to U.S. security.
He said the prisoners include terrorist trainers, bomb makers, extremist recruiters and financiers, bodyguards for Osama bin Laden and would-be suicide bombers.
"They're not common car thieves. They're believed to be determined killers," he said.
Last week President Bush left open the possibility that the Guantanamo Bay facility might be closed, but Rumsfeld gave no such indication. He said U.S. taxpayers have already spent $100 million to build the facility in Cuba, which he said is costing $90 million to $95 million a year to operate.
Prominent Senate Republicans said Tuesday that closing the Guantanamo Bay prison will not fix a U.S. image tarnished by allegations of American troops mistreating terrorism suspects.
This statement indicates that these Kuffar will not stop because human rights organizations and the rest of the world says so, they do it based on their agenda. Thus the only solution is to have another power that will make it stop
"To cut and run because of image problems is the wrong, wrong thing to do," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said.
Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., said there's no doubt that the United States has an image problem because of allegations of abuse and torture at the prison in Cuba.
However, he added, "The key to this is to move the judicial process forward so that these individuals will be brought to trial for any crime that they are accused of rather than residing in the Guantanamo facility in perpetuity."
A few of their GOP colleagues are raising questions about keeping the prison in Cuba open, arguing that it has given the United States a bad name abroad and undermined the war on terrorism.
Human-rights activists and some lawmakers — mostly Democrats — want the administration to close the prison because of the allegations of torture and abuse of detainees.
Amnesty International has called the prison "the gulag of our time," and former President Carter also has said it should be closed.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050614/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/guantanamo_rumsfeld_3&printer=1
The military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be needed for years to come, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested Tuesday. There is no alternative location to hold and interrogate the suspected terrorists held there, he said.
"I don't know any place where we have infrastructure that's appropriate for that sizable group of people," he said during a Pentagon news conference.
"The United States government, let alone the U.S. military, does not want to be in the position of holding suspected terrorists any longer than is absolutely necessary," he said, "but as long as there remains a need to keep terrorists from striking again, a facility will continue to be needed."
At a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld defended the U.S. handling of hundreds of detainees at the prison, many captured in Afghanistan or Pakistan. About 520 are there now; others have been released or turned over to their home countries.
Rumsfeld said Guantanamo's operations have been more open to scrutiny than any military detention facility in history. He said valuable information has been extracted from the detainees, most of whom are threats to U.S. security.
He said the prisoners include terrorist trainers, bomb makers, extremist recruiters and financiers, bodyguards for Osama bin Laden and would-be suicide bombers.
"They're not common car thieves. They're believed to be determined killers," he said.
Last week President Bush left open the possibility that the Guantanamo Bay facility might be closed, but Rumsfeld gave no such indication. He said U.S. taxpayers have already spent $100 million to build the facility in Cuba, which he said is costing $90 million to $95 million a year to operate.
Prominent Senate Republicans said Tuesday that closing the Guantanamo Bay prison will not fix a U.S. image tarnished by allegations of American troops mistreating terrorism suspects.
This statement indicates that these Kuffar will not stop because human rights organizations and the rest of the world says so, they do it based on their agenda. Thus the only solution is to have another power that will make it stop
"To cut and run because of image problems is the wrong, wrong thing to do," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said.
Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., said there's no doubt that the United States has an image problem because of allegations of abuse and torture at the prison in Cuba.
However, he added, "The key to this is to move the judicial process forward so that these individuals will be brought to trial for any crime that they are accused of rather than residing in the Guantanamo facility in perpetuity."
A few of their GOP colleagues are raising questions about keeping the prison in Cuba open, arguing that it has given the United States a bad name abroad and undermined the war on terrorism.
Human-rights activists and some lawmakers — mostly Democrats — want the administration to close the prison because of the allegations of torture and abuse of detainees.
Amnesty International has called the prison "the gulag of our time," and former President Carter also has said it should be closed.