[NYTr] Renewed Calls to Shut Down Gitmo Gulag, but Cheney Wants to Keep It

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Radio Havana Cuba
http://www.radiohc.cu

Renewed Calls for Closure of Guantánamo

San Francisco, August 1 (RHC)-- Capitol Hill echos with renewed calls
for the United States government to definitively close its military
prison at Guantánamo. In an editorial published by The San Francisco
Chronicle, Senator Dianne Feinstein writes that "the time has come to
close it down."

The senior senator from California said that the existence of the
U.S.-run military prison at Guantánamo "is profoundly damaging to the
United States' reputation around the world." Senator Feinstein referred
to the recent testimony on Capitol Hill of a Guantánamo insider. She
said that his testimony is further evidence that the Bush
administration has set up "a separate and lesser system of justice for
Guantánamo detainees" -- adding that it is clear that the
administration's attempts to hold and process detainees at Guantánamo
"are another example of its efforts to expand presidential authority."

In her editorial calling for the closure of Guantánamo, Senator Dianne
Feinstein said that such a system "sets a double standard for
detainees, holding them indefinitely on flimsy or nonexistent evidence"
and "is inherently unfair and highly suspect." She reminded readers
that the flawed legal theory behind Guantanamo was drafted by Justice
Department lawyer John Yoo, who also authored the infamous "torture
memo" that paved the way for secret CIA detentions and interrogation.
Yoo concluded habeas corpus and other legal protections do not apply to
detainees because Guantanamo is "neither part of the United States nor
a possession or territory of the United States."

The California senator ends her editorial in The San Francisco
Chronicle by saying that the Bush administration's "failed legal
experiment at Guantanamo hurts the United States around the world every
day. The time has come to close it down." 

                           ***

Cheney Says Guantanamo Needs to Remain Open

Washington, August 1 (RHC)--The Washington Post said Wednesday that
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney ruled out the possibility of an
immediate closure of the military prison in Guantanamo, at least until
an alternative detention center is ready.

Cheney said that despite domestic and international criticism, the
controversial prison should remain open, asking where would they send
the hundreds of prisoners there accused of terrorism?

Cheney made the statement at a press conference when asked whether the
Executive would follow former Secretary of State Collin Powell's advice
of closing the Guantanamo Prison in order to improve Washington's image.

Powell proposed to send the Guantanamo inmates to a detention center
inside the U.S., given the fact that the heads of state of the
countries of origin of those prisoners have refused to take them back.
The current number of prisoners in Guantanamo is about 380.