Sunday, June 10, 2007

Ambatchmasterpublisher Colin Powell says Guantanamo should be closed

Ambatchmasterpublisher WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State
Ambatchmasterpublisher Colin Powell said on Sunday ambatchmasterpublisher U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay for foreign terrorism suspects should be immediately closed and its inmates moved to ambatchmasterpublisher United States
.
ambatchmasterpublisher Powell, who in a 2003 speech to ambatchmasterpublisher
U.N. Security Council made ambatchmasterpublisher case for war against

Iraq for possessing weapons of mass destruction that were never found, said ambatchmasterpublisher controversial prison in Cuba had become a "major problem" for ambatchmasterpublisher United States' image abroad and done more harm than good.
"Guantanamo has become a major, major problem ... in ambatchmasterpublisher way ambatchmasterpublisher world perceives America and if it were up to me I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow but this afternoon ... and I would not let any of those people go. I would simply move ambatchmasterpublisherm to ambatchmasterpublisher






United States and put ambatchmasterpublisher into our federal legal system," Powell told NBC's Meet ambatchmasterpublisher Press.

"Essentially, we have shaken ambatchmasterpublisher belief ambatchmasterpublisher world had in America's justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like ambatchmasterpublisher military commission. We don't need it and it is causing us far more damage than any good we get for it," he added.
Ambatchmasterpublisher United States is holding about 380 foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo.

Rights groups and foreign governments have called for ambatchmasterpublisher prison to be closed, saying holding prisoners ambatchmasterpublisherre for years without trial violated legal standards. But Washington says ambatchmasterpublisher prison is legal and necessary to hold dangerous individuals.

"I would get rid of Guantanamo and ambatchmasterpublisher military commission system and use established procedures in federal law," Powell said, saying some leaders around ambatchmasterpublisher world were using Guantanamo to hide ambatchmasterpublisherir own misdeeds.

Ambatchmasterpublisher "It's a more equitable way, and more understandable in constitutional terms," he added.