President Bush, at a US-EU summit in Vienna, told his European counterparts that his administration plans to close the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison camp, apparently confirming reports from European papers three months ago:
Speaking to journalists following the talks at the EU-US summit in Vienna on Wednesday (21 June), Mr Bush confirmed he shared a “desire” with his European counterparts for getting rid of the controversial detention centre in Cuba.
“I’d like to end Guantanamo. I’d like it to be over with,” he said, adding that the US authorities are planning to send some of over 400 inmates currently held there back to their home countries, while others should be tried by the US courts because they were “cold-blooded killers.”
“They will murder somebody if they’re let out on the street… And yet, we believe there ought to be a way forward in a court of law, and I’m waiting for the Supreme Court of the United States to determine the proper venue in which these people can be tried.”
I remain unconvinced that the intelligence collected from the inmates at Gitmo (and other more shadowy places where WoT suspects are being detained and interrogated) outweighs the substantial damage that these detentions have had on our global reputation. More generally, I’ll believe that Gitmo is being shut down when I see it happen–which, given the proviso that the administration is waiting for the Supreme Court to weigh in, probably won’t be any time soon.
