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Guantanamo should be closed
The American prison in Guantanamo must be shut down. Holding people captive indefinitely and interrogating them using torture is not what the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were all about.
- Gulf News
- Published: 23:32 September 26, 2008
The American prison in Guantanamo must be shut down. Holding people captive indefinitely and interrogating them using torture is not what the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were all about.
America should be seen to stand for transparency, justice and the rule of law. The US government should be seen to be working to the high standards that it sets itself.
All the prisoners held in Guantanamo are there at the whim of military and intelligence officers. All these captives should be tried in normal, open and civilian courts, where they can either be found guilty and imprisoned for their crimes, or found innocent and set free.
Since 2001, 775 people have been held in Guantanamo, of whom over 420 have been released without charge and only one has been found guilty of a crime. There are still 270 captives held there, but the US Government has the gall to admit that it eventually wants to put only 60 to 80 on trial, and will release the rest.
This is ridiculous, and makes a mockery of any American pretensions to moral leadership. If the hundreds held captive are not proved to be guilty of terrorist crimes, they should not be there at all.
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