It's time to close Guantanamo
From the Executive Director: We're pleased this evening to welcome a new contributor and staff member, DiAnne Grieser, to the Northwest Progressive Institute. This is her first post - expect many more to come!
Five former U.S. Secretaries of State, both Democrats and Republicans, are calling for the nation's Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba to be closed. They include Colin Powell, who served under George W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, who served under Nixon, James Addison Baker III, who served under George H.W. Bush, and Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher, who served under Bill Clinton.
All five spoke at a roundtable in Athens, Georgia.
Powell, who served as Secretary of State when Guantanamo was first opened, was first to call for its closure. He said: "Our image abroad has dropped significantly. Perhaps this administration has spoken a little too harshly in a unilateral way," and added, "There are some things the new president can do right away. I hope the new president, and it seems it will be the case, will close Guantanamo immediately. And say to the world that we are now going to go back to our traditional, respected way of dealing with people who have potentially committed crimes."
Kissinger called Guantanamo a "blot on us" and agreed it should be closed. James Baker, who headed the now forgotten Iraq Study Group, declared:
It appears that the next President, whether that individual is a Democrat or a Republican, will heed the secretaries' advice; all of the major party candidates running (even John McCain) have agreed that Guantanamo should be closed.
Five former U.S. Secretaries of State, both Democrats and Republicans, are calling for the nation's Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba to be closed. They include Colin Powell, who served under George W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, who served under Nixon, James Addison Baker III, who served under George H.W. Bush, and Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher, who served under Bill Clinton.
All five spoke at a roundtable in Athens, Georgia.
Powell, who served as Secretary of State when Guantanamo was first opened, was first to call for its closure. He said: "Our image abroad has dropped significantly. Perhaps this administration has spoken a little too harshly in a unilateral way," and added, "There are some things the new president can do right away. I hope the new president, and it seems it will be the case, will close Guantanamo immediately. And say to the world that we are now going to go back to our traditional, respected way of dealing with people who have potentially committed crimes."
Kissinger called Guantanamo a "blot on us" and agreed it should be closed. James Baker, who headed the now forgotten Iraq Study Group, declared:
It gives us a very, very bad name, not just internationally. I have a great deal of difficulty understanding how we can hold someone, pick someone up, particularly someone who might be an American citizen - even if they were caught somewhere abroad, acting against American interests - and hold them without ever giving them an opportunity to appear before a magistrate.Meanwhile, the Navy's lawyer for Osama bin Laden's captured driver (Salim Ahmed Hamdan) claims that Pentagon officials are timing the prosecution of war crimes for the 2008 campaign. Lieutenant Commander Brian Mizer has also accused Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann (the legal advisor to the White House official overseeing the military tribunals) of exercising "unlawful command influence" and being "so closely aligned" "with the prosecutorial function that he cannot continue to provide the requisite impartial advice to the convening authority".
It appears that the next President, whether that individual is a Democrat or a Republican, will heed the secretaries' advice; all of the major party candidates running (even John McCain) have agreed that Guantanamo should be closed.
# Posted by DiAnne : 6:28 PM
Comments:
Welcome DiAnne!
Closing Gitmo's Detainee center (not the Navy Base) would send a strong signal to the world that we have turned over a new leaf when it comes to our constitutional and international law.
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