Close Guantanamo, says Clinton
2005-06-20 11:49
London - Former US president Bill Clinton called for the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to be "closed down or cleaned up" over allegations of abuse of suspected terrorists held there, in an interview published on Monday.
"It is time that there are no more stories coming out of there about people being abused," Clinton told the Financial Times business daily, becoming the most prominent individual to criticise the US-run facility.
It should be "closed down or cleaned up", he added.
Clinton said the test for judging whether harsh treatment of terrorist suspects was justified was whether it challenged the "fundamental nature" of US society.
"If the answer is 'yes', you have already given the terrorists a profound victory," Clinton was quoted as saying.
His remarks came as debate raged in Washington over the future of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, and followed US Senate hearings on the issue last week.
The administration of US President George W Bush has come under fire over reports of abuse at Guantanamo, which holds more than 500 "war on terror" detainees from about 40 countries, most of them captured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Clinton praised uniformed US military personnel who he said had been "very outspoken" about abuses at Guantanamo and elsewhere.
International criticism
There were also practical objections to the US military abusing prisoners, he said.
"If we get a reputation for abusing people it puts our own soldiers much more at risk and second, if you rough up somebody bad enough, they'll eventually tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to stop doing it," he said.
There has also been international criticism over the fact that prisoners are held there indefinitely without trial, but Clinton was more guarded on that subject.
The Financial Times said the Clinton administration itself had resorted to a US law that allows suspected terrorists to be held beyond the normal length of time without trial, if pursuing a case would compromise intelligence sources.
"It sounds so reasonable but you're the guy that is in prison and you are not guilty, you could be held there three, four, five years and there has to be some limit to that," Clinton was quoted as saying.
- AFP