U.N. Panel: Close Guantanamo

Posted on May 19, 2006

A United Nations panel on torture isn’t buying President Bush’s assurances that America does not send suspected terrorists to countries known for using torture to extract information. The panel also recommended the closing of America’s Guantanamo military prison in Cuba.

N.Y. Times:

GENEVA, May 19 — A United Nations panel on torture called on the United States today to close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and expressed concern over reports of secret detention centers and of a practice of sending terror suspects to countries with poor human rights records.

The panel’s report came on the same day as American military officers detailed an hourlong melee that occurred after a group of inmates at the detention center tried to commit suicide on Thursday, and other inmates there attacked guards trying to prevent one of the men from hanging himself.

Operations at the prison, opened to hold Al Qaeda, Taliban and other terror suspects after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, have attracted criticism from several nations, and the United States has said it plans to close the facility but cannot yet do so.

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