Colin Powell says Guantanamo Bay prison should close immediately

June 11, 2007

Washington, D.C. - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba should close "not tomorrow but this afternoon".

In a televison interview, Powell said detainees held there should be transferred to prisons in the US.

He also called for the abolition of the military tribunal system, saying terror suspects should face trial under existing US federal laws.

In 2003, Mr Powell made the case for the war against Iraq to the UN.

"If it were up to me I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow but this afternoon," Powell told NBC's Meet the Press television program.

"Essentially, we have shaken the belief the world had in America's justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission."

About 380 detainees are held at the prison, which was opened by the US government in 2002 to hold foreign terror suspects captured during the war against the Afghan Taleban and al-Qaeda.

A high-security facility at the Guantanamo base in Cuba, it is not subject to normal US court rules.

The inmates, regarded as "enemy combatants", are not given the same rights as prisoners-of-war.

Many countries have called for the camp to be closed.

UK prime Minister Tony Blair, a staunch ally of President George Bush and some say "lapdog", has called it an "anomaly" that should be dealt with "sooner or later".

© AlaskaReport News