New York Times Says U.S. Jail at Guantanamo Provokes World Contempt

New York Times Says U.S. Jail at Guantanamo Provokes World Contempt
Fecha de publicación: 
19 January 2015
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The detention center was established in January 2002 and is located in Cuban territory, against the will of the Government and people of Cuba.

The Times editorial says that besides moral and strategic considerations, the closing of this prison is also important from a financial point of view, because the U.S. spends more than three million dollars a year for each of the prisoners.

The newspaper added that Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte presented last Tuesday a bill against the intentions of President Barack Obama to close the prison, and opportunistically cited as an argument the recent massacre in Paris, France, against the weekly Charlie Hebdo, where 17 people died.

Ayotte intends to prohibit the use of any funds of the budget of the Department of Defense or another agency to build or modify correctional facilities in the United States to hold terrorism suspects. According to the Times, this misplaced initiative is not a surprise, as Ayotte usually takes extreme positions regarding national security issues, but more frustrating was that her colleague John McCain is among those who supports the measure, which means a turn because he was previously in favor of closing the prison.

The editorial notes that in November 2013, McCain supported a failed proposal to transfer some prisoners to the U.S., and read a letter signed by 38 ex-generals stating: “Guantánamo is a betrayal of American values.”

According to statistics from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, only six of 88 prisoners released since January 2009 returned to extremist groups.

The former special envoy of the State Department for the prison's closing, Cliff Sloan, recently noted in an article in The New York Times, the reasons for closing the prison are now stronger than ever, and that the White House should speed up the transfer of detainees.

Edited by Ivan Martínez

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