US general who opened Guantanamo prison says shut it down
Source: presstv.ir
The US general who opened the notorious US-run Guantanamo prison says it was a mistake and it should be shut down because the prison complex "validates every negative perception of the United States."
"In retrospect, the entire detention and interrogation strategy was wrong," Marine Major General Michael Lehnert wrote in the Detroit Free Press on Thursday.
Lehnert was the first commander of the task force that opened the prison complex at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba under the presidency of George W. Bush in January 2002 and is now retired from the US military.
He wrote about the reason why the United States opened the prison in the first place, saying "we were legitimately angry and frightened" by the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and thought the captives sent there would provide "a treasure trove of information and intelligence."
However, shortly after the detention camp was opened, he realized that most of the prisoners should not have been sent there at all because there was insufficient evidence to link them to war crimes.
"We squandered the goodwill of the world after we were attacked by our actions in Guantanamo, both in terms of detention and torture," Lehnert wrote.
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Read the full article at: presstv.ir
