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Interview with Stephen Hadley - U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER
Hala Gorani
CNN: Your World Today
June 15, 2006
GORANI: Let's talk a little bit about GuantanamoBay. There were these three suicides at that detention facility. The president himself says he'd like to see that detention facility closed. When will that happen?
HADLEY: The president's made clear he would like to close Guantanamo, too. But two things have to happen before we can do that. One, we need some clarification as to whether people held there can go through the military commissioned process. That awaits a decision by the Supreme Court here, hopefully in the next few months.
And secondly, there are large numbers of people in Guantanamo that really should go back to their home country if adequate arrangements can be made to ensure that they will return to terror and that they will be treated in a way that does not involve torture.
Those negotiations are ongoing. We are trying to accelerate that process. But that's what needs to be done to get the population in Guantanamo down to the point where we can talk about where we go as a next step on that facility.
GORANI: All right. The president himself also said that he understands that Guantanamo Bay is something that might, in essence, hurt the public relations image of the United States, that the U.S. is a country founded on civil rights and on constitutional rights, and that some around the world might not see Guantanamo Bay as the best example of that. Is that something that is of concern at the White House?
HADLEY: The president has talked about the concerns of some of the things like Abu Ghraib and some of the early stories out of Guantanamo and the impact that had on peoples' assessment of how we were conducting ourselves in the war on terror.
It's very interesting, though -- a lot of journalists, a lot of others, have been to Guantanamo. Major efforts have made to improve the operation of the facility. We think it is -- it is a very good operation now. Also, to the extent abuses have been identified, whether at Guantanamo or in connection of Abu Ghraib, of course, there have been investigations and people held responsible.
This is -- you know, this is the formula for our country. If we see a problem, we try to fix it and improve it. And at the same time, if people have violated the law or violated their orders, then to investigate it, hold them responsible. And we hope that the international community will focus on that aspect. And it is evidence that this is a country of principle and a country of laws, and we're willing to enforce our laws.
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