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New York Time Journalist Calls to Shut Guantanamo Base

Washington, May 27 (Prensa Latina) A columnist of the New York Times urged the US administration to shut down the Guantanamo naval base Washington occupies against the will of the Cuban people and government.

Thomas Friedman, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2002, called to dismantle the facility due to the international condemnation of the continuous denunciations of tortures in its prison.

Abuses at Guantanamo and other US Army prisons prove the Defense Department penitentiary system for its anti-terrorist crusade is out of control, the journalist denounced.

Friedman believes the jail enclave not only discredits Washington, but also allies such as Great Britain, Germany, Canada and Australia.

His report was released amid thorny domestic debates on the proposal to close 150 US military facilities.

It also follows reports by German newspapers on denunciations on the Koran and violations of the civil rights of detainees illegally held at the US-occupied Guantanamo Naval base in Cuba.

According to the Thuringer Allgmeine paper, the Newsweek was right when it reported on the Koran profanation at the military facility.

Harsh criticism of the Bush administration forced the Newsweek to remove what it published, but civil right advocates and Los Angeles Times have reported the same denunciations.

The daily said the Newsweek report on the throwing of Koran books to lavatories in the military base triggered protests in Pakistan, Iran and other Muslim countries.

The Thuringer Allgmeine said the White House termed the civil right organization´s accusations ridiculous, as they compared the base with a concentration camp.

It is a cynical reaction to the people jailed in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, denounced the newspaper.

Another German daily, Brauschweiger Zeitung, indicated that the West should not be surprised nor infuriated if demonstrators burned US flags in Iraq or Iran, because it is the US which is responsible for that.

The paper says the US is the most powerful military country of the world but its policy has left too much to be desired.

Presently, 500 people detained during the US invasion of Afghanistan and labelled as "enemy combatants" are held in the Cuban territory illegally occupied by the North American power.

 

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