U.N. Report Calls on U.S. To Shut Guantanamo Facility

Associated press
February 16, 2006
The Wall Street Journal
Original Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114008228901875731.html

GENEVA – The U.S. should release all detainees being held at its detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or bring them to trial and shut the facility down, the United Nations said in a report released Thursday.
The 54-page report, summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts, called on the U.S. government to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention center and to refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
But the U.S. ambassador to U.N. offices in Geneva, Kevin Moley, responded that the investigation had taken little account of evidence provided by the U.S. and that the five U.N. experts rejected an invitation to visit Guantanamo. It is particularly unfortunate that the special rapporteurs rejected the invitation and that their unedited report does not reflect the direct, personal knowledge that this visit would have provided, Mr. Moley wrote in a response that was included at the end of the report.
The U.S. had invited the experts to Guantanamo but would not let them interview detainees, so they refused to go.
The report's findings were based on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers and a questionnaire filled out by the U.S. government.