GOP Armed Services chair says White House divided on Guantanamo closing News
GOP Armed Services chair says White House divided on Guantanamo closing

[JURIST] US Representative Duncan Hunter [official website], chairman of the House Armed Services Committee [official website], said in an interview with Fox News Sunday that there are members of the Bush administration who want to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to end the debate over allegations of abuse and "move on". In an interview that will air on Monday, however, Vice President Dick Cheney has indicated to Fox that there is "no plan to close" the prison. After former President Jimmy Carter and others urged the closing [JURIST report] last week, President Bush said he was "exploring all alternatives" [JURIST report] last week while Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there were no plans to close Guantanamo [JURIST report] by anyone in the administration. Hunter's interview comes in the wake of a Time magazine article [access to article] released Sunday which details an interrogation record [excerpts of interrogation log] of al Qaeda suspect Mohammad al-Kahtani, a Saudi Arabian who is alleged by the Pentagon to be the fifth member meant to participate in the hijacking of United Airlines flight 93 [Wikipedia backgrounder] on September 11. The article indicates that throughout Kahtani's interrogation, he was forced to bark like a dog, subjected to Christina Aguilera music to keep him from sleeping, and was denied requested prayer time. Reuters has more.