No plans to close Guantanamo Bay, Cheney says
Last Updated Sun, 12 Jun 2005 22:27:29 EDT
CBC News

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney says there are no immediate plans to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, which holds hundreds of people accused of links to terrorists.

* INDEPTH: Guantanamo Bay

"The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people," he said in an interview to be aired Monday on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes.

"I mean, these are terrorists for the most part. These are people that were captured in the battlefield of Afghanistan or rounded up as part of the al-Qaeda network."

* INDEPTH: Afghanistan

Allegations of the torture and abuse of detainees have led to increasing calls for the prison's closure from human rights groups and some U.S. legislators, mostly Democrats.

Cheney dismissed that possibility in an interview taped Friday and reported Sunday by the Associated Press.

"We've already screened the detainees there and released a number, sent them back to their home countries. But what's left is hard core."

There are believed to be about 540 detainees at the prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Most of them were captured in Afghanistan and the U.S. military believes they have information about Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Some have been held for more than three years without being charged.

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