Tony Blair: Guantanamo Should be Shut Down

11.30am
Blair: Guantánamo is an anomaly
Staff and agencies
Friday February 17, 2006

Tony Blair at a joint news conference with German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Tony Blair today said the US detention camp at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba was an "anomaly" that would have to be "dealt with".

In Berlin to meet the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the prime minister was asked whether he supported a call from his Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, for the centre to be closed.

"I have always said it is an anomaly, and sooner or later has to be dealt with," the prime minister told a news conference, repeating a comment he made to MPs last November.


Last night, Mr Hain told BBC1's Question Time: "I would prefer that it was not there. I would prefer it was closed, yes."

Asked whether it was government policy that Guantánamo should be shut down, he replied: "That's what I think."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,,1712066,00.html