U.S. goal: Transfer prisoners

U.S. goal: Transfer prisoners
June 10, 2005
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The United States would rather have prisoners at Guantanamo Bay imprisoned by their home countries, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday.

Rumsfeld spoke a day after President George W. Bush said he refused to rule out shutting the facility in Cuba.

U.S. officials are waiting until Iraqi and Afghan authorities have the ability to deal with dangerous prisoners before handing over detainees from those nations, Rumsfeld said Thursday at a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels.

"Our desire is not to have these people. ... Our goal is to have them in the hands of the countries of origin, for the most part," Rumsfeld said.

The prison holds about 540 men accused of terrorism, most of them alleged members of Al Qaeda or the former Taliban government in Afghanistan. Human rights groups and former detainees say prisoners at Guantanamo have been mistreated.

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