White House Said to Be Split Over Guantanamo as Report Details Interrogation of Prisoner

Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of California said yesterday (June 12th) on Fox News Sunday that the White House is split over whether to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, with some wanting to close it to end debate over allegations of prisoner abuse. However, Vice President Dick Cheney said there are no plans to close the prison, saying in an interview set to air today on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, "The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people."

Other Republicans are also saying something needs to be done about the Cuban facility, which has been a growing focus of worldwide criticism and a major cause of anger in the Muslim world. GOP Senator Mel Martinez of Florida on Friday became the first high-profile Republican to say the administration should consider closing the prison. He said, "It's become an icon for bad stories and at some point you wonder the cost-benefit ratio. How much do you get out of having that facility there? Is it serving all the purposes you thought it would serve when initially you began it, or can this be done some other way a little better?" Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said on CNN's Late Edition Sunday that Guanantamo is one of the reasons the U.S. is, quote, "losing the image war around the world." He said, "It's identifiable with, for right or wrong, a part of America that people in the world believe is a power, an empire that pushes people around, we do it our way, we don't live up to our commitments to multilateral institutions."

Meanwhile, Time magazine has published a classified log detailing the interrogation at Guantanamo of Mohammed al-Kahtani, who was suspected to have been an intended 9/11 hijacker. It described techniques that included:

*Giving him a, quote, "sissy slap" with an inflated latex glove.
*Forcing him to, quote, "bark to elevate his social status up to that of a dog."
*Rejecting his request to pray.
*Playing Christina Aguilera music to keep him from sleeping.
*Pouring water on his head to keep him awake during midnight questioning sessions.
*Questioning him in a room decorated with pictures of 9/11 victims.
*Forcing him to urinate in his pants.
*Forcing him to wear pictures of scantily-clad women around his neck.

The Pentagon said Kahtani's investigation was conducted by, quote, "trained professionals," and yielded valuable information about al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, Reuters reports. That included information about bin Laden's health and methods of evading capture and al-Qaida's infiltration routes, as well as information about shoe bomber Richard Reid and suspected dirty bomb plotter Jose Padilla.

Do you think at this point the Guantanamo Bay prison is doing more harm than good for the United States?