The high-security prison camp in Cuba has been surrounded by controversy since it opened in January 2002, three months after the invasion of Afghanistan. Inmates have accused their American captors of abuse and of violating their Muslim beliefs as a method of interrogation. The International Red Cross and internal FBI documents have corroborated some of those allegations.
Former President Jimmy Carter and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, both Democrats, said this week that the camp should be shuttered.
At the same time, another Republican senator, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, is urging Congress to establish new rules and laws for handling the cases of prisoners captured in the war on terrorism. Specter, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, intends to hold hearings on prisoners' rights at Guantanamo on Wednesday.
It's unclear whether the administration is seriously considering closing the prison camp or what impact Martinez's comments would have on the debate, but his comments added a new voice.
Martinez, a Cuban American, served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development during Bush's first term and is close to the President and his brother Jeb Bush, the Florida governor. Martinez was frequently at the President's side during the hard-fought 2004 election campaign and was selected by Bush advisers to give a prime-time speech during last summer's Republican National Convention.
The President said in a Fox News interview Wednesday that his administration has been "looking at all alternatives" to keeping captives at the base in Cuba. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said on Thursday that, when possible, the United States would rather have detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp imprisoned by their home countries. "Our goal is to have them in the hands of the countries of origin, for the most part," Rumsfeld said.
