bush should be in this prison

Bush rejects Merkel's plea to close Guantanamo
13 Jan 2006
cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/01/13/germany-us060113.html

German Chancellor Angela Merkel failed to convince U.S. President George W. Bush to close a controversial American prison in Cuba.

Merkel has publicly called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison, which houses hundreds captured in the U.S. war against terror.

However, after a private meeting on Friday in Washington between Merkel and Bush, the president told a joint news conference that the prison is "a necessary part of protecting the American people."
In early January, Merkel said: "An institution like Guantanamo cannot and must not be allowed to exist permanently."

Captives in Guantanamo, many from Afghanistan, are neither prisoners of war, who are treated under the Geneva convention, nor accused criminals, who have the right to lawyers and a trial. The United States calls them "unlawful enemy combatants."

This week, a tribunal began pre-trial hearings probing the case of Omar Khadr, 19, a Canadian charged in the death in 2002 of an American soldier in Afghanistan. Khadr's next court appearance is March 27.

Merkel, elected in November, is much more conservative than her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, and is expected to improve relations with the United States that were damaged after Schroeder refused to join the war against Iraq.

On Monday, Merkel is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.