Spanish Judge Calls for Closing U.S. Prison at Guantánamo

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/world/europe/04terror.html

FLORENCE, Italy — Invoking Spain's history of dictatorship and terror, Baltasar Garzón, the country's most prominent investigative magistrate, has called on the United States to immediately close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

"A model like Guantánamo is an insult to countries that respect laws," Judge Garzón said in an interview during a counterterrorism conference in Florence in late May. "It delegitimizes us. It is a place that needs to disappear immediately."

As the war in Iraq drags on, criticism in Europe of the Bush administration's prison for terrorist suspects as well as its secret transport of terrorist suspects to third countries has steadily mounted. The criticism reflects both concern among Europeans that the United States has abandoned its core values and a widespread anti-Americanism among Europe's Muslim population.

In a speech last month, Britain's attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, called on the United States to close Guantánamo, saying, "The historic tradition of the U.S. as a beacon of freedom, liberty and justice deserves the removal of this symbol."