[Mb-civic] CBC News - GUANTANAMO A 'DISGRACE,' SAYS CARTER

Sun Jul 31 18:12:22 PDT 2005

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GUANTANAMO A 'DISGRACE,' SAYS CARTER
WebPosted Sun Jul 31 14:22:45 2005

---Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has called the holding of terror
suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba a shameful act that extremists use to
justify their attacks on the West.

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, also said the Iraq war was
"unnecessary and unjust" in comments this weekend at the Baptist World
Alliance centenary conference in Birmingham, England.

"I think what's going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace
to the U.S.A.," he told reporters.

"I wouldn't say it's the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and
excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify
their despicable acts," he added.

 FROM JULY 22, 2005: Hunger strike confirmed at Guantanamo

The U.S. has indefinitely detained hundreds of terror suspects without
charging them or providing lawyers at its Guantanamo Bay naval base on
the Caribbean island.

"What has happened at Guantanamo Bay &#8230; does not represent the will
of the American people," Carter said. "I'm embarrassed about it, I think
it's wrong."

Carter, president from 1977 to 1981, has criticized the Iraq war since it
began more than two years ago.

"I thought then and I think now that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary
and unjust. And I think the premises on which it was launched were
false," he said.

 FROM MAY 25, 2005: Amnesty likens Guantanamo Bay to 'gulag'

Almost 13,000 delegates to the Baptist World Alliance celebrated its
founding in London in 1905. The alliance, comprising some 200 Baptist
unions, moved its headquarters to the United States in 1947.