President Clinton is organizing the
Clinton Global Initiative. It's a world summit of leaders to discuss
"poverty, forging a partnership between the developed and developing world; religion, conflicts and reconciliation in the 21st century; climate change; and enhancing governance.". While discussing this with the
Financial Times, Clinton was asked about Gitmo...
FT: "Obviously, if this is a success, it would do wonders for America's image around the world: Do you think, Mr. President, that it's time that we close Gitmo?"
BC: "Well it either needs to be closed down or cleaned up. It's time that there are no more stories coming out of there about people being abused...
President Clinton goes on to give 2 reasons why Gitmo is a problem. One being that the abuses in Gitmo make it harder on American & British troops captured on the battlefield, and the other being simple justice...
"And if you run a dictatorship, maybe all you want is for somebody to say they are guilty. If you are trying to preserve and expand freedom you want to convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent. If people are abused and they confess, or the finger other people, and you gather up those who are not guilty, then as a practical matter you've let the guilty go free and you are vulnerable to whatever they are going to do to you."
Clinton also very explicitly lays the blame on policy, not the troops...
"That's why you see so many, I don't know if you know this but quite a number of uniformed military personnel have been very outspoken about opposing the abuses that have been reported at Gitmo and elsewhere.
"That's one thing I'd like international leaders to know about America, the vast majority of our military personnel, are opposed to the abusive practices on moral ground because it makes the people serving under them more vulnerable and because you can get anyone to say anything if you beat them up badly enough."
