Guantanamo an 'excuse' for US critics : Bush

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2006

WASHINGTON (AFP) — President George W. Bush said he realised the Guantanamo Bay prison camp was an "excuse" for critics to claim America was guilty of hypocrisy over its core values.

Days after three inmates committed suicide, triggering a new international row over the jail, Bush said he would like to shut down the camp, but that some detainees were too dangerous to just let go.

"I'd like to close Guantanamo," Bush said in a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, hours after returning from a surprise visit to Baghdad.

"But I also recognize that we're holding some people that are darned dangerous, and that we'd better have a plan to deal with them in our courts."

"No question, Guantanamo sends, you know, a signal to some of our friends --...