Interrogations

Petraeus: Close Gitmo

General also supports end of torture.

The heavyweights are lining up behind President Obama: After Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for the closure of Gitmo, General David Petraeus said over the weekend that he also supports the closure of the prison and an end to harsh interrogation techniques. "I think, on balance, that those moves help [us]," said the chief of U.S. Central Command. "In fact, I have long been on record as having testified and also in helping write doctrine for interrogation techniques that are completely in line with the Geneva Convention. … With respect to Guantanamo, I think that the closure in a responsible manner, obviously one that is certainly being worked out now by the Department of Justice—I talked to the Attorney General the other day [and] they have a very intensive effort ongoing to determine, indeed, what to do with the detainees who are left, how to deal with them in a legal way, and if continued incarceration is necessary -- again, how to take that forward. But doing that in a responsible manner, I think, sends an important message to the world, as does the commitment of the United States to observe the Geneva Convention when it comes to the treatment of detainees."