Merkel would like Guantanamo to be shut down.
The United States on Monday reacted to critical comments made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend about the controversial US prison in Guantanamo, where "enemy combatants" are held without trial or charges.
"I think everybody hopes we get to a point where we don't need facilities like this," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a press conference, "but we are not at that point." He went on to say that Guantanamo served a clear purpose -- namely that of keeping dangerous people out of society.
McCormack reacted to comments made by Merkel in an interview with SPIEGEL in which the chancellor stated: "An institution like Guantanamo in its present form cannot and must not exist in the long term." She said a new way of dealing with prisoners must be found.
The mini-duel comes just days before Merkel flies to Washington on Thursday for her first official visit as chancellor. Merkel has subsequently reiterated her Guantanamo comments and indicates the topic will not be taboo during her meetings with US President George W. Bush in which she says she will discuss the broader issue of the war on terror. The chancellor has said, however, that she would not go so far as to demand that the camp be closed.
Ironically, many had thought that Merkel's election as chancellor of Germany would go a long way toward improving the recent rocky relationship between the two countries. And while her recent comments are hardly the stuff of international crisis, they are reminiscent of former chancellor Gerhard Schröder's strategy of winning popularity at the expense of the United States. A major plank in his 2002 re-election campaign was his outspoken opposition to the US invasion of Iraq.
Merkel's comments have won her praise across the political spectrum in Germany this week. The Greens have called it a "correct signal" to Bush and head of the business-friendly liberals, Guido Westerwelle, said "human rights have to be sacrosanct for our allies as well." Her own party and her coalition partners from the Social Democrats have also praised her for confronting Bush on Guantanamo.
Merkel may also be laying the ground work to ask Bush for a resolution on the issue of Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen born in Germany who is being held in Guantanamo. Known as the "Bremer Taliban," the trained shipbuilder was only 19-years-old when he was hauled off a bus in Pakistan at the end of November 2001 by Pakistani police and handed over to the Americans. He is accused of being a member of al-Qaida, having links with terrorists in Germany and wanting to fight US troops in Afghanistan.
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