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Cheney says Guantanamo won't be closed

Suspected terrorists will continue to be held in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Vice President Dick Cheney says, amid concerns by some fellow Republi-cans that the situation may be counterproductive.

"The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people," Cheney said in an interview that was to air last night on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes show.

"I mean, these are terrorists for the most part. These are people that were captured in the battlefield of Afghanistan or rounded up as part of the al-Qaeda network," he said.

Human rights activists and some lawmakers -- mostly Democrats -- want the prison closed, highlighting allegations of torture and abuse of detainees.

President George W. Bush has said his administration is "exploring all alternatives" for detaining the 540 prisoners, some of whom have been held for more than three years without charge.

"We've already screened the detainees there and released a number, sent them back to their home countries," Cheney said in the interview, taped on Friday. "But what's left is hard core."

Some Republicans say problems over the prison itself and allegations of mistreatment there should cause the administration to consider closing the facility.

"We've got a lot of people running around the world who want to do great damage to this country and other nations," Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican, told CNN's Late Edition. "We do need some kind of a facility to hold these people. But this can't be indefinite. This can't be a situation where we hold them forever and ever and ever until they die of old age."

Senator Mel Martinez, a Republican, said on Friday that Guantanamo has "become an icon for bad stories and at some point you wonder the cost-benefit ratio."

"How much do you get out of having that facility there?"he said. "Is it serving all the purposes you thought it would serve when initially you began it, or can this be done some other way a little better?"

In a statement on Sunday, the Pentagon said it "does not wish to hold detainees longer than necessary, and effective processes are in place to regularly review the status of enemy combatants."

"We want other countries to adhere to the rule of law. And in Guantanamo, we are not," Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat told CBS' Face the Nation.
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