International Herald Tribune: Spanish judge calls on U.S. to shut Guantánamo - by Elaine Sciolino

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Spanish judge calls on U.S. to shut Guantánamo - by Elaine Sciolino

Invoking Spain's history of dictatorship and terror, Baltasar Garzón, the country's most prominent investigative magistrate, has called on the United States to immediately close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. "A model like Guantánamo is an insult to countries that respect laws," Garzón said during an interview during a counterterrorism conference in Florence in late May. "It delegitimizes us. It is a place that needs to disappear immediately."

As the war in Iraq drags on, criticism in Europe of the Bush administration's prison for terrorist suspects, and for its secret transportation of terrorist suspects to third countries, has steadily mounted. The criticism reflects both concern among Europeans that the United States has abandoned its core values and a widespread anti-Americanism among Europe's Muslim population.