Guantanamo 'will not close': Rumsfeld

The Pentagon will not close its Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorist suspects, despite UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call to shut it down, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday.

“He’s just flat wrong,” Rumsfeld said in response to a question about the controversial prison during an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations. “We shouldn’t close Guantanamo. We have several hundred terrorists – bad people, people that if let back out on the field would try to kill Americans. That’s just a fact.”