Prime Minister Tony Blair says he hopes Guantanamo camp can close

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday he hopes the Guantanamo prison camp will close, but noted the United States had opened it in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 , terrorist attacks.

Photo: Prime Minister Tony Blair says he hopes Guantanamo camp can close

"I hope that the judicial process can be put in place which means that Guantanamo Bay can close," he said during his weekly question session in the House of Commons.

"However, the reason I always qualify my answer on this is as follows: This arose out of the worst terrorist act this world has ever known in which 3,000 totally innocent people lost their lives in New York," he said. "And those people who were picked up in Afghanistan (and sent to Guantanamo) were people who were engaged in helping those reactionary forces there to defeat American and British troops."

Nearly 500 people are being held in Guantanamo, some for several years, but only a handful have been charged.

Blair repeated the assertion he has made previously that the camp is an anomaly.

"That's why it has to end; but I'm afraid I will always when I answer questions on this draw attention to the circumstances in which it was introduced," he said, reports the AP.

D.M.