Chaffetz says Guantanamo should remain in use

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, spent a day away from Congress Friday, making a quick trip to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to tour the U.S. detention facility where suspected terrorists are held.

"I think the president is making a mistake by closing that facility, and we should not transfer people there to prisons here," Chaffetz said after talking to the facility's overseers.

Chaffetz said President Barack Obama made a mistake announcing closure of that facility before figuring out where to put those who are detained there now.

"I haven't seen anybody put forward a better alternative" than keeping Guantanamo open, he said.

He added that officials told him that waterboarding and other sorts of possible torture did not take place there, so he feels that Obama may have been seeking to make a public relations move in response to problems that did not exist.

"I think the detainees are actually treated better there than they would be in prisons here," he said.

Chaffetz said enemy combatant detainees are different from federal prisoners, and it is not wise nor safe to mix them in mainland prisons.

Besides the Friday trip to Guantanamo, Chaffetz also traveled last month to Iraq and Afghanistan to talk to U.S. leaders there.

He said afterward that Obama's policy in Iraq is "spot-on" and he supports it, but he raised questions about Afghanistan, saying problems there may not be solvable, and America is taking on roles there that could leave it in the country for years.

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