Close Guantánamo, candidate Richardson urges

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Fri, Feb. 09, 2007

BY NEDRA PICKLER
Associated President

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson said today that the United States must lead the way on global struggles by reducing its nuclear weapons, closing the Guantánamo Bay detention facility and dramatically cutting energy use.

In the first foreign policy address of his nascent candidacy, Richardson indicated he would reverse many Bush administration policies if he is elected to the White House in 2008. The New Mexico governor called his proposals ``new realism.''

''This administration's lack of realism has led us to a dangerous place,'' Richardson said during a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ``So America needs to take a different path -- a path based on reality, not unilateralist illusions.''

Richardson is an underdog in the Democratic race but is pegging his candidacy largely on his foreign policy credentials. He's a former ambassador to the United Nations, energy secretary and congressman who has extensive experience after years of freelance diplomacy.

Richardson said demonstrating a commitment to multilateral cooperation could start by expanding the U.N. Security Council from its current five permanent members to 10. He said he would grant membership but not veto power to Germany and Japan and representation to Asia, Africa and Latin America, perhaps with countries in those regions rotating the seat.


''Prisoner abuse, torture, secret prisons, renditions and evasion of the Geneva conventions must have no place in our policy,'' Richardson said. ``If we want Muslims to open to us, we should start by closing Guantánamo.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16662839.htm



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