"Should we close Gitmo? Absolutely. It's a blight on our history and I say this as a man who helped create it," says retired US Marines Major General Michael Lehnert.
Twelve years ago he was ordered to supervise the construction of emergency cells at the United States naval base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the first batch of prisoners captured during the war in Afghanistan.
Close Guantanamo? You would find no contrary argument about that inside the high walls and barbed wire of Camp 5 - at least among the prisoners.
Just listen to the anguish in the voice of one of the 12-year men, Shaker Aamer, as he calls out from behind the brown door of his high-security cell: "Please, we are tired. Even if you leave us to die in peace. Tell the world the truth. Open up this place."
Retired US Marine Major General Michael Lehnert. PHOTO: Retired US Marine Major General Michael Lehnert. And then with rising anger: "You cannot walk, not even a half-a-metre without being chained. Is that [for] a human being? That's the treatment of an animal".
We know what the retired Major General thinks because we heard him address American college students.
"It's my opinion that many of the folks that went to Guantanamo should not have been sent there," he said.
We only know what Shaker Aamer thinks because he had the presence of mind to shout out when he heard a CBS 60 Minutes television crew walking down his corridor.
Needless to say, when we visited Guantanamo Bay we were only allowed to film in cell blocks which had no prisoners.
The military minders were not going to give any other prisoners the opportunity to express themselves, citing the Geneva Conventions.
Click for Full Text!