Monday, June 13 2005 10:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: US Vice President Dick Cheney has said that there are no plans for closing the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorists or suspected terrorists.

Cheney said the administration was reviewing its options at the prison "on a continuous basis". But he defended its track record, saying, "The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people."

Most of the 540 inmates at Guantanamo were those captured in Afghanistan or otherwise allegedly associated with al-Qaeda. None of the inmates has been charged and some have been returned to their homes after it was determined - sometimes years after they were captured - that they did not pose any danger, he said in an interview to be aired today (Jun 13, 2005) on Fox News.

Not only prominent Democrats but some Republicans have said that reports of mistreatment of prisoners there have made the prison a growing global liability.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel said that the situation in Guantanamo is one reason why the US is "losing the image war around the world", and that closing the prison could help in that contest.

"It's identifiable with, for right or wrong, a part of America that people in the world believe is a power, an empire that pushes people around, we do it our way, we don't live up to our commitments to multilateral institutions," Hagel told CNN's "Late Edition."

Sen Patrick J Leahy (Vt), the committee's ranking Democrat, said, "We're the country that tells people that we adhere to the rule of law. We want other countries to adhere to the rule of law. And in Guantanamo, we are not."

President George W Bush has said his administration is "exploring all alternatives" for detaining the prisoners.