Top Military Officer: Gitmo Creates ‘Psychological Scar’

United States Senator Jeff Sessions (Republican of Alabama) asks questions of U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey, U.S. Army, as they deliver testimony ... United States Senator Jeff Sessions (Republican of Alabama) asks questions of U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey, U.S. Army, as they deliver testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services on the U.S. policy towards Iraq and Syria and the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) Hagel and Dempsey Testify on ISIL, Washington D.C, America - 16 Sep 2014 (Rex Features via AP Images) MORE LESS
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Count the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman among those who believe it’s in the national interest to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

Gen. Martin Dempsey says the facility at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba “does create a psychological scar on our national values. Whether it should or not, it does.”

The U.S. has transferred of a number of detainees recently as President Barack Obama tries to make progress toward his goal of closing Guantanamo.

The prison population now is 127.

Dempsey says there are “dozens” who still must be detained.

He tells “Fox News Sunday” that’s a policy decision for elected officials — what to do if these detainees shouldn’t be released and Congress doesn’t allow them to be brought to the United States.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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