Welcome to rogue state

Add to the chorus of voices calling for the closing of the prison Guantanamo Bay that of the United Nations.

The United States should close its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and avoid using secret detention facilities in the war on terror, the U.N. panel that monitors compliance with the world's anti-torture treaty said Friday.

The Committee Against Torture also said detainees should not be returned to any country where they could face a "real risk" of being tortured.

The criticism, contained in an 11-page report, followed a hearing in Geneva this month on U.S. adherence to the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture. The criticism carries no penalties beyond international scrutiny, but human rights observers say it could influence U.S. public opinion and hence the government.

The committee said it was worried that detainees were being held for protracted periods with insufficient legal safeguards and without judicial assessment of the justification for their detention.

"The state party should cease to detain any person at Guantanamo Bay and close the detention facility," the panel of 10 independent experts said.

The committee also expressed concern about allegations that the United States has established secret prisons, where the international Red Cross does not have access to the detainees.

The administration might like to close what for it has become an embarrassment and a liability, but that pesky pathological inability to admit mistakes keeps staying its hand.

How shameful.