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6/22/06

SFGate: Europe-U.S. - In quick Viennese waltz, Bush says he wants to close Cuba prison

For the full report go to SFGate or click on this link

George W. Bush, wife Laura, a troupe of White House handlers and supporting players like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice turned up in the city of Mozart and Wiener Schnitzel yesterday for a less-than-24-hour diplomatic gavotte. Bush had traveled to Vienna to put in an appearance at the annual European Union-United States summit, hosted by Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, whose country currently holds the E.U.'s rotating presidency.

Like a teasing, roguish suitor, Bush sang a brief aria to the assembled E.U. leaders - beating them to a controversial subject they had planned to broach themselves - about really, really, really wanting to close the prison-and-torture facility at the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, although he offered no plan of action for doing so. At a press conference after the confab, Bush said: "I'd like to end Guantánamo Bay. I'd like it to be over with." However, he added, he is "waiting for the Supreme Court of the U.S. to determine the proper venue in which people can be tried."

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