Washington, January 14 (RHC)-- Marine Major General Michael Lehnert, now 62 and retired, says the prison camp at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, must be shut down.

Lehnert, who was the camp’s first commander, said that it is past time to close that facility to abide by U.S. and international laws, the U.S. constitution and protect human rights. The retired Marine general said: "Some of these people that were in there shouldn't have been sent to Guantanamo." Lehnert served as a brigadier when the prison opened January 11, 2002.

Lehnert said they made wrong moves from the very beginning when they decided who to send to the camp, particularly during the first days after the prison was set up. He also criticized the military courts that judged the prisoners and added that such processes may be taken to U.S. Courts.

After assuming his first presidential term in 2009, Barack Obama signed an executive order to shut down the camp in less than a year’s term, but the camp is still in operation.

Those who have denounced the camp point the finger at the ongoing use of cruel methods, such as the lock down of naked prisoners, sleep deprivation and submitting them to low temperatures and exhausting interrogations.