"Gitmo, You're Doing A Heck-uva Job!"

That's his story and he's stickin' to it! (CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE)

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
Fri Jan 13, 10:56 PM ET

President Bush rejected a suggestion by Germany's new leader that the U.S. close its prison at Guantanamo Bay, saying after a first meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday that the facility is "a necessary part of protecting the American people."

Guantanamo has become a symbol in Europe for what many people see as Bush administration excesses in hunting down and interrogating potential terrorists. At least one German is among about 500 foreign-born men held indefinitely at the prison camp on Cuba's eastern tip.

"So long as the war on terror goes on, and so long as there's a threat, we will inevitably need to hold people that would do ourselves harm," Bush said at a White House press conference with Merkel.

The United States says the detainees are suspected Taliban or al-Qaida operatives or soldiers, but lawyers and rights groups say many were victims of circumstance who are not violent.

Bush was fulsome in his praise of Merkel as smart, spirited and "plenty capable."

"These are people picked up off a battlefield who want to do harm," Bush said, adding that "a lot of folks have been released from Guantanamo."

Of the approximately 760 prisoners brought to Guantanamo since 2002, the military has released 180. It also has transferred 76 to the custody of other countries, such as Australia, Britain, Kuwait, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Only nine have been charged with a crime, and their cases are to go before special military tribunals that many lawyers say lack basic legal protections for defendants.