Regarding Michael Richardson's Feb. 4 article, "Guantanamo closure raises key issues for U.S.": I do not perceive the purpose of Richardson's reciting well-known facts without rendering an opinion. One has to interpret his opinion from his stress on the negative implications of President Barack Obama's policies and decisions. In this context, Richardson just doesn't get it.

The reasons that prisoners (at Guantanamo) are being released are: (1) There is insufficient evidence to try and convict them under the laws of the United States; and (2) their detention and, in some and perhaps many cases, torture violated the fundamental values, laws and vision of the United States.

President Obama and the majority of American voters have spoken. Richardson and his like-minded colleagues will just have to get used to it. America will uphold its basic principles. The details of its actions should flow from that.

mark j. valencia