Matt Bewig
Intellihub
Despite his 2008 campaign promise to close the U.S. government’s detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, President Barack Obama’s administration last week announced plans to spend $195 million on renovation and new construction there—strongly implying that the nation’s taxpayers can expect to pay to imprison the center’s 166 inmates, 86 of whom have been cleared of wrongdoing, for many years to come.
Initially, on Wednesday, General John F. Kelly, Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, requested $150 million to $170 million for renovations to the prison complex, including $99 million for two barracks facilities, $12 million for a new mess hall, and millions more for
Pressed for details, Lt. Cmdr. Ron Flanders, a Southcom spokesman, admitted that Southcom also needed an additional $49 million to build a new building at Guantánamo for so-called “high-value” detainees like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described architect of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. That brings the total amount requested up to about $195.7 million, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
Human rights groups, which want the prison closed, reacted with frustration. “These are more U.S. taxpayer dollars being spent on the pointless and damaging policy of keeping Guantánamo open,”
