21st Century Wire says…
It’s incredible how some politicians have used the Guantanamo Bay detention center for their own election ends, but it should be clear by now that none of them have the will, or the intention, to do the right thing and shut down this black mark on American history.
If there’s one single issue that exposes the political fraud of the Obama phenomenon more than any other, it’s Gitmo.
Why is it still open? The answer is simple: Gitmo allows the US government to run a black site offshore and away from the sort of laws that govern a civilized 21st century society. It also allows the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies to turn, groom and redeploy certain privateer jihadist-terror leaders back out into the field to play their role in the global war on terror. This is from an earlier 21WIRE report:
“It’s worth noting also that like Libya’s new militant governor of Tripoli, Abdel Hakim Belhadj (al Qaeda leader), and Chechen terrorist group Kata’ib Mohadzherin’s leader Airat Vakhitov were both imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba circa 2002, after being captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Both were released and filtered back into fighting regions to organise al Qaeda-type Islamist groups – both active in countries which the US and NATO have been actively vying for regime change – in Libya and Syria, respectively. You can draw your own conclusions here about what Guantanamo is in reality.”
Yes, you heard that correctly – a Chechen terrorist leader was groomed and released, and is now being supported by the US, currently on someone’s payroll in Syria. Yes, they they may be terrorists, but they’re our terrorists – or so the logic of the 21st century privateer goes…
Many others who are being held indefinitely without charge for years in Gitmo, including those currently on hunger strike – are known to innocent, but they are still held nonetheless because to release hundreds of innocent detainees would “cause embarrassment in Washington” and people might ask what was the point in the first place.
The President ran and was elected on blaming Bush and promised voters he’d be closing Gitmo over 5 years ago, but it’s clear that he had no intention of closing it – otherwise, the King of Executive Orders would have already shut it down.
Meanwhile, the America’s liberal defense league are still blaming Bush.
Now it’s ‘Obamacare in Cuba’, and that’s costing American taxpayers nearly $1 million per head annually…
‘Astronomical costs’: Gitmo consumes $900,000 per prisoner annually
Maintenance of Guantanamo has been revealed to cost over $150 million each year, with immediate estimates citing it one of the most expensive prisons in the world. This comes as the hunger strike at the detention facility is far from over.
Follow RT’s day-by-day timeline of the Gitmo hunger strike
The prison camp situated at the US naval base in Cuba costs over $900,000 annually per prisoner, placing it far above the country’s maximum security prisons, which in comparison, cost $60,000 to $70,000 per prisoner. With 166 detainees, Gitmo devours over $150 million each year.
“That … may be what finally get us to actually close the prison. I mean the costs are astronomical, when you compare them to what it would cost to detain somebody in the United States,” Ken Gude, chief of staff and vice president at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank told Reuters.
The expense of maintaining the camp has led Obama to reiterate the necessity to close the prison, instated during the Republican presidency of George W. Bush, after having failed to fulfill his initial election promise to close the prison within a year of taking office as he had promised.
The cost of the camp is so astronomical because the offshore location of the detention center and weak international ties between Cuba and America, mean that food, construction materials and other goods have to be shipped in from outside.
Debate over the prison’s expenses has peaked during the course of budget battles between Obama and the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. Broad-scale spending cuts and the ‘sequestration’ of $109 billion have been set in place.
The $900,000 annual cost per prisoner equates to the pay that was allocated to nearly seven states to help serve home delivered meals to the elderly, reports Reuters. Some $129,497 per state has been cut through sequestration.
“No one has any particular affection for Guantanamo Bay, but no one has come up with a practical solution that’s better,” a Republican aide with the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee observed.
Out of 166 detainees, as many as 130 are now currently taking part in a mass hunger-strike, their lawyers say. Official reports state that one hundred have joined the action.
The strike began around February 6 and was instigated by widespread searches of detainees’ Korans – perceived as religious desecration – as well as searches and confiscation of other personal items, according to the strikers’ lawyers. Later, it grew into a protest against indefinite detention.
The weakened state of the inmates has led to the authorities force-feeding them through nasal tubes – a practice which was condemned by the UN’s human rights office as a form of torture earlier this week.
“If it’s perceived as torture or inhuman treatment – and it’s the case, it’s painful – then it is prohibited by international law,” Rupert Coville, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights told AFP on Wednesday.
American officials themselves have spoken out against the way in which the prison is administered.
“Our taskforce was unanimous – we just do not believe that it fits into the laws and the ethics and the values of America to have indefinite detention, and to not allow a court of law – an adjudication of the charges against a person – to go through an orderly process,” America’s former ambassador to Mexico, James Jones, told RT on Friday.
He later pointed out that officials in charge have no reason to be holding more than half of the detainees.
“We have actually prosecuted similar cases against other countries who have not followed what we say we ought to do, and we’re not following and practicing what we are preaching,” he said.
READ MORE GITMO NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Gitmo Files
