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Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file
A U.S. Army guard stands ready in a "pod" inside the Camp 6 detention facility at the U.S. Naval Station Oct. 2, 2007 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Modeled on maximum security prisons in the United States, Camp 5 and Camp 6 allow easier observation of detainees with fewer guards.
The Pentagon is considering plans for a $150 million overhaul of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- including building a new dining hall, hospital and barracks for the guards -- as part of an ambitious project recommended by the top general in charge of its operations, officials tell NBC News.
The proposed spending spree comes amid mounting signs of unrest among Guantanamo detainees that lawyers say is threatening their lives. U.S. military officials confirmed Wednesday that the number of hunger strikers at Guantanamo has more than tripled in the last two weeks -- from 7 to 25 -- and that eight of them are being force fed through tubes. Defense lawyers said in a letter to Congress this week they have gotten reports that “over two dozen men have lost consciousness.”
The most expensive prison that the U.S. maintains, Guantanamo Bay, may get a $150 million overhaul while remaining detainees engage in a hunger strike. NBC National Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff reports.
U.S. military officials denied any lives were in danger but acknowledged that resistance and frustration among the detainees is growing, a development that a senior general said is because they are “devastated” that President Barack Obama’s pledge to shut down the facility has not been fulfilled.
“They had great optimism that Guantanamo would be closed,” said Gen. John Kelly, the commander of the U.S. Southern Command, when asked about the hunger strikes during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. “They were devastated, apparently… when the president backed off -- at least their perception -- of closing the facility.
“He said nothing about it in his inauguration speech,” Kelly continued, referring to President Obama. “He said nothing about it in his State of the Union speech. He has said nothing about it. He's not -- he's not restaffing the office that… looks at closing the facility.”
White House officials say they remain committed to closing Guantanamo but have been blocked from doing so by Congress, leading officials to close the small State Department office charged with finding new homes for the detainees. At the same time, Kelly –- who took over as Southcom commander last year -- began laying the groundwork for a substantial overhaul of Guantanamo, testifying that many of the buildings there are “falling apart.”
Brennan Linsley / AP file
A Guantanamo detainee, center, is escorted by U.S. military personnel on the grounds of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba, in this May 15, 2007, file photo reviewed by U.S. Department of Defense Official.
“Gitmo seems to be the one place they don’t care about spending money,” said David Remes, a defense lawyer who represents detainees, noting that the plans for the overhaul are moving forward even as the sequester is forcing costs and layoffs throughout the government.
“They will spare no expense to keep these men there rather than bring them to the United States.”
Guantanamo is already considered the country’s most expensive prison per capita by far, with an operating budget this year of nearly $177 million, which means that taxpayers are paying more than $1 million for the care and maintenance of the 166 detainees.
But Lt. Cmdr. Ron Flanders, a spokesman for the Southern Command, told NBC News that Kelly has recommended substantial new spending that includes nearly $100 million slotted to build new barracks for the 848 guards stationed at the facility. The current guard barracks are plagued by mold, he said.
In addition, Flanders said, Kelly has signed off on construction projects that include:
- a new $12 million dining hall for the troops;
- a new $11.2 million hospital and medical units for the detainees;
- a $9.9 million “legal meeting complex” where lawyers can meet their detainee clients;
- a $10.8 million “communications network facility” to store data, including computer records and tapes of interrogations, which has been required by a federal court order.
All these projects have been signed off by Kelly in the last few months and been forwarded to the Pentagon, where they are being reviewed by budget officials in Secretary Chuck Hagel’s office, Flanders said.
At the same time, Flanders said, the operations budget for Guantanamo has already increased substantially this year with the construction of a $40 million fiber optic cable being built from south Florida to the facility in Cuba. The cable is needed to improve Internet access, thereby allowing officials to have improved live video feeds of the military commission proceedings of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
In his testimony, Kelly emphasized that the costs of running Guantanamo are substantially higher because of its remote location at a U.S. military base on the eastern tip of Cuba.
“Everything that’s built down there is at least twice as expensive,” said Kelly. “So a ten-penny nail costs 20 cents. So, everything is more expensive. So we have to take care of the barracks. We have to replace the dining hall…It’s literally falling apart.
“And there’s other projects…none of them have to do with creature comforts for the detainees. They’re already living humanely and comfortably, acknowledging the fact they’re in jail.”
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Just execute them. Who is going to complain that doesn't already hate us?
irony?
'al Qaeda' the word means 'base'
We capture al Qaeda members and put them also on a base ' Guantanamo'?
Hey Piglet.
This proves your man Obama does not run America.
Wasn't closing Guantanamo detention one of his "promises"?
This will be the second time it's been refurbished.
Anyone who thinks a president runs America is a fool.
Let the inmates go on hunger strikes. It saves us the cost of feeding them.
Perhaps they should at least be charged with a crime. Maybe even convicted. I know justice is just not worth the effort for bigots, but it is the United States, you know.
Why does this crap government worry about everyone else. That these pigs have rights and all that other crap. They will murder us in a minute and I should worry about them. This stupid government worries about them and caters to them.
"Just execute them."
"Let the inmates go on hunger strikes. It saves us the cost of feeding them."
"Why don't we just chop them to pieces and use them for shark chum?"
Are you morons even aware that there are people held at Guantanamo who have committed no crime and were long ago cleared for release? I understand that the government initially claimed that only the "worst of the worst" were held there and that they were all vicious terrorists. Now it takes a certain level of gullibility to swallow that claim, but it takes a special kind of idiot to keep on insisting that everyone who is there is a terrorist despite a decade's worth of evidence that clearly shows that we knowingly sent completely innocent people there.
Justice should only be reserved for American citizens....um, @LevTolstoy2: how dare YOU call someone a moron....did YOU sacrifice 8 years of your life fighting in these God-forsaken @!$%#holes they call Afghanistan and Iraq? Do you have enough metal from IED shrapnel and bullets in your body to set off metal detectors 100 feet away? Do you suffer at night because of the American lives you couldn't save on the battlefield? If not, then shut the hell up...personally, most of these E/C's are savages worthy of death. If it were up to me, I would personally shoot each and every one of them
"Justice should only be reserved for American citizens"
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-
-Thomas Jefferson (bleeding heart liberal scumbag)
"LevTolstoy2: how dare YOU call someone a moron....did YOU sacrifice 8 years of your life fighting in these God-forsaken @!$%#holes they call Afghanistan and Iraq?"
Yep, morons. In my view, you would have to be a moron to think that your suffering somehow makes it ok to kidnap innocent people and keep them imprisoned for a decade.
Do you suffer at night because of the American lives you couldn't save on the battlefield? If not, then shut the hell up...personally, most of these E/C's are savages worthy of death. If it were up to me, I would personally shoot each and every one of them
You don't sound like a Nazi at all...
Seriously, if the word "evil" has any meaning, then you are evil. I hope that you can still be saved.
All of you should be put in Guantanamo under the same exact conditions. You don't have a clue who is in there or what they supposedly did. In fact, we already know because the regime has admitted it, that there have been journalist and other people held in that concentration camp who had nothing to do with Al Qaeda.
Every one of you should be put in Guantanamo and a nice shower system should be installed for you to use.
Once again, we allow the inmates to run the asylum.
I used to work in the infirmary of our local County Jail, whenever an inmate would become rebellious or threaten the guards he would have a slip and fall in the transport elevator. This always seemed to calm his aggression.
Our military is slowly sinking into the stink-hole known as political correctness. Being incarcerated is NOT supposed to be enjoyable, its purpose is to be a deterrent.
I'm sure these improvements have a reason, although I can't imagine what it is:
Next time anyone gets arrested for a few seeds in your car or an open liquor container, I recommend a request to be transferred to GITMO. Hell we're paying for it, we might as well be able to play a couple games of volleyball or run a few go-karts around the track.
In the meantime, of course, the sequester requires we shut down the Easter Egg hunt at the White House and release hundreds of criminals by ICE!
God Bless and help America, you may be our only real hope for any real change.
Well......
"A conspiracy to transfer them to a NYC court."
Wonder if they have been given their Miranda Rights.
Maybe sending a Muslim Cleric to the area might help.
People CW695 put their life on the line to defend ideals like Freedom of Speech LevTolstoy2. Now shut the f*ck up.(ironic much?)
Boy there seems to be a lot of people here who seemed to slip out of the time stream from a small European country circa 1938-1945 into our time.
@JimSpence.
Just like they use to do those uppity blacks in the South during the 50's and 60's right?
@Bad bob-533642
They are being held in Guantanamo Bay and obviously being held on federal charges. The federal government has a ridiculously high conviction rate. They might want to consider whether they want to be transferred from their swanky cells in Guantanamo or whether they want to wind up in a federal prison.
US citizens don't have the luxury these people have. If the government wanted to really torture them they would send them to county. They wouldn't last a day there.
"They are being held in Guantanamo Bay and obviously being held on federal charges."
No. They aren't. Most have not been charged with any crime at all. That's the issue, for crying out loud. The level of ignorance here is simply shocking.
LevTolstoy2,
Don't get too worked up, the ignorance you are seeing is willful, ie, intentional. Right wing trolling is a sport to them.
Bad bob,
"Perhaps they should at least be charged with a crime. Maybe even convicted. I know justice is just not worth the effort for bigots, but it is the United States, you know."
To eat or not to eat; that is the question. I'm not holding a gun to anyone's head preventing him from eating. Eating is a choice. If you want to live, you eat. If you don't want to live, you don't eat. It's their choice, and I don't see why we should stand in the way of their exercising it. I'm not a bigot. I'm for free choice.
Be gentle on the right on this one. They can't help it. They must act like uncaring illiterate hard-asses to live up to their reputation... and it's how they compensate for certain inadequacies.
That aside, though, the right won this one. We'll give 'em this one. OKAY!!! YOU WON!!!
Now face the f@#king music. If GITMO exists and will continue to exist it needs to be held to minimum standards regardless of who we're holding there. Be a hard-ass about it, just don't be an inhumane fool. The world is watching... and although you act like you don't care who's watching, we know, deep inside, you do.
Take the prisoners out and shoot them. Fini. No more money needed, no upgrades needed. These are terrorists who should be put to death immediately. Quit using tax payers money for nonsense.
Since they are not Consered POW's take away all the privleges that the BLEEDINGHEARTS want the to give them and treat them like their fellow county men treat the people they KIDNAP cut a few heads off and all that Maybe it will bring they A.H.'s to the peace table.. Screw up grading where they live.. they throw the ones they capture or kidnap in a dirty cell with the sloop of the country.. Think about that Americans The bleeding hearts need to see this also!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Once again, you stupid son-of-a-bitch, there were innocent people being sent there. It's been admitted to, and some are still there. So you're pronouncing we kill innocent people who had nothing to do with any case of terrorism.
I hate name-calling on these posts, because I feel like I'm dropping myself to your level, but god damn, you are ignorant.
If the pugs and cowards in congress would allow the president to preside he would close that American shame and try those he could and release those he can't try and get us out of the hostage business
We look as bad as our worst enemies because of this shameful place
Ranman -
"I hate name-calling on these posts, because I feel like I'm dropping myself to your level . . ."
Yet a review of your posts shows you don't have much problem with insults, or the constant use of foul language.
You hardly elevate the dialogue here.
Just close the place down and remove prisoners to secure prisons in U.S. to stant trial and or relocate to other countries. Do not spend anymoremoney on the prison in Cuba. Trians held in this country have been shown to be as good or better than military or elsewhere. This is only enriching contractors at the expense of all of us tax payers. Just end it.
They don't need to stand trial and waste the taxpayer money they are or should be treated just like the way their country men treat the people they kidnap... Maybe the Terriost Should Kidnap a few of the dumb bleeding hearts to turn this BS Around!!!!
Dan - I'm glad your not in charge of anything. Saying they don't have the right to stand trial is prolly the most un-american thing you can say. If they have not stood trial then they are not guilty. Its simply an accusation. I know this is hard for you comprehend with your hate filled head. But your essentially saying that anyone accused or charged with murder should just be killed. Now I will agree that holding people forever is a complete waste of tax payer money. But get the trials done and over with. With the amount of money wasted on the two wars we could have beefed up security ten fold and created american jobs. But instead were out in the desert killing people who dont even have electricity..... Fighting terrorist is like cutting down trees to keep the leaves off the ground. You cant get them all and new ones are bound to grow.....
We CAN'T end it, because the Party of NO insists that there be no funding to do anything else with these folks. DISGUSTING!
Maybe we can relocate them to the White House? There seems to be a bit of NIMBY here.
How-bout exterminating all prisoners and convert Gitmo prison camp into R&R retreat for American service personnel. AND NEXT TIME don't take prisoners!
What a ridiculous waste of money. We should bring the captives to the U.S., and try them. We should give Guantanamo back to the Cubans.
NO effin way. Cuba is too close with too much history against America. We're not that dumb.
Don't be ignorant folks, we LEASE the facility. Cuba is quite happy with this arrangement. I say we wait for barracuda season and take the "base boys" out for a swim. What could go wrong?
Gitmo has been a deep water port for many, many years. I was there in the fifties while in the Navy and later in the sixties as a civilian.
Send these prisoners back to their native land or shoot them in the head but shut down this disgusting perversion called Gitmo! Enough is Enough and time to quit playing games with people. This is not what we Americans are all about Damn-it.
Put someone on shaking down the contractors that are accused of stealing 8 billion dollars from the tax payers. (I do realize that the money was just printed by the government at will.) but still it don't look good.
Rest of the world is beginning to think the US is nothing but a ship of fools and so are the citizens..
Yes the rest of the world KNOWS America is a ship of fools.
They saw that YOU elected Obama not once, but TWICE.
Guantanamo detention is necessary.
And they already tried sending them "back".
The ones sent back continued killing Americans.
This "perversion" is only open because we are too politically "correct" to shot them.
One day, America will wake up.
We are in a war that takes tough measures to win.
Thank God someone in Washington knows this.
Viewer_Ready
This is not a war or even if it was we could not win. It's a conflict of us vs them.
There is always another them.
And that is why the ones in detention are still there.
Obama was made to see this.
It is war.
And it's only going to get worse.
.. may I add that "War is Hell"
Thanks
"This "perversion" is only open because we are too politically "correct" to shot them.... It is war."
Google "Mukhibullo Umarov."
"Umarov's story, now confirmed by the classified prison camp files, is that the three [Umarov and two companions] were living in a room in the University of Karachi library, and looking for work, when they were rounded up by Pakistani police and given to the Americans. A suicide bomb had exploded and at the time, the US were reported to be paying bounties of between $5,000 and $25,000" per al-Qaida prisoner...
He reportedly asked his interviewer: 'Why did they keep a man for two years with no reason? Why? They caught me and kept me as a prisoner of war. What war, may I ask? When was I involved? I was sleeping and they came and dragged me out of bed.'"
But I suppose it is only politically correct bleeding hearts who would have had a problem shooting this innocent man.
We need to either charge these folks, try them and sentence them to a penalty appropriate to their proven misconduct or let them go. If U.S. citizens were being held in, say, Saudi Arabia, without charges for years on end without trial, we would be up in arms. I doubt we would suggest that our citizens be summarily shot or fed to the barracudas. What sort of country are we to keep doing this? Not to mention have citizens who make some of these bizarre suggestions!?!
So much for the sequester! If the prisoners don't want to eat, that's their CHOICE. Nothing wrong with just letting them starve themselves. When/if they die, throw them to the sharks.
A ten-penny nail has nothing to do with cost. "Penny" is a measurement of size. Kelly is an idiot!
When a ten-penny nail costs 20 cents that's news. I think you missed the poiint.
in american business the hammers are FREE it's the cost of Nail that you have to watch out for. l
Just put them all into isolation without their korans.
Jesus would be so proud of you all.
I am sure he is.
That "forgive your enemies" crap just ain't working out for most of us.
alleged.
I hardly think you speak for most Americans...in fact, polls regarding most of your attitudes say you are part of pretty small minority.
The enemies of We the People are in GOP Governors' offices. They belong in Gitmo. pRick Snyder, especially.
Another blinded by the false light I see.
See what I mean?
At this point you get 1 vote (likely your own) while Yes Siree Bobby gets 5.
ask them if they would like to swim home.
Make them go to 'down south style' vacation Bible school, that'll fix em.
a quote i shall not forget: " the truth shall make you Flee"
I could have sworn obama campaigned on shutting that place down. Now he wants to spend more money to make them more comfortable. Lies, Lies and more lies. Oh yea and release some more illegal immigrants, keep printing money and put another 40 million on welfare. This country is doomed.
He would have shut it down if Congress hadn't blocked him.
He is the President. If he was any kind of a man he could have got it done. He dosen't know how to negotiate with anyone. If he dosen't get his way he pouts like a little kid. Then he make the hole country suffer with his childish tactics.
masha,
"Now he wants to spend more money to make them more comfortable."
I got the impression that most of the improvements they're talking about making are for the purpose of making the guards more comfortable; not the inmates. The article said:
"The Pentagon is considering plans for a $150 million overhaul of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- including building a new dining hall, hospital and barracks for the guards"
And:
“And there’s other projects…none of them have to do with creature comforts for the detainees. They’re already living humanely and comfortably, acknowledging the fact they’re in jail.”
That's your impression not mine
We should hope that the Dumb Bleeding hearts would agree to this????
Lies, lies, lies. It's all lies. They don't have some nice comfortable facility for these people to live in. It's bs, like when Bush showed that totally fake pic a few years ago of a hotel room with a mini fridge and LIED and said it was the prisoners' quarters at GITMO. And of course, the sheep will believe it because they don't know the truth. They don't even charge many of them and then, when they feel like it years later, sometimes they'll say,"Oh, I guess we're not chargin' ya, now get out of here". They only lease this facility because they know they don't have to follow American law and won't be prosecuted for abusing or murdering people held prisoner there. Even if they could be prosecuted, they wouldn't be. The government and military are one in the same and they are both corrupt. People get raped and tortured, but nothing is ever done. Only sometimes if the media gets ahold of the information. It's all a façade to protect the human rights violations they commit there. I find I ironic that they consider themselves the most American, yet they can't follow simple American law and procedures.
Kimberly=America-hating leftist
Numerous human rights groups have verified significant upgrades of prison conditions at Gitmo. You're watching too much MSNBC and Al Jazeera TV, which is run by the Qatari government and Muslim Brotherhood.
The "war" on terrorism will bankrupt this country yet.
Integrate the "enemy combatants" into US jails. Have segregated quarters, provide religious accommodations and proper dietary considerations.
Enough with the coddling.
Sorry Fred...bringing them here IS coddling and so are "dietary considerations". No civilian prison or military prison in the world gives "dietary considerations" to their PRISONERS.
I wonder, does this General have any investments or connections with possible contractors who might be awarded the proposed overhaul. Besides POTUS failed promise to close Gitmo, why put one more dime in any of the detainees creature comforts? Other than meeting all the needs of the soldiers guarding these animals, not one more dime.
Hunger strikes? Good for them! I say let them go to Allah thin and slim ready for their forty virgin swine. We let them practice their religion, so let them go, allow them the dignity to die a death by self starvation.
These men have been given more than they would of ever received from their own Nations if they were detainees or enemies of their State. In addition, I'm sure in many cases they have a better quality of Life than many of our own citizen prisoners serving time in state and federal penitentiaries.
Not one more dime!
Yes, this attitude towards humans is what the rest of the world sees.
Good job showing the true face of America!
Yep, not one has been stoned to death or beheaded for their religious beliefs. They're fed three meals a day, given shelter and medical care. They're allowed to practice their religion. Damn right America takes better care of their worst enemies than most of the rest of the world. Especially compared to Islamic Nations!
Spending to upgrade for the military guards is ok. Spending one dime to improve living conditions or make prisoners more comfortable is ridiculous. Terrorist should not receive any special treatment and enjoy American rights. If the unrest becomes danger then use the appropriate force including shooting if necessary.
You got proof they are terrorists? Cause if you do, you could sure as Hell help out the military by giving it to them, since they acknowledge they don't have enough evidence to convict any of the prisoners.
Even in a rigged military court.
@asygifvasi:
You are out of your freaking mind...the cases for many of these cutthroat bastards are very solid. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being one of them. Your problem is that you hate America and insist on siding with our enemies. You should move to an Islamic dictatorship, if you're not already living in one, Abdullah.
Sure, what's $150 million anyway!
Why don't we put the detainees to hard labor to rebuild their palace? I mean we put American service men to hard labor what makes these murders better than an American we jail. should save a bundle and not everything on that list needs to be done. barracks for the guards YES, dining hall for the troops YES. communication network NO beam up the files via satellite and store the records in Washington same with that cable line . Hospital and medical units for the troops Yes for detainees NO. treat them as you would in the field during war. and if the detainees want to starve themselves let them. these detainees are not there for stealing food or a car, they are there because they wanted and tried to kill Americans plain and simple.
Who cares that these Islamic terrorist dirtbags are "devastated"? They need to be devastated on a daily basis until they are dead & gone?
LOL!!! We have taken political prisoners where we lack enough evidence to convict them even in a rigged MILITARY court, and are paying 1 million dollars a year per to house them! And now we are spending more money on the facilities for the guards!
LMMFAO!!!!
Well America, you wanted an offshore Gulag, you gotta cough up the coin!!!
LOL!!!
Well asy....vasi etc. You are a American? I suspect you are a high-school dropout grumbling because you don't have a Cadillac. You say we have innocents in gitmo? Well show me!
Google "Mohammed Al-Hamiri." He was swept up by corrupt local authorities in Pakistan who wanted to exchange him for a hefty bounty from US forces. In 2009, a panel representing all the major US intelligence agencies unanimously approved him for release, indicating that he posed no threat. He's been held ever since because there has been a moratorium on releasing Yemenis.
Since the the prison was opened I've heard idiot screaming about how everyone there is a terrorist. You people don't seem to care in the least when clear evidence of innocent detainees comes out. Pay attention.
Sorry, I meant to type "idiots." There are a lot of you.
I'd gladly trade some of the people posting on this Newsvine for some of those supposed "terrorists" in Gitmo.
This country is a joke. I honestly can't wait for its upcoming collapse. It deserves it.
And I hope it collapses right on your fat head. Screw you, you loser.
Mull: 3. to make a mess or failure of.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mull