Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Pentagon wants to build permanent prison at Guantanamo

It does not look like these new troops will be reserve officers like those being replaced.

This comes at a time when China and Cuba edge even closer and an aging Castro makes it even more imperative to be able to intervene within hours of his death to prevent his accomplices from cementing their hold on power. Near Haiti close to Santiago in the eastern end of Cuba the Chinese already operate one of two listening posts on the island. China also has peacekeepers next door in Haiti.
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-Am

Pentagon wants to build permanent prison at Guantanamo

MIAMI (AFP) Dec 09, 2004
The Pentagon has proposed building a permanent prison at the US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, and the army is working on creating a permanent unit of troops to watch over detainees, a base spokesman told AFP.

The spokesman responded to a report Thursday in The Miami Herald that said the Pentagon was proposing building a permanent 200-cell concrete jail to replace temporary facilities housing about 550 prisoners, at a cost of some 25 million dollars.

Leon Sumpter, spokesman for the base, said: "it's a proposal ... No contract has been given" to build the so-called Camp 6.

The daily also cited an undated memo in which the army asked Congress for funding to set up a 324-soldier unit to watch over detainees at the camp, replacing those who do the job now, most of whom are reserve officers.

"This action is part of a systematic process to enhance Army's capabilities required to defend the nation's interests at home and abroad," the memo says, according to the daily.

Army colonel David Williams of the Southern Command told the paper the 324 soldiers have not been put on the security posting, but that a team is already being trained at the base to take over the guard operations early next year.

Sumpter said of the unit that the "the plan is to hopefully have it by March", with the custody force expected to be stationed "definitely longer than a year."

In Miami, Southern Command spokesman Steve Lucas said that it had long been understood that installing a detention center at the base "was a long-term commitment to support the war on terrorism."

The United States has said Al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects are "enemy combatants" and not prisoners of war because they are not fighting for a state which has formally declared war.

The US Supreme Court ruled in June that civilian courts have jurisdiction over the detainees.
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/041209202227.3lbwod5t.html

The Bush administration is trying to utilize a lawless space (the Guantanamo US military base has been deprived of Cuban jurisdiction and legislation) to assert its national interests. This cannot be tolerated.

The very place of the imprisonment, which the U.S. is using without any judicial foundation or supranational settlement, is of controversial status: the US military base is located in the territory of Cuba. Since the so-called "Platt-Amendment" of 1903, which has been forced upon the Cuban government, the stationing of U.S. troops at Guantanamo can only be ended through bilateral consent. This relic of an overt imperialist era is not accepted by the current Cuban government and it violates principles of international law.

Furthermore, Guantanamo is located in a country that the U.S. is attacking with legal, illegal and criminal means, in an effort to disturb its autonomous development. Despite all security measures by the U.S. military an escape of some of the prisoners cannot be ruled out. Whoever might be able to escape, would escape into a foreign territory, and into a country that the U.S. has been trying to overthrow for more than 40 years. The risk would thus be transferred to an "enemy country", which in case of a crisis would be enormously threatened by U.S. actions. Examples in US history like the "Gulf of Tonkin incident" or CIA activities in Latin America show what this could mean. Such a dangerous situation, possibly arranged by the Bush administration, cannot be accepted.
http://www.nlg.org/cuba/gremanintlaw.htm




Reference:

China and Cuba edge even closer
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He did not mince his words, arguing that the United States must be prepared to intervene within hours of Castro's death to prevent his compinches — his accomplices — from cementing their hold on power.
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A new committee headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell to prepare the United States for a post-Castro Cuba is likely to recommend additional initiatives by May that officials said aim to "hasten transition" to a democratic society.

"Everything is on the table" except for military action, said a State Department official who asked to remain anonymous. "We're thinking right now about ways that we can hasten transition. And that means helping the people and not the regime. Or even helping the people and hurting the regime."
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