Financially: This is how nations go bankrupt.
Morally: This is how nations go bankrupt
Reputationally : This is how nations go bankrupt
19
That prison is a deep, dark stain on our nation's honor.
13
How is the word “detainees” still applicable? They’re prisoners. Language and it’s use, matters.
14
Perhaps we can get Trump to close Guantanamo by telling him many of the Guantanamo staff are guest workers from Jamaican and Filipino. His antipathy towards non-white immigrants will accelerate the closure!
5
Why doesn't anyone ask how are we going to pay for this? You know the question you hear when we talk about single payer, or any other progressive idea.
8
Why does it cost 13 million per prisoner? That makes no sense.
8
Read the article.
6
The article explains what the costs are for and how much. Still doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Close the place and move the prisoners to the mainland.
4
Obama wanted to close Guantánamo and proceed with trials under our existing legal system which has a perfect record in convicting terrorists. But, of course, Republicans would not allow that. I guess the GOP had too many friends making money off of the status quo in Guantánamo.
26
This jail was intended to house the most dangerous criminals in the world, and in hindsight, most are just low level Taliban fighters. Another legacy from the Bush era that needs to be undone.
27
Another great idea from another Republican administration.
Hey, folks, they really just can't do any better.
19
Just another example of how inept our Government is in managing anything.
It would be great if those dollars were spent for our Veterans Medical care.
Shame on Bush, Obama and Trump!
Imagine Medicare for All. That will be another Boondoggle for sure.
5
Obama stated in his 3rd day in office that he wanted Guantanamo shut down. Obama reduced the population at Guantanamo from 126 to 45 prisoners during his 8 years in office. Obama had some prisoners scheduled to leave after his term ended. There are currently 40 prisoners there.
Republicans placed so many restrictions on where the prisoners could go that it was difficult to move any prisoners from there.
Trump wants to put more prisoners into Guantanamo.
12
Obama wanted to close Guantanamo and the Republicans in control of Congress did not allow that to happen.
I hope the Republicans accept ownership of Guantanamo.
26
Grotesque. No wonder there's income inequality. Private prisons caging children for $750/day. Profits galore!
15
Per child, no less! Somebody is getting filthy rich.
12
Many Republicans, especially those in politics, own private detention facilities of all kinds. They make money when they enact laws that increases detention!
The former Governor Rauner of Illinois owned detention facilities.
9
Given the chance, most of them would kill as many Americans as possible. We should hold trials and reciprocate.
@Dan Micklos
I have not met the prisoner and don't know if your statement is true. It's good to know that you know them well enough to have made your statement.
I do agree that they should get trials. There is a reason they're not getting trials and it's not because the US is afraid they'll be convicted.
13
Many of the Guantanamo prisoners were just gathered up as being in the area of a super bad guy. The driver who was at Guantanamo was shown never to have killed anyone nor to have created plots of violence.
6
Close Guantanamo and give it back to the rightful owners, Cubans.
We would not tolerate a foreign nation with a military base on American soil. Why are we we arrogant to think we have a right to impose ourselves on Cuba. No wonder we have a poor relationship with Cuba and so many other vulnerable nations around the world.
We invite terrorists and we invite wars, so that politicians like Trump can beat their chests and claim to be so great. Trump is weak and stupid, trying to prop himself up standing well behind our military out of harms way. Leaving us to suffer the consequences in cost, lives and insecurity.
16
The worst terrorists are the one that are financially destroying our economic by ripping off the government.
24
Can you imagine the money flowing into the hands of all the prisons guards (at the bottom) then other men (maybe women) in the admin part of the prison including the warden, then all the politicians and local folks perhaps. What a massive scam on the American tax payer. "W", Obama, and now Trump are all complicit.
1
Why Obama? He tried to close Guantanamo but Republicans put so many restrictions in place that it was difficult to move any prisoners from there.
Obama reduced the Guantanamo prison population from 126 to 45, and had scheduled more to leave after he left office.
Trump wants to put more prisoners in Guantanamo.
5
The numbers wouldn't look so bad if the last President didn't let so many loose.
What did you expect?
@hawk
@hawk You asked, "What do you expect?"
I expect you will vote for Trump and that you're not highly educated.
13
Even someone as biased as you obviously are must realize your statement makes no sense. If there are less prisoners there the cost should have gone down, no? President Obama (I assume you know him personally to address him in such a familiar way) tried to close the base completely and your party refused. One of the many times the GOP put politics against the good, and the will, of the people.
7
Guantanamo, a prison on an army base not in the USA , is typical American gut and guzzle. 40 old men costing a fortune in Cuba. This is what is called American law.
10
Sure, we can't afford universal health care for US citizens or higher education for US students, but no problem dumping Billions of $'s into the military contractors' pockets for no discernible reason at all. Just more evidence of where the US government's priorities lie...enriching a few at the expense of the taxpaying suckers.
25
Guantánamo is just another piece of the puzzle best described by President Eisenhower as the military industrial complex (MIC). It is designed, as are all parts of the MIC to be indecipherable to American taxpayers so that the military brass and civilian pols who operate MIC parts may enrich themselves with virtual imppunity because of their obscurity. The MIC comprises a goodly portion of the Swamp Trump promised to drain, and he has only enlarged it. A significant percent of the American population could be fed, clothed, housed and otherwise well provided for by just the amount of money wasted by/on our MIC. STOP IT!
17
Why does Congress continue to fund such operations? Bush started it, Obama promised to close it, and the Democrats and Republicans continue to fund it. why? Keep the Naval base, close the prison.
1
There has been a concentrated effort to delay these proceedings has long as possible in order to try and force them into federal court, preferably in NYC. Where the defense attorneys and propagandists can have an international stage to promote their flat out lies and obliterate the history of 9/11. Defense attorneys have argued that the seat in the van Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of the attacks, rides to the court in is too hard. They argued he should be allowed to wear military fatigues in court. They demanded no female guards be allowed to handle them. These are not ordinary murderers or criminals. They are global terrorists. We do not enhance or safeguard our rights by granting Constitutional rights to such terrorists who by their actions surrender all rights. Rather we imperial our rights. You don’t hijack jetliners full of civilians and fly them into occupied office towers and then demand rights. The Constitution is not a suicide pact. Nation A and Nation B agree to certain rules of law; if Nation B violates them and Nation A continues to follow them, then what impetus does Nation C have to follow them? Terrorists violate all rules of war; grant them rights anyway and we imperial our lives and render our principles meaningless. The lesson of 9/11, which so many want to deny, is they attacked us because they hate us and want us dead. Here is why they hate us: we breathe. Got that? It’s not confusing.
@Michael Burke
It is NOT A NATION, they are individuals or, at worst, "ideological brothers".
Also, they attacked us because: we interfere in their countries; we support their corrupt rulers, who rule without the concent of the people; who arrogate national wealth to themselves, and deposit it in personal accounts in America .... The list is never ending.
4
It sounds like a hotel. These men very likely lived in squalor in their previous lives. This is so wrong. Those are MY tax dollars.
3
Time to pack it up. It's long overdue. Send the proven offenders to US prisons and the rest home. They've already served almost twenty years. OK, on the mainland they'll have 'rights' that are denied them in Guantanamo. Hey America, is that so bad?
6
So much spent that should have gone to the healthcare of the cleanup crews earlier than after many died.
6
The issue: once the prisoners set foot in this country, that triggers the necessary rights of criminal procedure and due process. By keeping them in Cuba, there is no need for any of the rights granted to persons accused of any crime. Therefore, they can languish in secret and have trials set for years from now.
2
Take a small portion of that money, a million or two per prisoner. Set up a debit card for them. Release them into their home countries with the stipulation that they will be monitored by Interpol and must report to US embassy monthly as a parole condition. If they do not comply, cut off the funds.
3
So why has it taken so long for all this to come out? And since it is out, what will be done about it? Why can't they ship these 40 overseas like the rest for repatriation or is it because this is such a lucrative cash cow for favored recipients?
1
The high cost of this operation creates a huge profit for those reaping the rewards to keep everything as is, or if possible, find ways to increase the cost to the taxpayer while padding their profits.
3
I am absolutely horrified that so much money and so much personal Is thrown out on 40 prisoners. They could be taken to the US as special prisoners and tried. If they are guilty they get Life.without parole. Eventally partial terms without parole. The rest, if there any, sent home. Obviously the government would pay attention so they don't return.
This Money could be used to improve educational programs in US prisons preparimg American prisoners for useful carriers.
2
Follow the money. Who is benefiting from keeping these prisoners at Guantánamo?
Answer: Not the US taxpayers.
9
A 100-member medical team! And they bring "special medical teams to the island at a cost the military declined to disclose"?
8
Sounds like the costs are not related to the prisoners, but instead a boondoggle where the 'staff' are enjoying a vacation-like setting that they have built up over the last 18 years. Time to turn it back to a military base without the glamour and glitz that have been put into their budget. They have to spend that budget or lose it.
19
The reason the prisoners were sent there and kept there is because it was believed to be beyond the reach of U.S. law. If they were brought to the actual United States they'd have rights and would have to be tried and convicted, or released.
Courts have upheld that.
32
@Shaun Eli Breidbart
And that's bad because? @ $13M per? Really?
3
Guantanamo--the place most Americans know as a place where prisoner torture is condoned.
Flying in an MRI to scan bodies for effects of torture verifies this.
Soldiers, commanders and contractors have it easy there. The biggest problem Gitmo faces with its aging 40 prisoners is that of their possible martyrdom. So it behooves the U.S. to keep them alive.
But do these 40 prisoners justify maintaining a full-service naval base at a cost of $540 million per year? No.
This is an excellent example of how the military-industrial complex jacks up it's prices, while taxpayers are left footing the bill. Contractors take advantage of the U.S. governent's "deep pockets", as well as the military itself. No one stops them.
These 40 prisoners can be securely housed in the U.S., without 45 guards each. Gitmo can be closed...its illegitimate purposes long-finished.
There are good contractors who will do good work without robbing taxpayers. As for military spending, that henhouse is not even being guarded.
40
@LilouThey can be securely housed in the US but they cannot be tortured.
3
This is an excellent, in-depth expose' of the outrageous costs of this installation.
I'm surprised, however, that the article doesn't touch upon the reason that Bush chose Guantanamo in the first place: being offshore, it is not subject to the protections, however flimsy they may be in actual practice, of our justice system.
Holding these inmates indefinitely at Guantanamo, without trial, has been called a major breach of human rights by Amnesty International.
Because it's offshore, prisoners are not subject to the due process guaranteed by the Constitution's Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Then there's the waterboarding.
The outrageous cost of this flagrant violation of human rights and American values just adds insult to injury.
33
@Bohemian Sarah
Thank you for sharing your thoughts... it's mindboggling and incredibly sad to see just how far our country has removed itself from our founding principles and ideals. If my school district had just a fraction of what's being spent on Guantanamo, oh boy what a dream that would be! The desktop in my classroom is old, very old, probably 10 years or so not to mention the projector. And last year alone, our district budget was reduced by 10 million in budget cuts! Where do our nation's priorities lie? it begs the question...
6
@Bohemian Sarah The article did cover the reasons Guantanamo was established by Bush to avoid the constitutional rights of the accused.
4
Thank you for this eye opener article. The special services to required to house, feed, and entertain war criminals adds to the government's list of idiotic expenditures. It should end immediately with the transport and placement of prisoners to maximum security prisons in the U.S. And why has it taken twenty years to schedule trials for these people? Ridiculous waste of our tax dollars. Has anyone noticed that we have hungry US citizens?
21
Remember the President that promised to close it immediately upon being elected and then didn’t do anything for eight years?
Another Democrat campaign promise.
Granted, not quite the whoppers the socialists are now spouting, but instructive.
2
@Ken nope, i don't remember, what about the guy in office now - you know, the one who wants to combat waste and undo all his predecessors accomplishments? Why isn't this closed or is he just as bad? Another Republican case of shifting the blame. One would think this could have been an easy win. If hes goinf t take the credit for the economy he didn't start he should take the heat for the base he didn't close.
27
@Ken In fact, Obama issued an executive order in 2009 to plan the closing of Guantanamo, but, when he tried to move prisoners to the US for trial, Congress prevented him from doing so.
5
@Ken
That was talked about, but hysteria was whipped up about whether any state would allow terrorists in even a supermax prison meant that Gitmo would be kept for them when expatriating was not an option.
4
And do not forget, free health care for the prisoners is include in the price.
12
It’s a travesty- emblematic of the waste and abuse in Washington- specifically the Dept if Defense, which consumes $800 billion of taxpayer dollars annually. Close the base - bring those prisoners to the mainland in a maximum security facility.
40
@JMS private or public facility?
1
What is really sad, beyond the meat of this column and the astounding facts it contains is that it almost pales or gets lost within the daily crises that this administration produces daily and sometimes hourly.
That being said, there are two options that should have been examined and promoted when the inmates of Guantanamo were first imprisoned....processing and trial either under our regular court system (as has been done with other terrorists) or trial and detention by the International Crimes Court in The Hague, Netherlands -- which was created for jurisdiction over terrorists. Under no circumstances should the determination of justice for these prisoners be in the purview of the military.
It is further disgusting that almost 20 years after 9/11, these men languish in Cuba, or all places, and money that could feed and educate our children is spent on detaining them.
The world is upside down and the sky is falling.
50
@Mountain Dragonfly
Well stated! you hit the nail on the head.
2
Wow. That’s a better ratio of health care workers to recipients than some Americans have. And this is Cuba, not Iraq....no one can grow fruits and vegetables on the base? Bananas, pineapples, mangoes, avocados...sometimes we just don’t use common sense.
13
@Robin Because the military does not have "farmer" in its byzantine structure of jobs.
4
@Robin Don't forget coconut water!
Certainly too good for any of this administration or family!
3
If you got the goods on someone you prosecute them. That means a trial. Holding people in prison because they are "bad dudes" doesn't seem to fit into our values. The Constitution does not designate that we citizens and others get treated differently. We are selling out our values to keep people on ice because we think that they are bad. I wonder if we are creating terrorists by our treatment of prisoners.
55
@David - twenty years ago your statement that "it doesn't seem to fit into our values" would resonate. In 2019 it sounds like the punchline to a bad joke.
1
Only in the U.S. could terrorists or maybe terrorists create a jobs-for-life program for thousands of military and civilian/medical contractors at taxpayer expense. Why couldn't these prisoners go to a regular maximum security prison at $20,000 a year? Seems to be that under the Trump administration we excel at creating prisons and not at creating safety.
65
@Bar tennant - They were held under Obama because the Republican Congress refused to support Obama's plan to close Guantanamo saying the prisoners were too dangerous and American prisons couldn't hold them. The Republicans still believe the prisoners have "super powers" although they are all aging.
7
@Dr. Conde Trump did not create Guantanamo or it's budget and staffing levels. This has been going on for 18 years, and the largest expenditures happened before Trump took office. It happened while Obama was president. But, it's not Obama's 'fault' either given the size of the inefficient military and it's budgeting.
2
@Ma actually the detention facility and the Military Commissions and the war in Iraq were created by George Bush. And arguably we could look at our post-world War 2 policies or even earlier than that to see the roots of our present conditions.
3