Robert Burns, AP Military Writer, reports, in the last sentence of an article deceptively titled " Joint Chiefs chairman: Close Guantanamo" that far from closing, Guantanamo will be adding a detention center to be completed by June.
This is another offshore detention center for a select group of people. Once again, US soil is shunned. This one "would be used in the event of a sudden, major influx of refugees in the area. Initially the camp will be designed to hold 10,000 refugees and is scheduled to be finished by June." ("Joint Chiefs Chairman: Close Guantanamo", Robert Burns, AP Military Writer, Jan 14, 2008)
I would suggest that those concerned write or call those who aren’t, or who are because they may be profiting by it – the US Congress and naturally the White House -- and demand answers to the following questions so that you can be studiously ignored.
Full story at: http://news.yahoo.com/...
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Mon Jan 14, 6:08 PM ET
Congratulations!! Your Guantanamo Just Doubled!!
by eerilyprescient
An AP news story reveals Americans have paid to build a "refugee camp" in Guantanamo –
- To what "area" does this refer? Guantanamo? The US? The Caribbean? South America?
- How are "refugees" assigned to Guantanamo as opposed to facilities on US soil? Can any American citizens or legal residents be designated refugees? Will Iraqi or other Mideast "refugees" be kept there?
- If "refugees" arrive on US soil, will they have any rights once sent to Guantanamo? If they arrive at Guantanamo first, will US law or any other law at all apply to them? Is the contractor running the "camp" subject to all US laws pertaining to treatment of "refugees"?
- Is a "sudden, major influx of refugees" to the defined area actually foreseen in the immediate future?
- If a "sudden, major influx of refugees" is expected, on what evidence or plan is this expectation based?
- Where are they expected to come from? Is the US going to ship "refugees" out of other countries? What are they expected to be fleeing? Repression? Sudden poverty? Natural or manmade disasters? War?
- How was the number of "refugees" – "initially 10,000" -- calculated? Is it expected to rise?
- If no such "sudden, major influx of refugees" is foreseen, why are we spending money on this?
- Who profits? What corporation has the no-bid contract for building and managing this "new refugee camp"? What are the tax arrangements on their offshore profits?
- What is the price for this "refugee camp" -- how much has it cost us so far and what are projected costs?
- Is there any guarantee whatsoever that this will never ever be used to imprison American citizens or legal residents, including those in Federal or State prisons?
- If there is no such guarantee, will Americans imprisoned there be stripped of rights they'd have if they were on US soil?
- Will this "refugee camp" serve some other purpose or merely stand empty if the "sudden, major influx of refugees" does not materialize and the camp is not used to imprison Americans?
These questions must be answered. Or is this some other thing just too complex for Americans to understand? Or something too complex for lawmakers to understand?
If they cannot be answered, particularly in regard to the imprisonment of legal residents and American citizens outside of America, beyond the reach of American rights and laws, this place should be razed to the ground before the temptation to turn it to some other use becomes too great, endangering our rights, our freedom and, of course, especially, our tax money.
That temptation deadline is June, when it is expected to be complete.
Beijing, January 2008