HOW DO YOU SPELL, FUTILE OR UNNECESSARY…..BOONDOGGLE!

HOW DO YOU SPELL, FUTILE OR UNNECESSARY…..BOONDOGGLE!

(Center for American Progress, Ken Gude, Anthony Boadle

(Jason Leopold, Al Jazeera, Avalon Project, Alfred DeZayas, Richard Gott)

(Olga Miranda Bravo, Reuters, Michael Strauss, Katie Peters, Ann Shoup, Frazer Chronicle)

It never ceases to amaze me, almost no matter the situation, the circumstances, or the eventual outcome, as a species we continue to play mind and word games…..it would be laughable if it weren’t so predictably, injurious with sometimes horrific impact to large segments of population. But there you have it, some smug politician or military officials deciding the fate of people.

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ain’t ours; we’ve stayed on this strip of land since the Cuba-American treaty of February and July of 1903 for God’s sake. The treaty consists of two documents, the first finalized in February of 1903, and the second finalized in July of 1903. Let’s see, simple math would tell us that the treaty is going to be 111 years old in two months, February…..and July.

The Cuban-American treaty replaced the Platt Amendment, which replaced the Teller Amendment, which was enacted in 1898. The Platt Amendment actually was an added provision annexed to the Army Appropriations Act of 1901. The United States could not annex the nation of Cuba, so they left control of it to its people.

The annual lease payment was…..and is $2,000 in U.S. gold coin, as long as the U.S. occupies and uses the area, which is 45 square miles of land and water. The Cuban-American Treaty was for the U.S. navy to re-coal its ships…..but I would assume it’s now a liquid fueling station.

GITMO MEDIA BLACKOUT

Detention facilities at Gitmo have been segregated to those prisoners who eat, and those that don’t, its hunger strike time at Guantanamo Bay and the military authorities are bound and determine to quash any type of adverse advertising that the prisoners might get by corralling those people that won’t eat into separate barracks until the consumption of food begins…..again.

Very early on I felt it was counterproductive for the United States Military to detain prisoners, war criminals, bad guys, detainees, or whatever their being called this month. I can tell you this, if I were a prisoner, I’d sing like a bird, you’d better have a ream of steno pads, cause I’m fill-in them all.

Much of what the U.S. military is doing, and has done regarding the detainees is counter to what the Geneva Convention on rules of war and prisoner’s states. I’ll not go into a verbatim account of the rules of engagement, but suffice it to say, the U.S. is opening itself up for all kinds of reprisals by our enemies.

LET’S NITTY-GRITTY GITMO

Austerity is coming, entitlements are being attacked at every turn, the U.S. Congress has shown almost unprecedented attention on ways to reduce federal spending…..and cutting the deficit, (they usually do). This myopia has pushed the country from financial crisis to financial crisis, slashed federal domestic and defense programs in ways that were purposefully designed to be unacceptable, caused real hardship for many American families, and severely damaged the U.S. economy.

I’ve said it here before, and I still feel as strongly now as when I first revealed my feelings with regards to military spending…..its out of control! Guantanamo Naval Station (a coaling station) is not worth $1.5 billion dollars, that is 1,500 million dollars.

The statistics quoted here are from our own Department of Defense, (DOD) comptroller, and are detailed and analyzed and published. In the examination of military expenses at Guantanamo, a number of surprising facts are revealed:

1. Since Congress decided to pursue austerity in 2011, it chose to spend at least $1.42 billion on the mission at Guantanamo, although it could have been accomplished for just $29.9 million.

2. The U.S. could save $3.73 billion in the next 10-year budget cycle by transferring detainees to existing mainland prisons.

3. Simply by transferring the 84 detainees already cleared to leave Guantanamo, the U.S. could save $2 billion over the next 10 years.

4. The ratio of staff to detainees is 15 times greater than that a the highest security prison in the United States, the Supermax prison at Florence, Colorado, despite the fact that the Supermax holds numerous international terrorists prosecuted in U.S. courts.

GITMO, GET IT, GET MORE

There is a waste of taxpayer dollars that goes on every day, in every way, in this instance it’s in the name of national security, and the defense of the homeland, it almost reminds me of an old proclamation…..the fatherland. Now where have I heard that before…..oh ya, Germany, back in the 1930’s and 40’s, uttered in defense of the world’s worst dictator…..Adolph Hitler…..now that’s scary  isn’t it.

Guantanamo prison, (let’s call it what it is, it’s not a detention facility…..but a prison,) its complete with concertina wire at the top of a 12 foot barbed wire fence that completely surrounds the prison part of the naval coaling base.

By the end of the Obama presidency, the facility will be fifteen years old; will have cost $4.8 billion, the cost over the past three years $1.42 billion. Get used to using the word, and amount, billion, Congress has made closing the prison practically impossible, an attitude that has cost the fall guy, the American taxpayer, needless billions! I though Obama said one of his campaign “planks” in both 2007 and 2011 was the closing of Get More.

AGAIN STAGGERING COSTS

The annual cost of keeping detainees, who have been cleared for transfer, and who are still at Get More, $196 million. The cost to keep all 164 prisoners that are incarcerated at Get More, in state-side facilities, $9.9 million…..annually. The total cost of Military Commissions since their inception during the Bush administration in 2006, $582.1 million. (To authorize trial by military commission for violations of the laws of war, and for other purposes.)

The cost for this Military Commission from 2011 to 2013: $318.9 million, nearly $160 million each for the two convictions obtained during this time. (The average cost per conviction in federal criminal court: $19,000, or about $38,000 for the two convictions that the military commission obtained.)

The annual expense of keeping 56 Yemenis designated for transfer at Guantanamo, $131 million. I read these financial figures, and I’m shocked, shocked that the cost of holding these men for years continues, with little or no “outcry” from some of these watchdog tax groups…..where in hell are these people?

I read these annual financial figures and I keep seeing the word, estimate, and I wonder how that word is even considered in an operating budget. I used to write budgets for athletic activities, and the word estimate never appeared, the word meant that the writer of the budget was clueless. The use of the word is nothing more than a dodge.

What we have here…..at Get More… is a cash grab, if one takes into account that there are approximately 300 marines to guard varying numbers of enemy combatants. With the exception of a home life, duty at the military prison would be good duty. Warm and humid in the summer, fall, winter and spring, with rain that annually totals 50 inches and a bit more.

You wanta get staggered even more, well hang on to your panty hose or jock straps friends, because prosecuting the September 11, 2001 master-minds (there are four) would have cost $200 million additionally if the trial were held in New York, as was one of the plans. That $200 million was above and beyond the regular costs of a trial, maybe as much as $75 million more.

But the court cost to try each man at Get More is $160 million each…..or a price tag of $640 million. Maybe the authorities should just take these jokers out behind the courthouse and execute them “old style.”

CONCLUSIONS

Ha…..what conclusion, come on people, whenever the U.S. Defense Department farts, the costs are always astronomical…..and Guantanamo is a full blow shart…..if you know what I mean. This military facility, this naval coaling station is no longer necessary…..it’s purpose outdated years ago.

Fidel Castro has been shown that the United States can stand up to anything that Cuba can dole out, and then some. Castro and his regime are 100% the only reason that we’re still there, and we’re using a 111 year old lease agreement that is supposed to be paid in gold…..nobody uses gold to pay a debt anymore, gold’s is being horded by old people like me.

The decisions to remain in Guantanamo Bay for any reason has come at a high cost…..and its time to cut our losses, and do the right thing…..get the hell out.

HAVE A NICE DAY!