Four
hundred air miles from Miami, Florida is the oldest overseas U.S. Naval base in
a country with which U.S. does not maintain diplomatic relations, Cuba. In
1903, U.S. leased 45 square miles of land and water at Guantanamo Bay for use
as a coaling station and later as a refueling station.
The
treaty was ratified and signed by both governments in Havana in December 1903
for $2,000 gold coins per year. In 1934, the lease was renewed by granting Cuba
and its trading partners free access through the bay and the payment of $4,085
in actual dollars, not gold. To end the lease, both U.S. and Cuba must agree or
the U.S. must abandon the base property.
Relations
remained stable until the Cuban revolution in the late 1950’s. Since January 1,
1959, the territory outside the base remains off-limits to civilians and U.S. service
members. Official diplomatic relations with Cuba were cut off by President
Eisenhower in January1961. Some Cubans sought refuge on the base. Relations
have been strained with the Castro government.
Of
the original 380 who were allowed to stay and work on the base, there are 30
remaining. Of the 3,500 commuters in 1959 who were allowed to leave communist
Cuba each morning and return in the evening through the North East Gate, only
two remain today. They take retirement checks each month to the Cubans who
retired from the Naval Station.
Thousands
of Haitian refugees were processed through the Guantanamo base over the years
during the violent coup of 1991 and the earthquake in 2010. Asylum seekers who make it across the border
by land or intercepted at sea by Coast Guard vessels live temporarily in
migrant facilities on base until are processed to third-party countries in
Latin America.
The
Naval Station has a self-sufficient base, which houses 5,337 people, mostly
civilians and 2,103 military. A desalination plant produces 1.2 million gallons
of water per day and the power plant 350,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per
day.
The
Naval Station is separated by Guantanamo Bay and it can be accessed by AMC
Rotator flights that land on the Leeward side of the base. The bay can be
crossed by utility boat and ferry to the Windward side of the base where the
prison is located.
In
the wake of 9/11, the base started to incarcerate individuals captured by the
U.S. military during execution of the War on Terror. The first prisoners arrived
at Guantanamo Bay on January 11, 2002.
The
“enemy combatants,” a term coined by the Bush administration, have the legal
status of unlawful combatants without protections under the Geneva Conventions.
After legal fighting, the DOJ dropped in March 2009 the term “enemy combatant”
from its legal lexicon and “established a new criterion for detention that did
not rely on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed by Congress
in September 2001.”
President
Obama called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay detention facility and signed an
Executive Order that called for closure by January 22, 2010. Many detainees
were released to countries like Spain, France, Austria, Tunisia, Portugal,
Ireland, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Albania, Latvia, Switzerland, Belgium,
Afghanistan, Yemen, and Slovakia.
Controversy
over the proper venue to try such individuals captured on the battlefield
dragged on. The DOJ wanted the detainees tried in federal court in New York.
Congress halted plans to close Guantanamo Bay by giving final approval to a defense-spending
bill, which blocked detainees from being transferred to the U.S. President Obama signed the Ike Skelton
National Defense Authorization Act of 2011, which banned the use of funds to
transfer Guantanamo detainees into the U.S.
Holder
announced that defendants would be tried before a military commission, thus
ending in April 2011 Obama’s plan to try the accused 9/11 conspirators in
federal courts.
On
its tenth anniversary, Guantanamo Bay still houses 171 detainees down from 550
in 2005 and 779 in 2002. The detainees started a hunger strike on January 11,
2012, inspired by U.S. liberal activists with bleeding hearts for terrorists
and criminals. Deutsche Welled interviewed the UK based legal group Reprieve,
representing 15 detainees, about the “lack of hope that now pervades the camp.”
These
are no boy scouts, they range from bomb makers, bridge bombers, terrorist
trainers, terrorist financiers, recruiters and facilitators, high value
detainees who were Osama Bin Laden’s guards, and at least five who are directly
tied to the 9/11 attacks. Some detainees could have been released but no
country wanted them. Some who had been released, committed new terrorist acts
or returned to the battlefield. According to the Joint Task Force Guantanamo,
“detainee assaults on the guard force occur on a regular basis.”
According
to the ACLU, our government spends $70 million annually to house the 89
prisoners who have been cleared for release. The Bush administration has
released 532 prisoners while the Obama administration only 68. “Six prisoners
died in custody by apparent suicide, one as a result of a heart attack, and one
died of cancer.” Military commissions at
Gitmo spent $12 million in 2011. (ACLU)
Detainee
programs include a social program (recreation, sports, prayers, family phone
calls, mail), intellectual stimulation program (books, magazines, puzzles,
newspapers, handheld electronic games, movies, satellite television), an
instructional program (literacy, second language classes, art classes, computer
classes, personal finance and business), a library with more than 25,000
titles, newspapers and magazines in 15 different languages, video games, DVDs,
CDs, and a full-time librarian.
Living
conditions exceed what is required by the Geneva Convention: Three meals a day
that meet cultural dietary conditions and special diets, shelter, clothing,
personal hygiene items, prayer beads, rugs, copies of the Quran in the native
language of people from 40 countries, and mail. Detainees are visited by the
Red Cross quarterly.
The
most interesting aspect of the camp is health care. Medical services are
available to detainees around the clock, seven days a week. Prisoners are
treated in a dedicated medical facility with state-of-the-art equipment and
expert medical staff of more than 100 people. There are 20 inpatient beds,
physical therapy, pharmacy, radiology, and a single-bed operating room.
Intensive care is offered at the Naval Station hospital and specialists can be
flown in. A separate facility offers mental health care. Immunizations are
given to detainees because none was available in their home countries.
Prosthetic limbs are provided and cancerous tumors removed.
As
you contemplate the coming rationing of health care in Obamacare, consider
Guantanamo care: there is one medical staff for every two detainees and one
primary care provider for approximately 45 detainees. The U.S. national average
is one primary care provider for every 880 citizens.
As
you wait eight hours to see an emergency room doctor, weeks to see a general
practitioner, or six months to get an appointment with a specialist, examine
Guantanamo Care: 129,000 meds dispensed annually; 4,650 sick call visits; 3,600
provider appointments; TB screenings conducted via the most accurate method
available; colon cancer screening; 10 colonoscopies; 370 annual dental
procedures; 470 radiology and physical therapy services; numerous consultations
in cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology, radiology, urology, dermatology,
audiology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, optometry, podiatry, and pulmonology. (Joint
Task Force Guantanamo)
Can
we afford to keep Guantanamo open? Can we afford to close it? Based on the
valuable information obtained from various detainees, details that saved
innumerable lives, the nature of the dangerous individuals, and the cost
associated with Gitmo’s maintenance, the questions seem difficult to answer.
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