U.S. Congress Kills Plans To Expand U.S. Prisons So They Can House Terrorist Suspects Now Held In Guantánamo Bay

(Reuters: Brennan Liynsle)

Expansion Of Prisons To House Gitmo Detainees Rejected In House -- The Hill

The House on Tuesday evening defeated a Democratic attempt to let the government spend money to expand U.S. prisons so they can house terrorist suspects now held in Guantánamo Bay.

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) proposed an amendment to the military construction spending bill for 2014 that would kill language prohibiting funds from being used to expand U.S. prisons for this purpose.

Language in the bill, H.R. 2216, holds that "none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Defense in this Act may be used to construct, renovate, or expand any facility in the United States, its territories, or possessions to house any individual detained at United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the purposes of detention or imprisonment in the custody or under the control of the Department of Defense."

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My Comment: One more reason why I know that Gitmo's detainees are not going to be leaving their prison cells in Guantanamo to the U.S. mainland in the foreseeable future.

President Obama Commits To Closing Guantanamo Prison

Obama Announces Steps Toward Guantanamo Closure -- CBS News

President Obama outlined specific actions he plans to take to reduce the prisoner population at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and move it toward closure, a goal stated in his 2008 campaign, when he took office in 2009, and in a news conference three weeks ago.

In a comprehensive counterterrorism speech Thursday at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., Mr. Obama said, "There is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened."

At this point in his remarks, the audience applauded audibly, and the president was interrupted by a heckler demanding the closure of Guantanamo "today."

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More News On President Obama's Counterterrorism Speech Pertaining To Guantanamo

Obama Renews Pledge to Close Guantanamo Prison -- Voice of America
Obama renews push to close Guantánamo military prison -- Christian Science Monitor
Obama lifts ban on Guantánamo transfers to Yemen -- Miami Herald/AP
Factbox: Obama outlines steps toward closing Guantanamo prison -- Reuters
Obama: Guantanamo Policies Must Change -- SKY News
Yemen welcomes US decision on Guantanamo prisoner transfers -- AFP
Yemen Applauds Obama’s Gitmo Decision -- Wall Street Journal
All In on Gitmo: Obama Returns to Fight for a Shutdown -- Daniel Klaidman, Daily Beast
Obama renews push to close Guantanamo, but hurdles are just as high as before -- Washington Post
How Obama plans to (finally) close Guantanamo -- Jon Terbush, The Week
Gitmo: Parsing what the president actually said -- Katherine Guthrie, MSNBC
Forever Gitmo: How Obama will try, and likely fail, to close Guantanamo -- Jean MacKenzie, Global Post
Milestones for Guantanamo Bay detention center -- Seattle Times/AP

Guards Face Harsh Treatment At Gitmo (Video)

From CNN: CNN's Chris Lawrence gets an exclusive look at the harsh conditions the guards at Guantanamo Bay deal with everyday.    

My Comment:: A side of how the detainees behave that is rarely reported to the public.    

Update: As predicted .... opponents of Guantanamo are claiming that this is propaganda.

The Cost In Keeping One Guantanamo Prisoner

Robert Johnson/Business Insider

Guantanamo Bay Is Spectacularly Expensive -- Business Insider

In a speech on this week, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his intention to close down Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

"We've got to close Guantanamo," Obama said at a highly publicized press conference, before taking a moral stance. "The idea that we would still maintain forever a group of individuals that have not been tried — that needs to stop."

However, there's an even more basic factor: the numbers.

In a new Reuters report, the economics of the camp are laid out.

It's pretty ugly — as the U.S. and Cuba don't have good relations, almost everything at the camp has to be specially imported to the site. Here are some unsettling figures:

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My Comment: I am surprised by these figures .... I thought it was more.

Unclassified Document Provides A Timeline On The Growing Guantanamo Hunger Strike

Unclassified Document Shows How The Guantanamo Hunger Strike Has Grown Worse And Worse -- Business Insider

The hunger strike and Guantanamo Bay is getting serious.

A unsettling account of how it has grown is seen in the following document released by public affairs office at Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay, Cuba the morning of May 1:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Caveats: NONE

As of Wednesday, May 1, 2013, we have a detainee population of 166, and we currently have 100 detainees tracked as hunger strikers, with 23 receiving enteral feeds (feeding tubes). Four detainees receiving enteral feeds are being observed in the detainee hospital. The detainees in the hospital do not currently have any life-threatening conditions.

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My Comment: Max Boot's recent commentary .... What Obama Should Have Said About the Gitmo Hunger Strikes .... is a very appealing response to the hunger strikers and their supporters.

President Obama Vows To Close Guantanamo Prison (Again)

Obama Vows New Push To Close Guantanamo Detention Camp -- Reuters

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama vowed on Tuesday to make a new push to close the Guantanamo detention center, where about 100 inmates are on hunger strike, saying it was damaging to U.S. interests to keep holding prisoners there in legal limbo.

Human rights groups have long been critical of the 12-year-old camp for foreign terrorism suspects, and their concern has intensified in recent weeks. Some of those on hunger strike are being force-fed at the camp at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.

Obama, who repeatedly vowed to close the camp, which now holds 166 detainees, when he was campaigning for a first term and when he first took office in 2009, said he would re-engage with lawmakers to find a way to shut the facility and make good on an unkept promise.

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More News On President Obama's Vow To Close Guantanamo Prison

Obama vows to try to close Gitmo again -- Washington Post
Obama to Seek Closing Amid Hunger Strike at Guantánamo -- New York Times
Obama pledges to 're-engage' on Gitmo amid hunger strike -- NBC
Obama promises (again) to close down Guantanamo Bay -- National Post/Bloomberg
Guantánamo Bay: Obama Reiterates Need To Close Detention Center -- FOX News
Barack Obama says Guantanamo Bay prison must close -- BBC
Obama pledges renewed push on Gitmo -- Politico
Obama: We need to close Guantanamo Bay -- USA Today
Obama: Guantánamo prison 'not in the best interests of the American people' -- The Guardian
Obama renews pledge to close Guantanamo -- ABC News (Australia)

My Comment: I mentioned at the beginning of his first term (January 2009) that President Obama's vow to close Guanatanmo prison in 100 days was not realistic .... and I will say the same thing again today. The problem with many of these inmates is that while some can probably be repatriated to their country of origin .... many cannot. The inmates that cannot be released are simply too dangerous .... but because of how they were captured and interrogated .... doubts that they can be convicted in a standard U.S. court of law are legitimate .... the evidence will probably be thrown out.

I have always said that the best way to handle these detainees is through a military court .... but this White House has made it abundantly clear that this is not their preferred option. Hence .... we are now in that no-mans land of legal limbo .... and dangerous inmates who are now realizing that they are not going to be released.

Guantanamo Hunger Strike Continues

Robert Johnson/Business Insider

Despair Drives Guantánamo Detainees to Revolt -- New York Times

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — In the early afternoon quiet, guards in camouflage fatigues walked the two-tiered cellblocks of Camp Six, where the most cooperative of the 166 terrorism suspects held in the military prison here are housed. From a darkened control room, other guards watched banks of surveillance monitors showing prisoners in white clothing — pacing, sleeping or reading — in their cells.

But the relative calm on display to visiting reporters last week was deceiving. Days earlier, guards had raided Camp Six and locked down protesting prisoners who had blocked security cameras, forbidding them to congregate in a communal area. A hunger strike is now in its third month, with 93 prisoners considered to be participating — more than half the inmates and twice the number before the raid.

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More News On Guantanamo Prison

Guantanamo Prison Hunger Strike Notches up to 94 -- ABC News/AP
Guantanamo Bay Hunger Strike Involves 94 Detainees, Military Says -- Huffington Post
Guantanamo: Increasing pressure to transfer detainees who’ve been cleared -- MSNBC
Senator Urges Transfer of Guantánamo Detainees to Yemen Amid Revolt -- New York Times
Feinstein urges U.S. to resume Guantánamo transfers; hunger strike up to 94 -- Miami Herald
Kafka at Gitmo: Why 86 prisoners are cleared for release but might never get it -- Max Fisher, Washington Post
INSIDE GITMO: An Exclusive Tour Of The Most Notorious Prison On Earth -- Business Insider

Guantanamo's Hunger Strike Is Escalating

Scores On Hunger Strike At Guantanamo Jail -- Al Jazeera

Some 84 of the 166 prisoners at the prison camp have joined the hunger strikers, with 16 being force-fed.

More than half of the men held at the Guantanamo detention camp have joined an escalating hunger strike to protest their open-ended detention, a camp spokesperson has said.

The US military counted 84 of the 166 prisoners as hunger strikers by Monday, and was force-feeding 16 of them liquid meals through tubes inserted in their noses and down into their stomachs.

Six were hospitalised for observation, said Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House, a spokesperson for the detention operation at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in southeastern Cuba.

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More News On Guantanamo's Prison Hunger Strike

US military says 84 prisoners on hunger strike at Guantanamo to protest confinement -- Washington Post/AP
Half Of Guantanamo Detainees Now On Hunger Strike -- NPR
Hunger-striking Guantanamo prisoners near death -- CNN
More Than Half of Guantanamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike -- Voice of America
Gitmo by the Numbers -- PBS
What Happens on a Hunger Strike? -- Live Science

Guantanamo Bay Inmates Continue Hunger Strike After Saturday's Riot

Violence Hits Guantanamo Bay As Inmates Continue Hunger Strike -- NPR

Inmates fought guards at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after military authorities decided to end communal housing in one of the prison's camps, and instead put prisoners in individual cells. At least one detainee was reportedly injured by a rubber bullet in the clash Saturday.

The violence began after the facility's commander ordered the move Saturday morning. According to the U.S. Southern Command, the decision was made after detainees covered windows and surveillance cameras, limiting guards' ability to monitor them at all times.

The forced transfer was also used as an opportunity to evaluate the health of the prisoners — dozens of them are on a hunger strike.

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My Comment: According to the Miami Herald .... when their reporters visited the prison, they observed that the guards "had lost a measure of control" over the inmates.. Losing control in such a facility is a prescription for a disaster. Fortunately no one was injured in this disturbance .... but I doubt that this luck can hold. Many of these inmates are extremely dangerous .... and for those who have nothing to lose .... they can be capable of doing anything.

Most Guantanamo Detainees Are Now On A Hunger Strike

Guantanamo Hunger Strike Numbers Soar Says Prisoner -- Euronews

A hunger strike at the US prison camp at Guantanamo has grown to include 130 of the 166 inmates, according to the lawyer for one of the prisoners.

Clive Stafford Smith says he has been told by his client Shaker Aamer that camp officials have been trying to break the hunger strike without success.

The US Defense Department said just under 40 prisoners are refusing food and 11 are being force fed after the latest hunger strike started seven weeks ago.

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Update: Gitmo hunger strike grows; extent in dispute -- Navy Times/AP

My Comment: A good number of these prisoners are now realizing that they are probably going to stay in prison for the rest of their lives .... an unsatisfactory situation especially in view of the fact that some of these detainees probably do not belong in Guantanamo in the first place.

Hunger Strike At Guantanamo Prison Continues

Discarding food at Guantanamo Bay. Carol Rosenberg/Miami Herald

At Guantánamo, Captives, War On Terror Devolves Into Fight Over Food -- McClatchy News

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — It’s lunchtime on the communal cellblocks for cooperative captives, and detainees dressed in tan and white camp uniforms are steadfastly refusing the guards’ offer to wheel in food carts.

Only if a prisoner pulls shut a gate to a chute called a sally port can a soldier lock it remotely and send in the meals. And one by one, every block but Delta Block refuses. Some captives call out that they don’t want the food.

Over at Charlie Block, an angular looking detainee is stubbornly ignoring his guards, sitting at an empty, stainless-steel picnic table, watching footage from Mecca on Saudi TV.

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More News On The Growing Hunger Strike At Guantanamo Prison

Lawyers alarmed as Guantanamo hunger strike grows -- Sacramento Bee/AP
Guantanamo Hunger Strike Grows In Response To Government's Failure To Close Prison, Says General -- Huffington Post/Reuters
After Decade Of Detention, Guantanamo Prisoners Go On Hunger Strike -- NPR
Guantanamo hunger strike reflects growing despair -- Business Recorder
Guantanamo Bay Hunger Strike Worsens As Hopes For Prison's Closing Fade -- Rolling Stone
Hunger strike born of Gitmo prisoners’ frustration over failure to close facility -- RT
Is Starving Themselves the Only Way Guantanamo Inmates Can Get Attention? -- Anna Bliss, Policymic
Photo Gallery: Guantánamo hunger strike -- Miami Herald

Guantanamo Bay Detainees’ Growing Frustrated Over Their Imprisonment

A guard walks through a cellblock inside Camp V, a prison used to house detainees at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base.(Reuters / Bob Strong)

Guantanamo Bay Detainees’ Frustrations Simmering, Lawyers And Others Say -- Washington Post

Tensions between detainees and the military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have spiked in recent weeks, with a hunger strike at one of the camps reflecting growing despair that the Obama administration has abandoned efforts to repatriate prisoners cleared for release, according to defense lawyers and other people with access to information about detention operations.

A majority of the 166 detainees remaining at Guantanamo Bay are housed in Camp 6, a facility that until recently held men the military deemed “compliant.” But the camp, where cell doors are left open so detainees can live communally, has been at the center of a series of escalating protests since January.

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Update #1: Gitmo hunger strike downplayed by U.S. -- UPI
Update #2: US admits Gitmo hunger strike spreading -- RT

My Comment: I guess it is dawning on many of these detainees that most of them are probably going to be in prison for the rest of their lives.

Rubber Bullets Fired At Guantanamo Bay Detainees During Disturbance

JTF Gitmo

Navy Confirms Rubber Bullets Fired At Guantanamo Bay Amid Allegations Of Widespread Inmate Protests Who Liken Conditions To The 'Darkest Days Under Bush' -- Daily Mail

Defense lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees claim that inmates at the high security facility are starving themselves to death, refusing to sleep in their cells and have been engaged for weeks in widespread protests.

Attorneys for the terror detainees allege that guards at the prison camp on the island of Cuba 'desecrated' a Quaran, which sparked February's hunger protest and claim that conditions have deteriorated to the 'darkest days under Bush'

The alleged troubles comes as U.S. military officials confirmed on Thursday that a guard at the U.S. owned facility fired a 'non-lethal' plastic bullet round to disperse prisoners, hitting an inmate - after one of them tried to climb a fence and others threw rocks at one guard tower.

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More News On The Unrest In Guantanamo Bay Prison

'Non-lethal round' fired at Gitmo detainees in soccer field incident, US military confirms -- NBC
Guantanamo Guards Forced To Fire Rubber Bullets At Inmates For The First Time -- Business Insider
Guard Shoots Gitmo Detainee With ‘Rubber Bullet’ To Quell Disturbance -- CBS/AP
Pentagon IDs ‘non-lethal’ weapon used to quell disturbance by prisoners at Guantanamo -- Washington Post/AP
Weapon used to quell Gitmo disturbance identified -- Huffington Post/AP
Photos: Inside Guantanamo Bay -- CNN

Mass Hunger Strike At Guantanamo Prison?

(Reuters: Brennan Liynsle)

If Guantanamo Prisoners Stage a Hunger Strike, Does Anybody Care? (Hint: Yes) -- The Atlantic

Despite the lawyers of over a dozen inmates reporting a widespread hunger strike happening right now inside Guantanamo, a prison spokesperson issued a no-such-thing statement on Monday. The alleged hunger strike started over three weeks ago when, in the lawyers' words, guards began "personal items, including blankets, sheets, towels, mats, razors, toothbrushes, books, family photos, religious CDs, and letters, including legal mail; and restricting their exercise, seemingly without provocation or cause." The lawyers continued in a letter to prison commander, Rear Adm. John Smith, "Arabic interpreters employed by the prison have been searching the men's Qur'ans in ways that constitute desecration according to their religious beliefs, and that guards have been disrespectful during prayer times." These lawyers weren't talking about one or two prisoners, by the way. They say these transgressions and the hunger strike that's followed affects "all but a few men."

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Update #1: Lawyers: Conditions deteriorating at Guantánamo prison -- Miami Herald
Update #2: Guantanamo hunger strike denied -- Politico/AP
Update #3: Guantanamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike Against New Guard Force for Confiscating Personal Items -- Fire Dog Lake

My Comment: The prisoners/detainees are getting restless. Some have now been held for over 10 years .... I guess they are now realizing that they are never going to be let out.

Only 120 U.S. Marines Guard Guantanamo

Guantanamo Bay

Marines Fade Away, But Base Has More Life Than Ever -- Miami Herald

Fifty years after the Marines swarmed Guantánamo in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Corps is represented here by truly just a few good men.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Fifty years ago this week as the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of war, thousands of U.S. Marines flooded this outpost on Cuba’s eastern tip.

A Marine historian, Beth Crumley, said from Quantico, Va., on Monday that between the insertion of a Battalion Landing Team and reinforcements, the number of Marines here swelled to perhaps 5,000 – not including “aviation assets who were flying in the area off carriers.”

Now, thanks to technology and détente, the Marines’ detachment guarding Guantánamo’s 17.4-mile perimeter are truly just a few good men.

They number about 120.

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My Comment: Only about 120 US marines guarding the base .... you would think there were hundreds .... if not at least a thousand. A must read post on the Marines who guard Guantanamo is here.

Detainee Found Dead At The Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility

A Navy officer, center, and two Army officers enter Camp VI at the detention center at the Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Walter Michot / Miami Herald / MCT / August 6, 2012)

Pentagon: Guantanamo Detainee Dies; Eighth Fatality At Facility -- L.A. Times

The Pentagon said Monday that a prisoner died at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility on Saturday, the eighth fatality at the prison for terrorism suspects since it opened more than a decade ago.

Authorities were withholding the name, nationality and age of the detainee pending notification of his family, according to a statement issued by Joint Task Force Guantanamo at the U.S. naval base in southern Cuba. An autopsy was planned, the statement said, and there was no immediate report on the suspected cause of death.

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More News On The Death Of A Prisoner At The Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility

Ninth prisoner dies at Guantanamo -- AP
Guantanamo prisoner found dead, U.S. military says -- Reuters
Detainee Dies at Guantánamo Prison -- New York Times
Another death at Guantanamo -- Politico
Detainee dies at Guantanamo Bay -- CNN
Detainee dies at Guantanamo: US military -- AFP
Military: Detainee found dead at Guantánamo -- McClatchy News

Did the U.S. Inject ‘Mind Altering’ Drugs Into Gitmo Detainees?

U.S. Injected Gitmo Detainees With ‘Mind Altering’ Drugs -- Danger Room

Prisoners inside the U.S. military’s detention center at Guantanamo Bay were forcibly given “mind altering drugs,” including being injected with a powerful anti-psychotic sedative used in psychiatric hospitals. Prisoners were often not told what medications they received, and were tricked into believing routine flu shots were truth serums. It’s a serious violation of medical ethics, made worse by the fact that the military continued to interrogate prisoners while they were doped on psychoactive chemicals.

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WNU Editor: The Pentagon is denying that drugs were administered on detainees.

Protests By Guantanamo Prisoners On Hold For Now

Col. Bruce Vargo, the joint detention group commander at Guantánamo Bay, gives a tour of a detainee holding cell to Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Jan. 13, 2008. During his stop, Mullen held an all-hands call with service members stationed on the island and visited detention facilities and the new expeditionary legal complex that will be used to try high-value combatants detained in the global war on terrorism. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley)

Stinky Prison Camp Standoff Over -- Miami Herald

Credit a combination of peer pressure and guard cajoling with ending a stomach-wrenching summertime protest inside the Pentagon’s maximum-security prison in southeast Cuba.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- The waste war is over — for now.

War on terror captives are no longer smearing their cells with feces in a stomach-wrenching power struggle with the guards at the maximum security Camp 5 lockup on this remote navy base.

“That phase stopped in the last month or so,” said Army Col. Donnie Thomas in a Sept. 13 interview, noting the protest tactic “ebbs and flows.”

Mimicking a tactic once used by hundreds of Irish Republican Army prisoners in the 1970s, an undisclosed number of captives had been smearing their own excrement into the ventilation grates of their single-occupancy cells, causing it to waft through the cellblocks. The Miami Herald first learned of the episode in June when advocates for some of the captives encountered an awful odor on a site visit.

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My Comment: I feel for the cleaning staff.

Another Push To Close Guantanamo

Obama Administration Insists On Guantanamo Closure -- CBS/AP

(AP) BRUSSELS — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Obama administration will do its utmost to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay before next year's presidential elections despite political opposition.

Holder said at the European Parliament that even if the current administration fails to close it ahead of elections, it will continue to press ahead if it wins the November 2012 presidential vote.

Republican presidential rival Rick Perry has said he is happy the U.S. prison at Guantanamo has been kept open.

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More News On Renewed Attempts To Close Guantanamo

Obama Administration Seeks to Close Gitmo Before 2012 Elections -- FOX News
US wants Guantanamo closed before 2012: Holder -- AFP
Eric Holder: We aim to close Gitmo before Election Day -- Politico
Attorney General: U.S. Wants To Close Guantanamo -- NPR
Rep. Adam Smith: Hard to close Gitmo by '12 -- Politico

My Comment: It is not going to happen .... not for a very long time.

Artwork By Guantanamo Bay Inmates

Full exhibition: The paintings are on display at the prison's library. Around 40 inmates take the art classes, which are a reward for good behaviour

Artwork By Guantanamo Bay Inmates Gives Rare glimpse Into Life Behind Bars -- Daily Mail

With their brightly-coloured landscapes and traditional still-life paintings, this selection of artwork looks like any other exhibition.

But hese images were all created by inmates at Guantanamo Bay detention center - which include some of the world's most renowned terror suspects.

They offer a fascinating glimpse into life behind bars at the Cuban jail, which began giving art classes as a reward for good behaviour soon after President Obama's inauguration.

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My Comment: Better having them doing art in prison than being in the field and causing mayhem.