White House Rejects Plan to Close Gitmo Prison as Being Too Expensive

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: military.com

The U.S. government rejected a plan by the Department of Defense to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for being too expensive and sent it back to the Pentagon for revision, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

According to the Journal, the plan was going to cost $600 million, which was considered excessive by the administration led by President Barack Obama.

Of the total amount, $350 million was for construction of a new prison on U.S. soil for high-risk prisoners, Defense officials told the Journal.

The rejection of the plan presents a new hurdle for Obama before the end of his term next year, as closing the Guantanamo Bay was one of his electoral promises in 2008.

Read more: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/12/02/white-house-rejects-plan-close-gitmo-prison-too-expensive.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Guantanamo needs to be closed immediately and returned to its country. n/t

[swilton]

6. Closing that institution would

exponentially increase US moral authority and influence at home and abroad far beyond any $$$ spent for guns and weapon systems already used to ensure US dominance.

[SamKnause]

2. The people who control this planet are INSANE !!!!!

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. If it was the Pentagon's plan, let the Pentagon pay for it out of their own budget. Problem solved.

nt

[mpcamb]

4. I like that solution best.

You caused it.
You fix it.

[BeyondGeography]

5. Congress still has to approve it

It has banned any funding of prisoner transfers from Gitmo. Some say the President could force a Supreme Court case by circumventing the ban with an executive order, but he'd rather not go that route. Meantime, the number of inmates is down to 107, which points to the absurdity of the need for a new prison, among other things.

[Proserpina]

7. Send the prisoners home and be done with it

The reason Congress is balking is they don't want these people in American state-side prisons.

Nor should they be.

[BeyondGeography]

9. Send Khalid Sheikh Mohammed home

Ok. Run with that.

[Proserpina]

10. Why not? Make some friends.

These prisoners are older, broken, and not likely to do anything for anybody. As prisoners, they are propaganda fodder for the terrorists. As freed men, they are....OUR propaganda fodder, their responsibility. They have been replaced in the power structure. Their battles are over, repudiated, changed beyond recognition.

They can't walk in and do anything, even if they were so inclined and in good health.

[Abouttime]

14. Bushco tortured these people remember?

They've suffered enough, we should let them go, KSM included.
I seriously doubt they would cause any problems knowing we could send a drone their way.

[cstanleytech]

15. Because some of them do probably do belong in prison. The problem though and why

the GOP is stonewalling transferring them to the US to face charges in a court of law is because alot of the GOP probably know or suspect that most if not all of the evidence that would prove it would be ruled inadmissible if it was gained under torture and would lead to them being (rightly) freed.

[Proserpina]

17. So, let their native land put them in prison

Nobody appointed the USA as supreme judge, jury, prosecutor, jailor, executioner, etc.

[cstanleytech]

20. For the most part I agree but what do you do if the government for their native land

was also knowingly training them to commit said acts of terrorism? Do you still send them back even though you suspect thats its a near certainty that their government will free them right and or try to use them against you yet again down the road?

[Proserpina]

21. by now, these prisoners are damaged goods.

They will be of no use to anyone, except perhaps as a testament to US mercy, should a President come along who does the right thing...

[Myrina]

11. We claim to be able to take people out with a drone, so why not send him home?

It's not like we don't know where he lives.

[Proserpina]

12. That is an option, although I doubt it would be necessary

[ericson00]

8. this closing Gitmo is just pandering. Its not gonna happen.

so maybe they should focus instead on fixing the system, and move the prison at a later date. Or maybe we should create and artificial island like China does.

[Yupster]

16. We could buy an all-inclusive resort for them on a Caribbean island

and keep them there forever for less than $ 600 million.

[kacekwl]

19. Agreed, we also have

many empty prisons that certainly be used for much less.

[tazkcmo]

13. So much horse crap.

We can afford anything we want. We just spent over 15 trillion dollars and counting to bail out white collar criminals. War? No problem. Tax cuts for the wealthy? You bet! Anything positive? Can't afford it. Bullsh*t.

[getagrip_already]

18. funding is an interesting question...

Yes, congress has the power to allocate funds. But, one of the little known features of the federal budget is that a lot of departments, DoD included, have virtual slush funds they can use any way they like - all approved by congress.

So there is no doubt the DoD has the money on hand to do this without impacting anything. There is even a constitutional argument that the pres has the power to direct the DoD to do that, even if the congress forbids it.

So it appears the real issue is the DoD came back with a plan that waaaay over reached and an adult said "really? Try again.".

Those silly kids at DoD. What's the better part of a billion dollars when you have twenty some odd prisoners to worry about.

Bring them back, throw them i supermax, try them and throw away the key if you convict them for all I care. Just end the extrajudicial farce. The people who are left there are not worth all of this trouble, and they certainly don't need to be handled like nuclear weapons.

They are just bitter old xenophobic zealots. We have a lot of those already.