Published time: September 27, 2013 01:56
The exterior of Camp Delta is seen at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay (Reuters)
A US military request for funding to renovate the prison base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was denied by Pentagon officials in the Obama administration who, while pledging to close the prison, have been consistently prevented from doing so by Congress.
General John F. Kelly, the chief of US Southern Command and the
officer in charge of Guantanamo Bay, requested $195.7 million to
update and modify the prison in March 2013. He told Congress that
buildings at Gitmo, originally only designed to temporarily house
inmates eleven years ago, are disintegrating and presenting
problems for troops on the base.
His request, according to the New York Times, included $99
million to build two new barracks buildings for guards, $12
million for a new cafeteria, and another $49 million to replace
the notorious “Camp Seven,” where high-value inmates formerly in
the custody of the CIA are held. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the
self-professed architect of the September 11 terrorist attacks,
is currently held at Camp Seven.
The budget proposal was denied at some point during the summer
but the news was not disclosed until Tuesday, when Southern
Command spokesman Army colonel Greg Julian told the Times the
request was denied “because of a lack of Congressional support
to use the overseas contingency funding that we sought to
complete those projects. So now we are working on various
measures to mitigate some of the conditions of the
facilities.”
Kelly admitted in March that the request was sizable, in part
because the Cuban base requires more funding to transport
material to. However, he did say the updates would be an
investment for the future because it would have consolidated
time-consuming and dangerous tasks.
“These are things we have to do right now,” he said.
“I’m assuming Guantanamo will be closed someday, but if we
look into the past 11 years, it was supposed to be temporary. Who
knows where it’s going? We’ve got to take care of our
troops.”
The general’s request came just months before a hunger strike
swept the prison, with inmates refusing to eat as a way of
attracting the world’s attention to their indefinite detention.
While the strike has ebbed since dozens of inmates were involved
this summer, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd
Breasseale confirmed the protests were still ongoing.
“No one believes the hunger strike is over. Certainly not
us,” he told Al Arabiya English. “But the numbers clearly
show that the detainees’ dangerous – at times nearly suicidal –
hunger strike communication operation, facilitated and distorted
by myth by so many outside Guantanamo, is nowhere near what it
used to be.”
Copyright: RT