Thursday, 10 May 2007WASHINGTON ÔÇö While domestic pressure continues to pile on the Bush administration to close down the notorious Guantanamo detention center, the Pentagon is building a migrant operations complex at the naval base in Cuba.
"It is being built as a preparatory measure because of the history of the region," Jose Ruiz, the US military spokesman, said in a statement cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The US government has already granted a $16.5-million contract for a Florida company to build the complex which will include wastewater treatment facilities, showers, latrines, laundry, utilities, office, fencing and warehouses.
Guantanamo buildings hide behind multiple rows of 12-foot chain-link fences covered in green tarpaulins and topped with tight spirals of barbed wire.
Old wooden and newer steel watchtowers dot the perimeter.
Ruiz denied that the complex, to be ready by May 2008, will be for receiving US-bound Cuban immigrants following the death of ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
"We do not anticipate in the future any spike in migrant activity, illegal migration, to the US, but because the region has had surges in illegal migration to the US."
Castro handed power temporarily to his brother, defense chief and interim president Raul, nine months ago after he underwent a major intestinal surgery.
Since then, the 80-year-old communist leader has been away from the public eye.
Cubans often set sail in rickety craft through shark-infested waters in a bid to reach the American shore.
"This is a preparatory measure," Ruiz said of the new plan.
"Black Eye"
"Closing Guantanamo alone will not heal America's moral black eye. But it is a necessary first step," said Harman
The new announcement coincided with the tabling of a legislation by three Democratic lawmakers calling for the closure of Guantanamo.
"Guantanamo Bay has become a liability," said Representative Jane Harman.
"The real and perceived injustices occurring there have given our enemies an easy example of our failures and alleged ill intent."
The bill would require the Bush administration to close the camp no later than a year after enactment.
It would provide various options for detainees, including transfer to a US jail, to an international tribunal or release.
"Closing Guantanamo alone will not heal America's moral black eye. But it is a necessary first step," said Harman.
"The prison is so widely viewed as illegitimate, so plainly inconsistent with America's proud legal traditions, that it has become a stinging symbol of our tarnished standing abroad."
The US has been holding hundreds of detainees at the notorious detention facility, some have been there as long as five years without being charged.
Amnesty International has branded Guantanamo the new gulag prisons, the Soviet detention centers notorious for torturing political prisoners and suspects.
"The Bush administration has been able to ignore the hypocrisy in preaching about human rights to other countries while detainees who have been accused -- but never charged -- are denied fundamental justice in Guantanamo," said Neil Abercrombie, a Hawaii co-sponsor of the bill.
"However, the rest of the world has not ignored it."
A similar bill was introduced in the Senate by California Senator Dianne Feinstein to press for the closure of the notorious camp.
Several American and British dignitaries, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, have called for closing the facility.
The New York Times revealed in April that Defense Secretary Robert Gates ÔÇö backed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ÔÇö had lobbied for the closure of the prison and succeeded in killing plans to expand it.
May 10, 2007
Islam Online |
Thursday, 10 May 2007
US
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