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Also see: Prisons; Cuba; torture; human rights;
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The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base,[1] also referred to as Guantánamo or GTMO (/ˈɡɪtmoʊ/), which is on the coast of Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Since the inmates have been detained indefinitely without trial and several detainees have alleged torture, the operations of this camp are considered to be a major breach of human rights by Amnesty International.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp
-- 2017 --
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June 12: Obama's Orders Still Stand as Troops Train for Trump's Guantanamo
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/06/12/obama-orders-still-stand-troops-train-trump-guantanamo.html
June 12: Trump may have bragged during the campaign that he'd bring back waterboarding. But ... "conditions of detention" are driven by a document known as The Walsh Report, drawn up at Obama's request to make sure the [Guantanamo] prison is in compliance with the Geneva Conventions.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/06/12/obama-orders-still-stand-troops-train-trump-guantanamo.html
July 19: Is Closing Guantanamo Still Conceivable?
Former officials of both parties have endorsed the goal. But the 41 inmates left there have reason to wonder if they'll ever leave.
On January 19, the last full day of the Obama presidency, one detainee from the detention facility arrived in Saudi Arabia and three landed in the United Arab Emirates. If Trump lives up to his pledge not to allow any further releases, those four will be the last to leave the facility for at least four years—maybe longer.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/07/trump-guantanomo-terrorism-obama-resettlement/534009/
August 21: Trump’s Pentagon wants to spend almost $500 million on Guantánamo construction
Despite President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to reduce costs at the remote U.S. Navy base — at one point he mused that his new Cuba policy might import cheap, local labor from across the minefield — the Pentagon’s appetite to spend at this outpost of about 5,500 residents and 41 wartime prisoners continues unsated.
In two other major projects, Congress is poised to give the Army $124 million to build a new barracks for 848 prison troops to be ready in four years. And on a different corner of the base, the Pentagon is soliciting bids of up to $100 million to build a skeletal structure for a 13,000-migrant tent city and housing for 5,000 U.S. forces.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article168273127.html
November 1: President Donald Trump called for "quick" and "strong" justice for terror suspects in the wake of the deadly New York City attack, saying that it is not surprising terror attacks happen because the way the United States punishes terrorists is "a laughing stock."
Trump's comments, made during a White House Cabinet meeting Wednesday, malign the justice system for a lack of toughness. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the head of the so-called 'laughing stock' justice system, was in the room for this comment -- sitting across from Trump.
Trump's call to get tougher on terrorism fall in line with the same rhetoric he used during the campaign trail, where he called the Geneva Convention -- a 1949 agreement that dictates international rules on torture and humanitarian treatment of prisoners -- a problem that the United States had to move past.
"Torture works," he said bluntly.
Trump also pledged to "load up" the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the campaign, slamming Democrats and then-President Barack Obama for sustained efforts to cut the number of detainees from the controversial prison.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/01/politics/trump-justice-laughing-stock/index.html
-- 2018 --
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January 31: Trump signs order to keep Guantanamo open
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/politics/trump-guantanamo-bay-reverse-obama/index.html
January 31: Trump order to keep Guantanamo open 'sheer stupidity'
Donald Trump's decision to keep Guantanamo Bay prison open means dozens of detainees will stay behind bars, lawyer says.
"Donald Trump's a moron if he thinks Guantanamo should remain open because it keeps us more safe or improves our standing in the world," said Wells Dixon, a staff lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Justice, a US-based legal advocacy group. "It does exactly the opposite."
While Trump's move "isn't surprising" ... "it sadly confirms his willingness to pander to his political base at the expense of US national security and international human rights".
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/trump-order-guantanamo-open-sheer-stupidity-180131130101219.html
January 31: Trump Embraces the Original Sin of Guantánamo
The moral and legal stain of Guantánamo started with the fact of its existence. The Bush administration opened the prison in 2002 because it wrongly believed that its location outside U.S. borders would allow it to operate without any legal constraints. It became a laboratory for the torture methods associated with that administration’s so-called war on terror and for improvised judicial proceedings that violate basic principles of due process and justice.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/detention/trump-embraces-original-sin-guantanamo
February 5: How Trump Just Might Close Guantanamo Prison
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/02/how-trump-just-might-close-guantanamo-prison/145716/
March 19: U.S. advancing toward first Guantanamo repatriation under Trump
The transfer of 43-year-old Ahmed Muhammed Haza al-Darbi appeared to have stalled in February, when he became eligible but was not repatriated, as allowed under the terms of al-Darbi’s 2014 plea bargain agreement.
The U.S. military said at the time it was waiting for assurances from Saudi Arabia’s government to move forward on his departure.
On Monday, the Pentagon suggested that process was back on track. Navy Commander Sarah Higgins, a spokeswoman, said the Defense Department was “reviewing information received from Saudi Arabia regarding al-Darbi’s transfer.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-guantanamo/exclusive-u-s-advancing-toward-first-guantanamo-repatriation-under-trump-idUSKBN1GW07P
March 27: The Trump administration has more than $200 million in new construction teed up for Guantánamo this year and next, combining new funding in the $1.3 trillion spending bill and existing projects.
The biggest ticket item for the U.S. Navy base in Cuba in the so-called Omnibus Spending law is $115 million for a new 848-troop barracks across the street from the McDonald’s and commissary to consolidate enlisted prison staff under one roof.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article207035814.html
April 30: Trump faces Guantánamo Bay decision that could undermine fight against Isis
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/30/donald-trump-guantanamo-bay-mattis-review-isis
May 2: U.S. Transfers First Guantánamo Detainee Under Trump, Who Vowed to Fill It
The Pentagon has transferred a Guantánamo Bay prisoner to the custody of Saudi Arabia, a spokeswoman announced on Wednesday. The handoff is the first time a detainee has left the wartime prison under President Trump, who vowed to fill it back up but has now instead overseen a reduction in its population.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/us/politics/guantanamo-detainee-transferred-trump-al-darbi.html
May 2: Trump’s Pentagon Opens Up Guantanamo Bay to New Prisoners
Gitmo is back in business, fulfilling a campaign promise for Donald Trump, who pledged to refill the detention facility with ‘some bad dudes.’
"This policy provides our warfighters guidance on nominating detainees for transfer to Guantanamo detention should that person present a continuing, significant threat to the security of the United States ..."
Much remains unclear about the new policy, which neither the Pentagon nor the White House released.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-pentagon-opens-up-guantanamo-bay-detention-to-new-prisoners
November 30: Inside Trump's Guantanamo, where military waits for funding for 'enduring mission'
In his first broadcast interview, Guantanamo's Rear Adm. John Ring says without funding from Congress, he'll have trouble caring for aging detainees.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/inside-trump-s-guantanamo-where-military-waits-funding-enduring-mission-n941561
-- 2019 --
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April 24: [Migrant children at Guantanamo?]
The Defense Department awarded a California-based construction company a $23 million contract in February to build a "contingency mass migration complex" at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the New York Times reported on Monday. During the height of his showdown over the U.S.-Mexico border, President Donald Trump's administration considered housing migrant children at Guantánamo Bay to help manage an unprecedented surge in the number of migrants and asylum seekers. The idea was first proposed earlier this year as the Department of Homeland Security looked for military facilities where migrants and asylum seekers could be held as they wait for their cases to play out in the courts.
The Department of Defense has confirmed that military bases are being looked at as potential sites for housing migrants but the proposal to send migrant children kept to the notorious American prison and naval base in Cuba has not gained much traction "perhaps because of the optics of housing young people adjacent to terrorism suspects," an official who had seen the proposal told the Times. There are no "immediate" plans to house migrant children at the infamous prison, which had only been brought up as a potential housing situation because it has a dormitory facility that has been used in the past to hold asylum, the Times reported.
https://www.salon.com/2019/04/24/trump-administration-proposed-housing-migrant-children-at-guantanamo-bay-report/
April 29: Guantanamo Bay commander fired over 'loss of confidence'
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48098730
-- 2020 --
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