Gitmo’s $400,000 Go-Kart track

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told Congress Wednesday it will cost $454 million to operate the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Hagel included the cost in a report sent to the House Armed Services Committee, and two top Senate Democrats — Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois and Dianne Feinstein of California — announced the figure at a Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing, The Hill reported.

The Hill said it had obtained the report on Guantanamo operating costs that Hagel had provided to Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. The Hill said the Pentagon report concluded the United State has spent $4.7 billion to operate the detainee facility since 2002…

Durbin said in a release the hearing would take testimony on the indefinite detention of 166 remaining detainees, including 86 detainees who have been cleared for transfer.

“The president has called for the closing of the Guantanamo detention facility and many in Congress support him,” Durbin said. “But Congress and the administration have been complicit in the current situation which harms our national security and leaves more than 150 detainees in limbo…

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said it was “shameful” Congress is still debating the matter.

For over a decade, the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantanamo has contradicted our most basic principles of justice, degraded our international standing and, by itself, has harmed our national security,” he said.

Durbin said at Wednesday’s hearing the cost-per-detainee at Guantanamo — $2.7 million per year, compared to $78,000 at “supermax” prisons — “would be fiscally irresponsible during normal economic times, but it is even worse when the Defense Department is struggling to deal with the impact of sequestration.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, said Guantanamo is the only facility that can hold “terrorists who would work night and day to murder innocent Americans.”

Ted Cruz is a liar. But, you already know that.



  1. ECA says:

    I wonder how muich is REALLY spent on prisoners, and how much on the BASE itself..

    remember its not just a prisoner holding center.
    But its to wonder WHAt they are building there..a NUKE BASE??
    Lets see, how many people to GUARD the place..300-500?
    AT min wage?(thats about what they get paid)
    Plus the food and such to feed them and clean them..

    GOD, lets just place them in the states and pay $40k per year.
    WE know the inmates will make them FEEL GOOD.
    (dont touch that soap)

  2. MikeN says:

    Wow, so in the whole budget of trillions of dollars and almost a trillion in deficit, that’s what Eideard finds is wasteful spending?

    Perhaps he missed the story where AL Qaeda broke out 500 of their members from prison?

    Now if Eideard is suggesting just shoot everyone at Guantanamo, that would save money.

    • noname says:

      Yet another yahoo brain fart “just shoot everyone at Guantanamo” that should gain further world support and admiration from our Allies, not!

      It is an American educational tragedy, MikeN, but it is people(?) as you, Congressional repukes hope Fox News will keep inciting to elect them back, so each can keep “prohibiting funds” to close Guantanamo.

      So as Eideard adroitly points out (like any good self-respecting American should), the funds used to build this unnecessary Kiddie Go-Kart Track could have been better used to start transferring Detainees!

      It all seems B.S. why Guantanamo is such a tough nut to crack! It’s as if Dick C. is still president, years later.

      • MikeN says:

        Transfer detainees to where they can be broken out of prison, at which point Obama would authorize drone attacks to kill them. Now, which plan saves money?

      • Anonymous Coward says:

        At this point, the only prisoners left at Gitmo are those who are so nasty that their home country don’t want them back and any who are released “into the wild” are sure to rejoin jihad somewhere.

        So by all means, go ahead and just shoot them dead. Ruthlessness is the only thing their ilk “respects” (read “fears”) anyways.

        BTW, the only reason the US still has a base on Cuba is because Cuba was and still is desperate for the electrical power our base provides to the Cuban electrical grid. Without that power, they’ll have to go back to banning microwave ovens.

      • dusanmal says:

        “just shoot everyone at Guantanamo” – has WWII precedent in Europe and as far as I remember historical lessons and books about it – at that time they cheered for such actions and no one complained and the USA was the World Leader.
        To elaborate: official policy on Nazi terrorists (remnants of militant Nazi who stayed in shadows after Germany lost and launched various (terrorist in modern language) attacks on civilians, infrastructure and allies) was to hang them or execute them publicly without trial after capture and/or torture to extract any relevant info if suspected that they knew something of use. Actual torture, not modern soft versions of it.
        If done from position of power execution of all Guantanamo prisoners would bring relief to our Middle East allies and semi-allies (making the latter even better allies). Split decision on our EU allies, but they also need a wake-up call such action would deliver.

  3. Dallas says:

    DOD spending is MORE than the next 25 or so nations COMBINED. We do not need this to maintain the empire.

    The root of the problem is DOD is a jobs program with lobbyists. Nobody wants to cut it.

    The frightened, Teapublican sheeple will continue to want to prioritize even MORE tax dollars to protect them from Russian invasion, ‘support the troops’ , terrorist towel heads, etc as their excuse.

  4. bobbo, the iconoclastic non-conflating non-dogmatic existential Idol defiling cynosure says:

    Makes me wonder in what sense the USA has the “best military” in the world. Might be a clue as to how we have the best medicine. Telling–we no longer say we have the best education system in the world.

    But to be fair, because we are the most Fair Nation in the World, I wonder how much of that $$$ is siphoned away into Black Ops.

    And I do maintain we have the Best Black Ops programs in the World.

  5. noname says:

    American Mindset and Strategy for World Leadership!

    Keep the drones flying!

  6. Mextli says:

    “The president has called for the closing of the Guantanamo detention facility and many in Congress support him,”

    He may not be able to close it without Congress, I don’t know. But he can order people transferred out of there. Where are the executive orders now? They are used in every other situation.

    • Dallas says:

      Obama …. coulda woulda shoulda do this, that….

      Quit defending your crony friends in Congress.

      • Mextli says:

        You know of anyone else that can issue an executive order to redeploy troops or is Commander in Chief? It’s impossible for him to work with congress since he is such an arrogant asshole.

        Get over your teen age crush for him.

        • Dallas says:

          The Teapublican congress self proclaimed objective was to defeat the president. What is your position on this fact?

          Instead your ilk (like thst word now) makes some subjective shit up like “he’s arrogant” and ignores the facts. You would make a horrible lawyer. I hope you’re not a lawyer so no offense. You strike me as a plumber.

          • Mextli says:

            Early in his administration, President/Professor Obama repeatedly referred to “teaching moments.” He would admonish staff, members of Congress and the public, in speeches and in private, about what they could learn from him. Rather than the ideological or corrupt “I’m above the law” attitudes of some past administrations, President Obama projected an arrogant “I’m right, you’re wrong” demeanor that alienated many potential allies.

            Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.)
            http://tinyurl.com/bsmbowg

          • Dallas says:

            So your response to Teapublicans stating, verbatim, their intention to ‘defeat the President’ is that ‘obama projected an arrogant demeanor’ .

            Okee Dokee !

    • bobbo, the iconoclastic non-conflating non-dogmatic existential Idol defiling cynosure says:

      Yes–Obamagod could do that if he were dishonest and manipulative. You know===like Pedro. Trying to tell us a congress with a slight Dumbo Majority can override FERP filibusters.

      Using any BS argument that works at the moment: assuming the publics memory is as good as your own.

    • bobbo, the iconoclastic non-conflating non-dogmatic existential Idol defiling cynosure says:

      So sad and even disgusting in so many ways.

      Thanks for the link.

      ((After the revolution—probably a good use of the building will be as a mental institution?))

  7. Anonymous Coward says:

    Go-carts or hookers. Choose one, because armed soldiers need to blow off steam, and generally speaking, you don’t want armed people blowing off steam with their guns.

    • Glenn E. says:

      I spent four years on an Air Base. And it didn’t have any Go-cart track, or miniature golf course. It had a full size golf course for the office elites, of course. How else are they to wheel and deal with the civilian contractors? There was no stripper bar.

      I don’t see why Guantanamo Bay needs a go-cart track, when no other military facilities have them. Unless its the only way to entice officers to volunteer to come visit that hell hole. And the Navy can’t turn Cuba into another Subic Bay. Complete with teenage hookers. The local volcano, closed that enticement to enlistment, down, some time ago. And you can bet recruitment took a hit, when good old southern boys learned about that.

      • WmDE says:

        Did you ever in those 4 years go off-base?

        Going off-base in Guantanamo is Cuba. Getting back on-base may be a problem.

  8. Tim says:

    They’ll just fuck with the governors and fly off the track injuring the Huey drone.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=kg8HPZ33ibk

  9. Uncle Patso says:

    What have the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Ridge cabal done to my country?

  10. observer says:

    Put the detainees on a navy prison ship. Then close Gitmo.

  11. Mextli says:

    I think the Go-Kart photo is misleading. That sort of stuff is usually considered a morale, welfare, or recreation program and paid for with non appropriated funds and they are separate from the base funding. Most of those projects strive to be self sustaining.

  12. Glenn E. says:

    All the have to do is slap the label “terrorist” onto any prisoner. And suddenly that makes them a big ticket item, to imprison. Unlike any other domestic serial killers, that have been imprisoned in the US for far cheaper. I’m willing to bet that on average, the detainees at Guantanamo Bay have killed few innocent human beings, than Charles Manson. And yet it doesn’t take $2.7 million a year, to make the world safe from him. So just because of that label, “terrorist”. The ante goes up, and defense department spending takes over. If those millions were spent on domestic education. There probably wouldn’t be any terrorism in the US.

  13. Traaxx says:

    I grew up in the military. The Guantanamo base has military dependents living there with a high school, elementary and pre-school. You should remember that no-one on the base can go off the base into Cuba, as they might do in the States or even in Germany or Panama, etc..

    They also have a swimming pool, a theater, a commissary and and may even have horse stables, most army bases do. Now days many bases in addition to a AFES, Army and Air Force Exchange Service, have either a McDonald or Burger King on base, the businesses usually pay a fee for having this concession.

    It all depends upon whether or not the posting is considered a hardship post or not.

    Whatever…………………………………………………………………………..
    Traaxx


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