Guantanamo may become US Marine base

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New Zealand Herald

Guantanamo may become US Marine base
5:15AM Tuesday July 08, 2008

The United States is considering transforming the Guantanamo Bay terrorism prison into a base for a Marines "rapid reaction force" to deal with threats in Central America.

In the first official admission that closure of the camp had entered the planning stage, the base commander, Captain Mark Leary, said regional US Marines commanders have surveyed the site to assess its suitability.

Last week it emerged that the Bush Administration was preparing to empty Guantanamo of its 235 inmates.



Read more: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10520480

[Demeter]

1. Just What We Don't Need

Shakes head in despair.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. uh, it has been a Marine Corps base

for like 100 years, duh

[WheelWalker]

16. What you said. Is everyone too young to remember before 9-11?

[drm604]

17. That was my first thought.

It already is a Marine base.

On Edit: My mistake. It's currently a Naval base which is, of course, a different branch of the service.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

24. No, the Marine Corps is the only

branch of the service under another one... the Navy Department contains the Marine Corps

[drm604]

25. Thank you for the correction.

I knew that they were associated somehow. I just wasn't sure how.

[liberal N proud]

22. Maybe a few people need to see "A Few Good Men"

It was set at Gitmo way before 9/11 and it was nothing more than a marine base. Cushy job at the if the movie depicted somewhat accurately

[Judi Lynn]

3. From the Telegraph: Guantanamo Bay may be turned into marine 'rapid reaction' base

Guantanamo Bay may be turned into marine 'rapid reaction' base
By Damien McElroy in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Last Updated: 8:33PM BST 06/07/2008

The United States is considering transforming the Guantanamo Bay terrorism prison into a base for a Marines "rapid reaction force" to deal with threats in Central America.

In the first official admission that closure of the camp had entered the planning stage, the base commander, Captain Mark Leary, said regional US Marines commanders have surveyed the site to assess its suitability.

"The southern command has looked into the possibility of the station bringing in a marine forward deployment," he said.

"It assumes that there is a lot in Guantanamo base that would allow a marine expeditionary presence to support training and other tasks. There have been discussions on future missions."

~snip~
Capt Leary said strategic planners had identified a need for a marine base to be ready to intervene in the troubled Caribbean and Central American region. That could mean up to 3,500 marines would take up occupancy of the sprawling Camps Delta and Echo after the last detainee leaves.

~snip~
The US has a long history of intervention in the region, including invasions of Panama and Grenada, and covert operations across Central America.

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2259053/Guantanamo-Bay-may-be-turned-into-marine-'rapid-reaction'-base.html

[Nickster]

7. Uh oh, Chavez better start looking over his shoulder. Looks like we are going back to the 70s and

80s with intervention in Central America. Time for another round of Shock Therapy?

[MnFats]

14. yeah, it has been a marine base for decades but to my knowledge this...

...
represents the most overt and direct threat to caribbean and central american countries devised for Gitmo.
"Look out, you naughty little countries! Don't make me take out my 3,,500 rapig reaction force.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. So now we're planning to resume our imperialist conquest

of Latin America--the one we left warming on the low burner while we put the blowtorch on Iraq.

Gotta be ready for the next time Hugo lips off, ya know.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Oh, yeah. Only a moment away from Guantanamo.

Here's a map:



What a pity. Latin America doesn't want any more of this crap. They've tried to tell us that for decades.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_Naval_Base

[dipsydoodle]

8. I was thinking

while you were writing :)

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

19. We used to fly cargo there from Charleston AFB, S.C.

When I was a C-141 navigator in the Air Force Reserves, we would fly weekend missions to Guantanamo (before it became a gulag) and then Puerto Rico, ferrying priority cargo and sometimes passengers. Because the western border between Gitmo and Cuba was about 1/2 mile from the end of the runway -- and there were manned guard towers along the fence -- we had to execute a tight descending turn to line up with the runway, usually getting wings level just prior to touchdown. Lots of fun if the wind was blowing the wrong way. I'll be glad when Bush's Bastille is dismantled and the base is put to better use, maybe as a Beaches resort.

[dipsydoodle]

6. That lease

is an anachranism. Its use was intended to be "coaling and naval purposes only, and for no other purpose".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_Naval_Base

[Judi Lynn]

10. True! And during the 20th Century, before the revolution, Cuba was a popular stop off for U.S. Navy

ships for shore leave, when it was known world-wide as the "Whorehouse of the Caribbean."

Quite the distinction, wasn't it?

Here's a collection of information for Cuba travellers put out in the 1950's providing tips on the "entertainment" avaialable in Cuba. Someone at the old CNN US/Cuba Relations message board found this around 2000, and shared it. Posters were astonished, many amused. Very creepy way of seeing an island of people held captive as objects of entertainment! This is really strange.

http://cuban-exile.com/menu1/%21entertain.html

[Solly Mack]

11. do people think that shutting down GTMO as a prison

will make it all go away?

Close GTMO and, somehow, all the war crimes go away with it? Everything that has happened there just ceases to have meaning?

Like changing the name and occupants of the "Bates Motel" (does it cease being a hotel of slaughter just because the name changes? the occupants change?) ....is it supposed to bring happier memories? Cause people to forget?

Somehow erase the war crimes committed there? Cause people to feel better about all the torture? the illegal detentions?

And will these people now languish away in other prisons? Hidden away because now GTMO is no longer synonymous with torture camp? And without the name to evoke images of Bush's war crimes....will people think it's all better now?


I'm all for closing Bush's torture camps...but closing them isn't enough.

It will never be enough.

[LynnTheDem]

12. "rapid reaction force" to deal with threats in Central America.

Why? Haven't we killed enough men, women & kids in Central America to make them hate us enough already???

[Judi Lynn]

13. Slaugtered over 200,000 men, women, children in Guatemala, alone.

Entire villages wiped off the face of the earth, and any survivors driven into hiding in the forests.

Absolutely savage way to treat people. Hideous. Torture, mass murder, mass graves, and all political.

[Jackpine Radical]

26. It's an old gringo tradition.

We've been stomping around down there since time immemorial.

[dipsydoodle]

27. I'd noticed that bit

but it was late here in the UK so didn't write further. Only threats to Central America appear to come from the USA itself - historically anyway.

So - not quite sure what threats they had in mind. I've no recollection of when there ever was a real threat from Central America but doubtless some dumwit on here will volunteer to correct me.

I am reminded that 9/11 I was mid Atlantic on my way to dance camp in SF. When we were told of the earlier events of that day my initial thought was " probably Chileans getting their own back for 9/11/73 "

[Nihil]

15. Well, that's one way to stop anyone digging up the graves ... (n/t)

:shrug:

[Catch22Dem]

18. It already is. Haven't you seen "A Few Good Men"?

[Speciesamused]

21. "You cant Handle the truth"

[Speciesamused]

20. One little piece of communist Cuba we own.

It has always been and always will be.

[trthnd4jstc]

23. We need to give Cuba back Guantanamo, Indict Bush, and Cheney

Give their Money, as well as Bolton's and others money to the Iraqis, the Veterans Administration, and to the US Treasury. The Fascis,t who took over our nation, need to be in Prison. In order to make it up to the world, and all those that Bushco has shit upon, we need to Imprison Bush, Cheney, Josh Bolton, Richard Pearle, and a bunch of other Lieing Meanies. End the Reign of the Military Industrial Complex. We need to have a stronger UN, and pull US troups back home.

End US Imperialism Now!

[dysfunctional press]

29. why not give guananamo back to cuba- on one condition...

they have to keep it operating as a prison until the new inmates pass away...

[Jackpine Radical]

30. I like that. Nice, humane, solves the problem.

There truly is no need for the death penalty.

[trthnd4jstc]

31. Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha n.t.

[dysfunctional press]

28. where do they intend to render the 235 inmates...?

i'm guessing that it will be somewhere out of reach of the u.s. constitution, it's courts, and extradition treaties.