Instead of Closing, Gitmo to Receive Major Upgrades

Pentagon Set for Major Modernization Project for Prison

It was supposed to be closed by now, indeed President Obama promised to have it closed four years ago. but with Guantanamo Bay still there, and still full of detainees who the administration now seems comfortable keeping forever without charges or a trial, it is facing a “overhaul.”

Pentagon officials say that a plan being pushed would spend $150 million upgrading the facility, creating a new hospital which is going to be helpful, since so many of the detainees are already in failing health and are seemingly going to stay there until they die of old age.

Though the White House insists they remain “committed” to closing Gitmo they’ve made no effort to actually do so in years, and have even closed the State Department office that was supposed to find places to send the detainees.

Spending $150 million modernizing the facility and getting it ready for decades of future service is just icing on the cake, with the costly and grossly illegal detention center “literally falling apart,” and the plan to close it having figuratively done so long ago.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.