President Trump's Guantanamo: Standing by for new 'bad dudes'
President Trump's Guantanamo: Standing by for new 'bad dudes'
By CAROL ROSENBERG | Miami Herald | Published: February 7, 2017
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Tribune News Service) — Will they include women? Children again? Captives with communicable diseases? Come by the dozens or in ones and twos? Where will the Pentagon get them, and from what terrorist group?
The Trump administration has yet to begin making good on the president’s campaign promise to grow the population of the detention center — “load it up with some bad dudes” — but some here have started the strategic thinking about how to handle Guantanamo prison 2.0.
Loading it up could mean adding at most 200 more captives, commanders say, a figure that would grow the prison population to nearly what it was the day President Barack Obama took office. If so, commander Navy Rear Adm. Peter J. Clarke warns, that might require calling in reinforcements after a period of downsizing to 1,650 troops and civilians — 40 dedicated detention center staffers for each detainee.
Army Colonel Steve Gabavics, the warden for the last 41 captives, says a lot will depend on the new arrivals’ home countries and health issues. Captives suspected of having tuberculosis would be quarantined, he says, something the prison did when the first detainees arrived in 2002. Other considerations include their detention status, suspected affiliation and place of capture.
More:
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/president-trump-s-guantanamo-standing-by-for-new-bad-dudes-1.452886
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016177056