Possible indication that BushCo planned for war before Election2000

[KansDem]

Much new evidence have surfaced indicating that Bush et al were planning to go to war with Iraq long before the charade that put us into Iraq. For examples, there are the leaking DSM and related memos and the Raw Story timeline.

However, I’ve always wondered about the GitMo pens: Why and when they were constructed.

Brown & Root Services, A Division of Kellogg Brown & Root, Arlington, Va., is being awarded $9,700,000 for Task Order 0019 under a cost-reimbursement, indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity construction contract for construction of a 204 unit Detention Camp, Phase III, located on the windward side of the Naval Station, at the Radio Range area of U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Units will be of modular steel construction. Each unit measures approximately 6 feet 8 inches by 8 feet and includes a bed, a toilet, and a hand basin with running water. Work will be performed in Guantanamo Bay and is to be completed by October 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The basic contract was competitively procured with 44 proposals solicited, three offers received and award made on June 29, 2000. The total contract amount is not to exceed $300,000,000, which includes the base period and four option years. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005).

DOD Contracts

I’m curious to know:
Why the need for a 204-unit detention camp on or before June 29, 2000? Considering that Dick Cheney (Secretary of Defense from March 1989 to January 1993) was CEO of Halliburton (1995 to August 2000), parent company to KB&R, I wonder if the oil barons had this Iraq attack planned long before Chimpy was sworn in as POTUS#43.

[arcane1]

1. verrrry interesting!!!!!

[Just Me]

57. I DEMAND TO KNOW WHETHER THIS IS STUPIDITY OR ON PURPOSE!!!

I DEMAND TO KNOW WHETHER THIS MISINFORMATION WAS OUT OF IGNORANCE, BLIND PASSION, STUPIDITY OR FOR PURPOSES TO DECEIVE!!!!

I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION OF THIS MISLEADING POST AND I WANT TO KNOW WHO THE HELL PASSED THIS STINK ONTO RANDI!!!!

KANSDEM,...WHERE DID YOU GET THIS AND WHY DID YOU HIGHLIGHT THE WAY YOU DID?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

59. I'm beginning to think that you have some major personal issues....

...and you need to get off your high horse and start discussing this subject rationally and objectively.

IMHO, your view of this is not correct. And here's the sentence from my earlier post that tells me that you're not correct:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3858226&mesg_id=3858997>

THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT WAS AWARDED ON JUNE 29, 2000.

[havocmom]

2. It was the reason they ran the chimp

The needed to get the keys so they could loot the treasury. They had to have a front man with no ambition or mind of his own.

The thing was probably planned to execute 8 years earlier, but Bill Clinton got in their way.

[KansDem]

7. "Bill Clinton got in their way..."

I agree completely.

That's why he was impeached, and that's why the increase in election fraud: they don't want anyone else to "get in their way..."

[NinetySix]

26. I'm not so certain about that...

Consider first the date mentioned above: June 29, 2000 (during Clinton's second term).

Now consider Clinton's recent positive comments regarding Dubya in light of this fact. Perhaps he was complicit in the planning; after all, who approved the project if not the C-in-C....

That's ASSUMING all this is true, of course.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

58. Contract awards are made on a daily basis by the Pentagon....

...without any need for review by the White House. Small awards like this would not have even have made a blip on the White House radar.

[jobycom]

11. That's exactly why they ran him

Bush started dealing with PNAC when he started running for office. In 1998, while he was governor, and right around the time Clinton refused to back the Iraq coup attempt, Bush began to hire people to coach him on foreign affairs so he could look presidential. That's when he hooked up with Condeleeza, and according to rumors, to sleep with her.

[babylonsister]

3. You've got my attention! Good catch! nt

[silverweb]

4. Yowza!

I want to see this all over the MSM!!!

Then I want to see BushCo try to explain it away.

:bounce:

[WearyOne]

5. great detective work ! there must be lots more of this to dig up

[shraby]

6. Did you send this to Conyers?

Olbermann might be interested too, as well as other news media.

[KansDem]

9. I haven't, but can certainly do so...

I'll send it ASAP...

[notadmblnd]

33. well didn't the big Dick say tonight on

Hannity and Colmes that all anyone had to do was look at the record? I hope JC shoves those words right back down his vile, evil throat.

[jaxx]

8. The PNAC's had it planned. Wolfie, Rummy, Bolton etc.

Their letter to Clinton in 1998: http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

Their Statement of Principles (and I use that term loosely refering to them): http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

[rzemanfl]

10. Consider the possibility that this is a typo. If it was for real, it

probably wouldn't be there.

[shraby]

12. It's there and it's real.

They just forgot it was there.

[KansDem]

13. Are you referring to the Year? "June 29, 2000?"

Also, it states "204 unit Detention Camp, Phase III" Makes me wonder what "204 unit Detention Camp, Phase I" and "204 unit Detention Camp, Phase II" were all about...

[rzemanfl]

16. Exactly. If something looks too good to be true, my pessimistic

nature says it probably isn't. Is there anything else that would tie this to 2000? Phase I might have been clearing the land and Phase II running in electricity and water. I can't believe that this would not have been sanitized or classified if it was actually bid in 2000. If it is in fact the real deal, that's great.

[Just Me]

24. Don't be confused. This is a 7/26/02 ADD ON to the original contract.

The original contract was awarded on 6/29/00 with a $300M cap (prolly over a specific period of time). This announces the award of an additional (prison)project on 7/26/02 to be built at Gitmo.

[rzemanfl]

50. Added on to a contract for what? I can't believe it costs $300

million to build some prison cells with filipino labor.

[muriel_volestrangler]

56. That's the point - the $300 million is for 'anything in the next 5 years'

the specific price for the 204 cell prison was $9,700,000.

[rzemanfl]

61. Five years starting in 2000? The date here is what's important. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

62. Yes; here's the announcement of the 2000 contract

Brown & Root Services, Houston, Texas, is being awarded a maximum estimated $75,000,000 cost-plus-award-fee, indefinite-quantity/indefinite-delivery order contract with a guaranteed minimum of $100,000 for emergency construction capabilities. The total contract amount is not to exceed $300,000,000 (base year plus four option years). Work will be performed at worldwide locations, to be determined, when task orders are awarded. Work is expected to be complete by June 2001. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with 44 proposals solicited and three offers received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005).

http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/2000/c06292000_ct373-00.html

[rzemanfl]

63. Thank you. Now this all makes sense and all this agitation about

the date seems to have been for nothing. Why "volestrangler?" Isn't a vole a harmless forest creature? Or is it all one word? Just nosy. Found someone here with the screen name name "merkins," which is the plural of "pubic hairpiece" and mentioned it, I hope that wasn't their last name.

[muriel_volestrangler]

67. "Muriel Volestrangler" was a character invented by John Cleese

so it's just one of those Monty Python-type sense of humour things - gratuitous violence to harmless creatures. Or like the Muppet Show's musical instrument of hitting tuned squeaking rats with hammers.

[rzemanfl]

68. I am so culturally deficient. Thanks for the info. n/t

[teach1st]

14. Could be a typo...

..who knows. It's the only contract listed on the page awarded in 2000, but there are several 2001 award dates.

Needs more research.

[teach1st]

15. Here's something

http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Halliburton-CubaContract.shtml

From 911Encyclopedia:

In July 2002 Commondream reprinted a Reuters report, that former Dick Cheney's company Halliburton awarded a contract with Guantanamo Bay to build cells (David J. Lesar, Halliburton). Another political side twist, ignored by the mainstream media, was the report, that KRB used 400 illegal flippinos for that:

"...It took only two weeks to "clear" the workers after a "discreet and thorough screening" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its counterpart, the National Bureau of Investigation, according to sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). The 400 workers left on March 22 for Los Angeles on a plane chartered by the Brown and Root International on their way to Guantanamo, DFA sources said..." http://www.inq7.net/nat/2002/mar/28/nat_4-1.htm

More disturbingly, the fact was ignored, that this contract was already an upgrade of an older contract from 2000: "Halliburton Co. has been awarded a $9.7 million contract to build an additional 204-cell detention camp at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to hold additional suspected al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, the Pentagon said on Friday." http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0727-02.htm The full contract: Contract was filed in February 2001, but awarded in June 2000 (Thx to targetpractice, DU)

"Brown & Root Services, a division of Kellogg Brown & Root, Arlington, Va., was awarded today a $16,000,000 task order under a previously awarded cost reimbursement, indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity construction contract for construction of a 408-unit detention camp at the Radio Range area of U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Units will be of modular steel construction. Each unit measures 6 feet 8 inches by 8 feet and includes a bed, a toilet, and a hand basin with running water. " http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2002/c02262002_ct088-02.html The CSIS meeting clearing contracts with Cuba in July 2001:

[Toots]

46. FBI and its counterpart, the National Bureau of Investigation

Has anyone here heard of this NBI? It is a first for me.

[teach1st]

17. Just Google the DOD number: N62470-00-D-0005

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=DVXA,DVXA:2005-23,DVXA:en&q=N62470%2D00%2DD%2D0005

Halliburton-CubaContract - 9/11Encyclopedia
N62470-00-D-0005 : "..Work will be performed at worldwide locations, to be
determined, when task orders are awarded. Work is expected to be complete by June ...
911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Halliburton-CubaContract.shtml - 8k - Cached - Similar pages

Halliburton's Kellogg Brown and Root Defense Contracts
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., is
the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005). ...
cryptome.org/dod-kbr.htm - 41k - Cached - Similar pages

Indymedia Norge: Guantanamo konsentrasjonsleir
... Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005). ...
contract (N62470-00-D-0005) for construction of a detention camp, Phase II, ...
www.indymedia.no/newswire/display/10586/index.php - 48k - Jun 11, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Chronology
... years. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk,
Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005). ...
www.biginsiders.org/newsandtrades. php?date=2003-05-12&ticker=HAL&days=30 - 26k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

Guantanamo Bay "GITMO"
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., is
the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005). The Naval Base includes, ...
www.globalsecurity.org/ military/facility/guantanamo-bay.htm - 25k - Cached - Similar pages

DoD News: Contracts for April 3, 2002
... contract (N62470-00-D-0005) for construction of a detention camp, Phase II,
at the Radio Range area of US Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ...
www.defenselink.mil/contracts/ 2002/c04032002_ct160-02.html - 32k - Cached - Similar pages

DEFENSE CONTRACT AUDIT AGENCY AUDIT REPORT NO. 3311-2002K11010001
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
During our audit we identified two contracts, N62470-00-D-0005 and DAAA09-02-D-
... The Navy CONCAP contracting office, contract number N62470-00-D-0005, ...
www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs_108_2/pdfs_inves/ pdf_admin_halliburton_contract_dcaa_audit_june_14_rep.pdf - Similar pages

The Agonist | thoughtful, global, timely
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., is
the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005). Guantanamo Bay "GITMO" ...
scoop.agonist.org/story/2005/6/5/113741/5569 - 24k - Cached - Similar pages

The Black Vault Forums-viewtopic-Contracts for December 14, 2004
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting
activity (N62470-00-D-0005). *Small Business ...
www.bvalphaserver.com/postt40576.html - 51k - Cached - Similar pages

Conspiracy Planet - Cheney/Halliburton Fraud - State Terrorism ...
... received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk,
Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005). ...
www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel. cfm?channelid=118&contentid=519&page=2 - 58k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

[shraby]

19. Who in the DOD was responsible

for letting this contract out for bids? Someone conceived the idea. Is there any way to find out if it was one of the neocons?

[Blue Belle]

45. It wouldn't necessarily have to be a neocon...

The person in charge of the contracts could have been easily "influenced" to choose KBR... this person could have been lured with a promotion or had a skeleton in their closet. You don't have to walk lock step with these assholes - you just have to be susceptible to their wrath.

[Just Me]

18. The basic contract was awarded on 6/29/00. This is an add-on,...

,...with a 300M cap. *LOL* Could that description be anymore, um, obvious.

It is interesting what one could derive examining these contracts.

Look at the first one on the page: an enormous communications contract which, appearing from the description, looks like a full-scale government propaganda machine.

[mzteris]

20. other reference - and a question

Cuba
1/7/02 " $400,000 " Guantanamo Bay (GTMO) Site Visit Navy
2/26/02 " $17,572,894 " GTMO 408-Unit Detention Camp Navy
4/3/02 " $11,902,296 " GTMO 204-Unit Detention Camp Navy
7/26/02 " $15,751,575 " GTMO 204-Unit Detention Camp Navy
9/19/02 " $50,000 " GTMO Survey and Planning Navy
11/22/02 " $4,196,304 " GTMO 192-Unit Detention Camp Navy
11/26/02 " $1,634,519 " GTMO Security Enhancements Navy
3/18/03 " $350,000 " GTMO Planning Navy
Total " $51,857,588 " " $51,857,588 "

http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2003/07/HalMapDetail.txt



Question: Who at the Pentagon was "approving" these?

[shraby]

21. Kick this thread to the top

Too important to drop off the screen.

:kick:

[Laura PourMeADrink]

65. kick

[Laura PourMeADrink]

66. kick

[bleever]

22. Rec'd, kicked. Very, very interesting. Very.

[Roland99]

23. What was William Cohen's involvement in this?

Was Clinton in or out of the loop?

[I Have A Dream]

25. Kick.

:kick:

[woodsprite]

28. I'd be really surprised if he were "out of the loop"

after all, isn't he snuggling up to Poppy, all nice like. He had a great presidency and I would infinetly rather him be there than our current misadministration. The more I think about it, I think dem politicians and repub politicians, for the most part, are all cut from pretty much the same dough, just using a different cookie cutter.

Then you have the few who really do care about this country and who stand head and shoulders above the rest. Wasn't Cohen really big into the HAARP project?

[Roland99]

40. Well, the Chemtrail crowd seems to be convinced he is.

[teach1st]

27. Also, could have been planning for Hatian refugees

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/guantanamo-bay.htm

[mod mom]

29. Could this be part of the (Google: rex 84) US concentration camps set up

under fema? Excuse my ignorance but I don't quite know who fema reports to, but I heard the the idea came about under Reagan (and of course bu$h senior) Any possible relation?

[Triana]

30. He wanted to invade Iraq before he was selected

That has been documented before. I don't have the links but maybe someone else does. He wanted the political capital that went with such an invasion or something like that.

[procopia]

31. There's also the ghost writer's story

Two years before 9/11, candidate Bush was already talking privately about attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer

Houston: Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.

“He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999,” said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. “It was on his mind. He said to me: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.’ And he said, ‘My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.’ He said, ‘If I have a chance to invade….if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”
http://www.gnn.tv/articles/article.php?id=761

[BlueEyedSon]

32. kick

[seemunkee]

34. New task order to an IDIQ contract

Lots of times a multi-year prime contract is awarded and then task orders are awarded for the contract holder. Since this is an indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity construction contract they simply request a new task of the contractor. I would expect them to have something in place for maintenance and construction at every base.

Need to read some more of the links here to see if I'm out of line but that's my read of the contract link posted.

[Bravo411]

35. This is a great find. It even pre-dates Sept 11, 2001.

Did somebody have something planed?

[Jack Rabbit]

38. It also pre-dates Bush's selection

Therefore, unless you think Clinton was planning the War on Terror and passed the plans off to his successor after the selction, this just doesn't wash.

In the nineties, Haitian refugees were held in open air behind barbed wire at Guantanamo. These conditions were severely criticized and rightly so. The government may have been seeking to upgrade the the dentention facilities in the event of something like that happening again.

[Toots]

47. This paragraph tells who it was intended for

More disturbingly, the fact was ignored, that this contract was already an upgrade of an older contract from 2000: "Halliburton Co. has been awarded a $9.7 million contract to build an additional 204-cell detention camp at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to hold additional suspected al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, the Pentagon said on Friday." http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0727-02.htm The full contract: Contract was filed in February 2001, but awarded in June 2000

[Jack Rabbit]

55. This does not show any prior planning for the war on terror

Here is a piece from CNN, dated January 2002, which refers to Camp X-Ray as having once been used to detain refugees from Haiti and Cuba in the nineties.

Did conditions at Camp need upgraded? Yes. Here is an article fron The Nation dated July 2003 documenting that.

If one is looking for evidence to document a conspiracy by the government to start the war on terror prior to September 11, 2001, you will have to look somewhere else. There was already a need to upgrade the detention center at Guantanamo prior to 2000 that had nothing to do with events anywhere but the Caribbean. When the decision was made after September 11 to use Guantanamo as a detention center for POWs from Afghanistan, there was need for even more cells. That the new cells were to be used for additional suspected al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners was something the Pentagon said in July 2002, by which time they were being used for that purpose rather than that originally intended.

[Bravo411]

39. Just caught something

The work was to be completed by Oct. 2002. After 9/11.

But that doesn't mean they didn't already have the irons in the fire.
Below is the June 29 2000 contract, and was set to expire by June 2001. Somehow things got postponed since this contract is referenced as the "Basic Contract" for the one in 2002.

Something doesn't quit jive with this whole thing.

-------------------------------------------------------

Brown & Root Services, Houston, Texas, is being awarded a maximum estimated $75,000,000 cost-plus-award-fee, indefinite-quantity/indefinite-delivery order contract with a guaranteed minimum of $100,000 for emergency construction capabilities. The total contract amount is not to exceed $300,000,000 (base year plus four option years). Work will be performed at worldwide locations, to be determined, when task orders are awarded. Work is expected to be complete by June 2001. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with 44 proposals solicited and three offers received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005).

[unblock]

36. i know EXACTLY, TO THE DAY, shrub planned on going to war vs. saddam

it was the day poppy announced he wasn't going to baghdad.

it all adds up. that's right about the time he "sobered up" and cleaned up his image into something politically saleable. it was then and there that he found a purpose in life, and that was to nail saddam in a way his father refused to do.

it's always struck me that that was always the only reason he every wanted to be president, or in politics at all. just to get revenge on saddam.

[KansDem]

44. You know, another thing struck me as funny then...

...although I didn't think about it much at the time.

Remember the GOP primary for 2000? There were 10 candidates vying to be the Republican nominee, and all except one participated in the usual campaign appearances leading up to the primaries. That one exception, of course, was George W. If I recall correctly, all GOP candidates, except George, showed up for the primary debates. And wasn't there a token appearance with Ross Perot at that time? All the candidates appeared except George W. I thought it odd that George W. was essentially absent and a no-show for many of these events, but now it doesn't seem so strange: he was slated to be the GOP nominee all along...

Republican primary
The Republican Party primary came down to a race between Texas Governor George W. Bush and Arizona Senator John McCain. McCain's campaign, centered on campaign finance reform, drew the most press coverage and the greatest popular excitement. Many Republicans complained that Democrats and other non-Republicans enrolled in the party for the express purpose of voting for McCain, thus skewing the results. Bush's campaign focused on "compassionate conservatism", including a greater role for the federal government in funding education and large reductions in the income and capital gains tax rates.

McCain won 48% of the vote to Bush's 30% in the New Hampshire primary, the first primary held, giving his campaign a great boost of energy, volunteers, and donations.

Other candidates included social conservative activist Gary Bauer, businessman Steve Forbes, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, former Ambassador Alan Keyes, former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander, former Red Cross director Elizabeth Dole, Ohio Congressman John Kasich, former Vice President Dan Quayle. Bauer and Hatch campaigned on a traditional Republican platform of opposition to legalized abortion and reductions in U.S. taxes. Keyes had a far more conservative platform, calling for the elimination of all federal taxes except tariffs. Forbes campaigned on making the federal income tax non-graduated, an idea he called the flat tax.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/U.S.-presidential-primaries,-2000

[zann725]

37. Good observation. Though I remember Election Night 2000...upon learning

Shrub won...several of my friends turned to each other and said, "Well...there's going to be a War, and a Recession."

There was no doubt that with a Shrub in office there would be a War soon. And budgetary problems.

According to the laws of Logic: "If 'A,' then 'B.'

[Hippo_Tron]

41. Great Carville Quote...

"A Republican friend told me that if I voted for Al Gore in 2000 and he won, the economy would go into recession, the defecit would skyrocket, and our military forces would be extremely over extended. Well I did vote for Gore, he did win, and I'll be damned if all of those things didn't happen."

[snot]

42. WOW. U shd re-post w/ title, CONTRACT FOR GITMO ENTERED 6/2000! nt

Or something a little more attention-grabbing.

[burrowowl]

43. No! Really!

I'm askance!

:sarcasm:

[thecrow]

48. KIck and keep kicked

[thecrow]

49. More Contracts February 26, 2002

No. 088-02
5 p.m. ET February 26, 2002

http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/2002/c02262002_ct088-02.html


Brown & Root Services, a division of Kellogg Brown & Root, Arlington, Va., was awarded today a $16,000,000 task order under a previously awarded cost reimbursement, indefinite-delivery and indefinite-quantity construction contract for construction of a 408-unit detention camp at the Radio Range area of U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Units will be of modular steel construction. Each unit measures 6 feet 8 inches by 8 feet and includes a bed, a toilet, and a hand basin with running water. Work will be performed in Guantanamo Bay and is to be completed by April 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The basic contract was competitively procured with 44 proposals solicited, three offers were received, and award was made on June 29, 2000. The total contract amount is not to exceed $300,000,000, which includes the base period and four option years. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-00-D-0005).

*******
On Edit: My question... Why 408 cells? Why not a round number?

[BigBearJohn]

51. GET THIS TO CONYERS!!!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

52. In 1997, a group of NeoCons, including Rummy, advised Clinton to....

...invade Iraq immediately. To that end, there are always military contingency plans drawn up for just about every country in the world.

When I was in the military from 1976 to 1981, we had contingency plans just as I described above. In fact, we nearly went to war with Iran in 1980 under the OPLAN "Gallant Knight" following the failed hostage rescue attempt.

Now, as to how the Gitmo facility contract was sold, it was probably sold as a facility needed for operations in Central and South America. That's the way these things get awarded...as part of a lie buried within half-truths.

[brindis_desala]

53. Traditionally Gitmo has been reserved for housing refugees.

In 1999 during the Balkans War the Clinton adminstration planned to house Kosovo refugees at Gitmo. Then abruptly the plan was scrapped even though the military had fixed the detention center up nicely in
a flash. The question is- was the reason benign... and why the need for (expensive) outside contractors?
http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/news99/uns99145.htm

[dogindia]

54. kick nt

[Laura PourMeADrink]

60. Curious. Who found this contract originally ? A DUer ?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

64. Clinton wanted to use GITMO for Kosovan refugees in 99 but it

was considered inhumane to take them so far from home. Found article on Lexis that said he was to scrap the plan. This was on 4/22/99.

Some of the article:HEADLINE: Guantanamo Bay refugee camp plan may be canceled; Idea put on hold because Kosovo refugees reluctant to leave Balkans region; WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA

SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS

BODY:
WASHINGTON -- Days after pledging to take up to 20,000 Kosovo refugees at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Clinton administration officials said yesterday that the plan has been suspended and may be shelved.

J. Brian Atwood, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development and coordinator of the Kosovo refugee plan, said the transfer of refugees to Guantanamo has been put on hold for at least this week because the Kosovo refugees don't want to leave the region.

"If they made us go there, we would go," said Miradije Shala, 38, an office manager from a small town called Klina, who like many other refugees felt the base was too far away from the homeland they still hope to return to. "But not unless they made us."

Said Atwood: "We aren't walking back on the strategy. The pressure to move people out isn't as great. We know people would prefer to stay in the region."

"I don't know that anyone in our government is that enthusiastic" about sending the refugees to the naval base, he added.

While emphasizing that the United States will retain the option of flying up to 20,000 refugees from Macedonia to the base, a top Clinton administration official said that "we don't have a first flight planned."

Instead, the United States will build refugee barracks for them in Albania, according to administration officials.

An administration official estimated that the United States was prepared to spend $1 million a day to house 20,000 refugees in Guantanamo for at least six months, or $180 million.

"That money would go a long way to rebuilding Albania and at the same time give the refugees the homes they want, " said the official who favored the Albanian option over Guantanamo.

At the Pentagon, officials insisted the plan to send refugees to Guantanamo had not been finalized and the initial stage of the crisis was passing.

"The immediate crisis of them having food and some shelter, the majority of that seems to be taken care of," said Rear Adm. Thomas R. Wilson, director for intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"We'll start being more deliberate in where they move, and the decision for them to go to Guantanamo has not been made yet."

These optimistic-sounding statements were made even as reports from the Kosovo region showed that tens of thousands of refugees are living in squalid conditions.

The United States joined nearly a dozen other countries in offering to accept refugees when Macedonia asked for immediate help, a gesture all the relief agencies applauded, even though they opposed the selection of Guantanamo.

But two days ago a group of American refugee organizations wrote to President Clinton opposing the Guantanamo base. They said "the inhospitable, isolated, prisonlike environment is inappropriate and would exacerbate the trauma and suffering they have already experienced."

"These people are not prisoners, they are refugees," said Michael Ratner, a lawyer for the nonprofit Center for Constitutional Rights in New York. "If this is a humanitarian operation, then the Kosovars should be brought to the U.S. mainland for safe haven and not put in Guantanamo, which is really a hellhole."

Among the chief opponents of the Guantanamo idea was the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which argued against the base "with its flavor of a detention camp" but also against the legal restrictions the United States would place on the refugees once they arrived in camps, refusing to give them any right of asylum.

"The whole idea of moving the refugees out of asylum near their homes is bad, moving out of the region is worse and Guantanamo is the worst of all," said Karen Abu Zayd, the UNHCR representative in Washington.

While the administration said the plan was being suspended because the crisis had eased, some foreign policy analysts said the reason had more to do with a realization by the administration that the refugee transfer would be a public relations disaster.

"It was a horrible mistake" to announce the Guantanamo plan, said Sherle Schwenninger, senior fellow at the World Policy Institute. He said U.S. officials probably realized after announcing the plan that it could be a replay of what happened when Haitian refugees were housed at Guantanamo.

"If you remember the images of refugees of Haitians behind barbed wire, this would have been a PR nightmare," he said. Schwenninger said the United States bears some responsibility for the refugees crisis and has a "moral responsibility" to open U.S. borders to the displaced Kosovars.

In a closed meeting yesterday with administration officials, more than 20 non- governmental organizations urged the White House to reconsider its plans to use Guantanamo for refugees.

"We feel very strongly that they ought to stop in their tracks and rethink this whole operation," said John Fredriksson, associate executive director of the U.S. Committee for Refugees, who did not attend the meeting but was familiar with it.

The Cuban government, while condemning NATO military action against Yugoslavia, has no objection to the use of Guantanamo as a refugee haven and also offered to cooperate in providing assistance.

So far, most ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo have wanted to stay as close to home as possible in the hope of returning, if only to learn what happened to other family members. Many men did not accompany their families, either because they wanted to stay and fight or because they were held back by the Serbs. Many are presumed dead.

But refugees are accepting some offers of asylum. Yesterday, German planes flew out 1,000 refugees who voluntarily agreed to leave Macedonia for Germany. Others were flown to Norway and Iceland.



LOAD-DATE: April 10, 1999
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