Bushists demand $125 million to build kangaroo court system on Guantanamo

[BurtWorm]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/front/16158023.htm

Citing emergency authority, the Defense Department requested funds to build a war-crimes court compound at Guantánamo Bay.

BY CAROL ROSENBERG
[e-mail]


The Pentagon is invoking emergency authority to fast-track funding of a comprehensive war-crimes court compound at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to a letter to Congress obtained by The Miami Herald.

Department of Defense spokesmen would not say when -- if ever -- the Pentagon had last invoked similar authority.

Nor would they specify which military construction already approved by Congress would be frozen to fund the courtroom project, which could cost as much as $125 million, according to U.S. government documents.

But, in a Nov. 17 letter to several Republican and Democratic senators and House members, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England explains the unusual move this way:

``Due to national security implications and extreme urgency, emergency construction was authorized pursuant to Section 2808 of title 10, United States Code.''

Congressional staff members say the price tag and the funding mechanism have stirred protests among key members of Congress with fiscal and operational oversight of the Department of Defense.

The Pentagon wants to build, in three months, a mini-city on an abandoned airfield to stage the trials -- two new courtrooms with space for two more, dining, housing and work space for up to 1,200 military and civilians working at the trials, and media, conference and classified information centers.

[williesgirl]

1. This is bullshit. Dems need to cut off their funding. recommended

[datadiva]

2. Man, what the hell else are they going to try to get away with.

This is just wrong. On all kinds of levels. Thanks for posting this, recommended.

[Supersedeas]

3. yet another Halliburton slush fund

[alfredo]

4. He wants to be able to execute as many as possible. Dead

men tell no tales.

[BurtWorm]

5. kick

[ArmchairMeme]

6. Question

If these people are indeed a threat to the U.S. it would seem appropriate to use the current U.S. court system to prove it.

I become suspicious that these people are merely being held to provide PR for * and that they were merely offered from paid sources, and are not really threats and this can be proven and therefore it has to be kept very secret to avoid the embarrasment to * that would be revealed in court that these 800 or so people have been held without cause. So many of them have been released, freed to go back to their world no strings attached.

[RethugAssKicker]

7. The US is occupying Guatanamo illegally... Get the fuck out of Cuba