Southcom wants to expand Guantánamo’s ‘balsero’ camp infrastructure

Southcom wants to expand Guantánamo's 'balsero' camp infrastructure
BY CAROL ROSENBERG CROSENBERG@MIAMIHERALD.COM
03/13/2015 9:30 AM 03/13/2015 9:30 AM

The head of the U.S. Southern Command asked Congress on Thursday for $28
million to upgrade a pop-up tent city at the U.S. Navy base at
Guantánamo that could be used in case of a Caribbean migrant surge.

Marine Gen. John F. Kelly included the bid for funding in a statement at
the Senate Armed Services Committee that made no mention of an earlier
request for $69 million to build a new prison for former CIA captives at
the detention center.

It was unclear whether Kelly had dropped the new Camp 7 building
ambitions, or just left it out of his testimony, possibly his last at
the Senate before wrapping up a three-year stint as Southcom commander
in November. His spokeswoman, Army Col. Lisa Garcia, said she was "not
aware of a new Camp 7 request."

Kelly also put in a pitch to keep the remote U.S. Navy base in Cuba,
calling its airfield and seaport "indispensable," and highlighting its
"crucial role" as a staging area for migrants intercepted at sea and
possibly future disaster relief operations in Latin America and the
Caribbean.

The Cuban government has insisted that the U.S. military should leave
the 45-square mile outpost in southeast Cuba as part of normalization of
diplomatic relations. The Obama administration has said withdrawal is
not up for negotiation.

Kelly said the $28 million would go to "basic horizontal infrastructure"
at the base "in the event of a maritime mass migration," a potential
regional challenge for which the U.S. military trains annually.

In 2002, the Bush administration built the current war-on-terror
Detention Center — where about 2,000 soldiers and other staff imprison
some 122 detainees — atop the old tent city migrant interdiction site
for potentially tens of thousands of boat people found at sea trying to
reach the United States.

The White House and Southcom have since spent millions of dollars
setting up an alternative site — a ferry boat ride away from the prison
complex — with a sewage treatment plant, clinic, administrative
buildings and hundreds of toilets, showers and laundry facilities as
well as the infrastructure for a pop-up tent city. It has never been
used. Last year, for example, the White House ruled out using the
facility for the mass migration of Central American children that
overwhelmed the Texas border.

Kelly suggested the investment so far was insufficient for a theoretical
crisis in the Caribbean. "Without this funding, we will not be able to
quickly house the required number of migrants without compromising
United Nations' standards and placing severe constraints on current
operations at the Naval Station," he testified.

The general also salted his testimony with figures:

▪ U.S. forces and their partners have interdicted 158 metric tons of
cocaine worth $3.2 billion wholesale before reaching the U.S. market.

▪ Iranian Embassies have tripled in the region during his nearly
three-year stint as the top U.S. military officer overseeing Latin
America and the Caribbean.

▪ The Guantánamo prison "supported" 14 days of war court hearings in the
Sept. 11 case and 16 days of hearings in the USS Cole case.

Court records show the 9/11 case only held five days of hearings in 2014
after the discovery of an FBI attempt to turn a defense team member into
an informant brought most pretrial proceedings to a standstill.

Kelly, whose command is handling equal-opportunity complaints against
two military judges by some female guards at Guantánamo, was most
passionate in his defense of U.S. troops working as guards at the
controversial detention center that opened in 2002.

"The only people not treated humanely or having their human rights
protected are the guards, especially our female and minority ones,"
Kelly said.

"Many detainees," he said, regularly confront their guards with verbal
and physical abuse and "splashings" — a reference to prisoners kept in
solitary confinement who hurl their feces and other bodily fluids at
their guards.

Under questioning from Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., the general was
dismissive of a religious accommodation complaint made by some accused
war criminals who said the prison recently added female guards to escort
teams, and to touch them for the first time in their detention. The
captives claim the new practice violates their traditions and strict
interpretations of Islam that forbids being touched by any women but
close family.

The Marine general called the issue bogus — "Anyone that knows anything
about the Moslem religion knows that it's not against their religion"—
and said it was the latest unfounded complaint by captives over
treatment that included false allegations of Koran desecration and
genital searches.

"As soon as it's over it'll be, 'We don't want to be touched by Jews. Or
we don't want to be touched by black soldiers. Or we don't want to be
touched by Roman Catholics,' " Kelly said.

The general said the five alleged Sept. 11 plotters and "the Cole
bomber" were litigating the issue in their military commission cases,
where the Pentagon prosecutor is seeking their execution, if they are
convicted.

"It's beyond me why we even consider these requests," Kelly said. "But
I'm not a lawyer. I'm not smart enough to figure this out."

Southcom's spokesman, Garcia, said he later in the day told reporters he
misspoke and the man accused of killing 17 sailors as the alleged
mastermind of al-Qaida Oct. 12, 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole of
Yemen didn't object to be touched by female guards.

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Source: Southcom wants to expand Guantánamo's 'balsero' camp
infrastructure | Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article13982705.html