Is $100M Guantanamo Courthouse Necessary?

Pentagon's Plans For Another Facility To Try 60 People Are Questioned

(CBS)  The U.S. government already has a courthouse at Guantanamo Bay, but the Pentagon isn't satisfied, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports. It plans to spend $100 million of your tax dollars to build a huge new facility just down the hill.

"This is very expensive for the number of cases, 60, which they anticipate trying," says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

That's right, a $100 million courthouse to try about 60 cases. That's $1.6 million per defendant ... just for the building. The trials will cost many millions more.

Of course, these aren't run-of-the-mill defendants. They're terror suspects including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad. Still, both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are balking at the idea — and the cost — in private meetings with Defense Department officials.

"I asked them if they had looked at alternatives in the United States, looked at them, and the answer was no," Feinstein says. "I was surprised that they hadn't looked at Fort Leavenworth, at other places to build a courthouse, to bring these people over, to keep them in secure custody, to try them."

But this building will house more than courtrooms. The courthouse would sleep up to 1,200 people, there would be a dining facility for 800, and a garage big enough for 100 vehicles.

Tax watchdog Tom Finnigan of Citizens Against Government Waste says his radar antennae went up when the Pentagon recently tried to push the plans through Congress on an emergency basis without any votes.

"They tried to rush the funding through the process. That alone raises a red flag this could be a boondoggle in the works," Finnigan says.

No one from the Defense Department would agree to an interview, but a spokesman told CBS News the new facility is needed so more than one defendant at a time can be tried under heavy security. The trials could take years, and the space allows for lots of observers and reporters for maximum transparency, the Pentagon says.

It looks as though there's enough skepticism on Capitol Hill that the Pentagon will have to put the project through the formal processes in January, so Congress can actually vote on whether to spend $100 million of your money on a very special courthouse.

[itgranny]

why bother? these poor guys don't seem to be getting trials anyhow.

[onlyinva]

I cannot believe the 100 million dollar pricetag on the proposed prison at Gitmo. It breaks my heart to think the money will be spent when so much is needed here in the United States, in Afganistan and Iraq. Why has the United States become solely responsible for the prisoners? Why is it only the United States responsibility to bring these prisoners to trial?

[natural302]

$100 million in tax dollars to build a courthouse.
I don't think so! how stupid is that.

Dee dee dee!

[jhindson1]

Figures - This building will cost 10 times more than the US Supreme Court did - and this is before the cost *overruns* come in. It will cost 200 million if anyone approves it. AND IT WILL NEVER BE USED

I have a friend that works in the Pentagon, his job is purchasing, procurement, and contracting, I'll have to call him on this one to see who is trying to line their pockets with these contracts

[gramto7]

ncolsens,
Please ask him to try to keep Haliburton's hands off the deal!
I just do not believe that this 'courthouse' will ever be used as such. Most likely, these detainees will never see a court of any sort. They will simply be held indefinitely, or possibly they will be sent to another country who will look into the matter and find there was no reason to hold them to start with.

We recently read the military needed equipment in Iraq, but there was not enough money to buy what they needed. Now, we have money to build a courthouse? We have a perfectly good courthouse here in Kansas, they can try 2 criminals at a time, and it won't cost money that the middle class American can't afford to lose. How about it?

[msdawhip]

Why not come to Oklahoma City instead? We have an empty GM plant right next to a large Air Force base and we have already experienced terrorism first-hand from a U.S. citizen. The building also survived minimal damage from a killer tornado. Surely the Feds could learn something from a few episodes of a house-flip show and put walls up at the plant for less than a million bucks...

[tnichlsn]

They might want to use that money building a new 'high-end' prison in the Hague, because that's where the real criminals of this war (Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld) will be tried and sentenced.

[houser123]

Can anyone spell special interest payback? How can someone in our government who has any conscious try to push through such an ill conceived and wasteful "Emergency Appropriation" bill in the middle of the night when no one is supposedly watching. I don't care if these guys are supposed to be the worst of the worst, that's even more reason to not give them the type of accomodations that someone is saying is needed. Geez, these people never cease to astonish me, the next thing they will ask for is to build a
$1,000,000,000 apparatus to execute these guys. Has this administration totally sold out to special interest?

[observantx]

The courthouse would sleep up to 1,200 people, there would be a dining facility for 800, and a garage big enough for 100 vehicles.

What IS this? A courthouse or a spa?

They have a courthouse now. It should be sufficient to handle 60 prisoners. End of story. The court house needs to be big enough top handle the judges, the lawyers, the prisoner, a couple of file clerks, translators, a maintenance man, security and a couple of gofers. We are talking about 20 people or less.

The fact that someone tried to rush this through in the dead of night shows that our %u201Cconservatives%u201D are not conservative at all when it comes to spending our money. This $100 million is a nice fat backdoor payback for someone. We need to find out who the benefactor is and who the beneficiary is and run them all out of town.

[blondmadison]

There are plenty of places to hold trials. $100 million? Soooo Not necessary and it doesn't take a brain surgeon to know this!

I am sick of these people taking the taxpayers money, lying and duping the tax payer---sick of it. This is beyond not having a conscience--to blatant, in the face B.S.

Will it really cost 100 Million or is some of that going in their pockets? It's hard to know due to constant continous lies.

[blondmadison]

"The fact that someone tried to rush this through in the dead of night shows that our %u201Cconservatives%u201D are not conservative at all when it comes to spending our money. This $100 million is a nice fat backdoor payback for someone. We need to find out who the benefactor is and who the beneficiary is and run them all out of town."
Posted by ObservantX at 09:08 AM : Dec 19, 2006

Brilliant deduction Watson and well said.

[blondmadison]

"I am confused why would a concentration camp need a courthouse??"
Posted by jerryomara at 03:54 AM : Dec 19, 2006

You are sooooooooooo right! Good blogs today!

[nadeau4201]

EVERYONE PLEASE LOOK UP
www.newswithview.com/Craig/roberts10.htm
It is were America is headed.

[meboard]

Yet another perfect example of how this terrorism business has snowballed into a self serving means to keep and use unchecked power.

[grumpas]

No doubt Bush has Halliburton in mind to build it! It will probably wind up being another rape of the American taxpayer by the time Bush's cronies get through f......it completely up! I hope I never hear another Republican say they are fiscally conservative! I am sick to death of the squander! These people should be in jail!

[randalds]

The only possible use I could see for this would be as a secure place to hold the war crimes trials of George W. Bush and his Nazi-want-to-be cronies.

[randalds]

Good point grumpas. You know the people who should be the most angry at this administration are the true republicans. They got had even worse then the democrats who opposed them. This administration has dragged the conservative republican name through the filth by running up huge deficits. Real republican values are supposed to be about small government, low taxes (for everyone, not just the rich), no foreign entanglements, a balanced budget and staying out of peoples private business. True Barry Goldwater republican conservatives have been screwed by Bush and Cheney the past 6 years and Barry is no doubt spinning in his grave that they dare call themselves "conservatives" of any kind.

[rharrin1]

The answer is NO, we need to build a reservoir to stop this MONEY WATERFALL.

[bluestardad]

Is haliburton in on this? it sounds too good to be true.

[talkingham]

Well, that's only $1.4-million per prisoner but of course that doesn't include court costs and the costs of prosecution. Heck, this was only exceeded on a per prisoner basis by what the repubs spent to track down Clinton's sexcapades. These repubs really have their act in gear and their priorities organizized.

Why not build a $200-million courthouse we don't want to be outdone by Iran or the Saudis.

[oleander8]

For 60 detainees??? What's wrong with a tent??

[hvac1000]

Just pitch a tent. That is all they need.

[randalds]

Just pitch a tent. That is all they need.

Posted by hvac1000 at 01:33 PM : Dec 19, 2006

That works for the good folks of Marijo county in Arizona (Phoenix). They have a tent city for jail overflow. Of course the difference there is that the sheriff (even though he's pretty much an as*s on most things) is actually going to let his prisoners have a fair trial. Something the neocons have no intention of doing.

[randalds]

Maricopa county.

My sources tell me that this so called court house is to be built adjacent to the existing one, and that because Castro's health is ailing him, and that there might be a need for celebration upon his death, this building would not be for court but for countless politicians boon-doggles. The contractor has yet to be named.

[antoniof123]

The repbulican's should never have used the word conservitive. When they did they allowed the religious nuts in because they said hey this would work for me too. Of course you know how the religious nuts work, it works for them as long as it is there way. Then add the nazi's to the party and you have a real religious mess. The longer I live the more I relize that the Republican's only want one thing and that is to be rich and in charge. Well, not for all the republican's that is because the religious nuts they are okay with being poor as long as you do as they tell you. What else is new they are the worst sort of people. You see them in every country take a look at Iraq, Iran, and any other place where most of the problems are happening. I do not know about you but I am sick and tired of them and I wish they would go and form their own country away from the rest of us.

[sandy994]

This is an outrageous waste of money. We have millions of people going to bed hungry in the United States every night. Because of this Republican administration, we have deficits we will never be able to pay off. Lets hope when the Dems become the majority in January they cut the funding for this debacle right away. It would be cheaper to give each detaniee a thousand dollars and a ticket home. We would never hear from them again.Where is the oversight? Its coming in January.

[firststate]

No pentagon interview, saying nothing beats their habitual lies. Does this project mean that there are company directors who haven't been repaid many times their campaign contributions? Why should Stalag Guantanamo need a new courthouse? A room big enough for a desk and a person to use a rubber stamp should be big enough. The outcomes of the trials are known now. They have been convicted by bush and await rubber stamps on the paperwork to be signed by a judge, janitor or passerby. Der wannabe Fuhrer Bush has decided they're guilty. If not he's got to explain their apprehension & dentention.
Their trial rules:
Fair trial = defendant is convicted;
Good trial = conviction on all charges;
Excellent trial = conviction on all charges and advance guilty verdicts on some future charges.

The $100 million courthouse probably wouldn't be completed before the shrub is gone. The next holder of that office might be rational so that trials not completed will be conducted constitutionally, so that the courthouse wouldn't be needed. Then it could be renovated as a spa facility for pentagon brass. It'd only take about $150 million or so more as an emergency inclusion for either KBR or Parsons.

[tejasdemo]

I agree. Build a tent and have Cheney, Dumbya, Limpbaugh and Sean Hannity watch over them.

[tejasdemo]

What about trying them in the White House ? That way we could hold the impeachment trial for Bush at the same time.

[hangelle]

What a massive waste of money! I want my tax dollars back.

[vancouverboo]

Only the biggest and bestest for Our Show Trials.

[agnim]

'Easy come, easy go' the tax dollars!

When the government can so easily steal citizens monies as tax dollar, why not squander it. There is always more to fleece.

Talk about 'tax and squander'! LOL

And the hypocrites do the most squandering of Americans' hard earned wealth!

[catt42701]

I think the time is past asking them to find somewhere else. It's time to tell them to find a courthouse and secure holding cells for the prisoners stateside. They would be more secure stateside in the first place and it would be more transparent and there would already be somewhere for everyone to sleep.I also think it is time to write your congress person to tell them that, quickly, before they start building. Shame on them.

[randalds]

That's why they won't bring them here for the trial catt, because it'll be more transparent. The last thing this pathetic Bush government wants is to expose more of their lies, torturing and phony charges against people they have no evidence against. They swept these people up when they invaded Afghanistan by telling the drug lords they'd pay a bounty for every Taliban member they turn over to them. Of course every poppy farmer in the country used this as a chance to get rid of anyone who'd pis*sed them off, Taliban or not. Most of the people in Gitmo are there just because they happened to be in the wrong place (their home) at the wrong time.

[feelfree1]

I am in favor of this project. With the completion of this courtroom, we will then own a top-rate, full-service compound, with the capacity to detain, try, convict, and sentence the members of the illegitimate Bush-puppet regime.

An "illegal war of aggression" is regarded as an extremely serious offense in the eyes of U.S. ratified international law, of which, our public servants Constitutionally bound to uphold.

One relevant treaty is the Nuremberg Charter. Following WWII, the U.S. and others, used this treaty as a framework to try many top Nazi officials. The actions of these WWII Nazi, officials have many striking similarities to the heinous conduct of the Bush League and the rest of the neo-conservative/liberal movement.

Several of the leading WWII Nazi figures were sentenced to death by hanging. The globe will celebrate when our criminal "leadership" is finally brought to justice.

Guantanimo Bay would make an excellent location to process the Bush League global pirates through war-crimes tribunals. I'd even bet that Castro would extend the lease at no cost for this purpose.

[randalds]

Couldn't have said it better myself FeelFree1. I 2nd that motion. The crimes of the Bush administration certainly do mirror the Nazi crimes in many ways and Cuba would be a wonderful place to hold a Nuremberg type trial. I would hope of course that we bring international judges in however as it'll give the trials much more credibility. Also I think a more fitting punishment then outright hanging would be to turn them over to the families of the Iraqi's they've murdered and let them punish them themselves in what ever way the choose.

[firststate]

RandalDS, not bad yourself, let the Iraqi's handle it. I'll love to see his expression when he was dropped off in sadr city. He'd probably be willing to listen to his intellectual and moral superiors and really want his daddy to rescue him.

If you've ever read any of the stuff from the Nuremberg trials, the B-C team could have xeroxed the Nazi's statements as their strategy book. Hermann Goering said, "...the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." Sounds familiar, doesn't it? DI CKhas played Goering to the current war-criminal-in-chief.

[kata8]

Everyone must watch this video, concerning 9/11 and the evidence. The links are below.

http://911truthdvd.com/

Boston Air Traffic Controller Says 9/11 An Inside Job
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2006/141206trafficcontroller.htm

[randalds]

I have a quote back to ya that Bush must believe in too.

"How lucky it is for rulers, that men don't think" Adolph Hitler.

Personally I see Cheney as Goering too (fat, full of threats and darkness and possibly addicted to drugs), with Rove as Goebbels (sawed off little liar that he is) and Rice as a combination of Magda Goebbels and Eva Braun(devoted to der fuehrer and servicing him sexually at his command). Besides I could just see Condi in thigh-high leather boots with a whip. "You've been a very naughty president Bushy! A very very naughty president indeed!"

[sevenveils]

I support this decision for the new courthouse. I believe that besides those that are already captured, many more terrorists will pass through its halls in the years to come.

[randalds]

I support this decision for the new courthouse. I believe that besides those that are already captured, many more terrorists will pass through its halls in the years to come.
Posted by Sevenveils at 04:32 PM : Dec 20, 2006

I agree. Terrorists like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and (no we haven't forgotten you you little as*shole) Wolfowitz. It'll serve as a nice secure place to bring in judges from the Hague to conduct trials and then to ship the above named off to be dropped into Sadr City, after they're convicted of course.