I love talking about Gitmo. Do you?

NOTE: I posted this on January 5, 2022.

The Meitryx:

Pentagon Retreats From Transparency At Guantanamo Bay, Builds New Secretive Room

The Pentagon is building a new $4 million war court chamber at Guantanamo Bay that will not allow for public access, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Interesting…

The new courtroom is expected to begin holding proceedings in 2023. Two military judges will be able to hold proceedings at the same time in the new chamber, and it will hold smaller cases, the NYT reported.

https://dailycaller.com/2021/12/30/pentagon-retreats-from-transparency-at-guantanamo-bay-builds-new-room/

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If you haven’t read this, you should

“Including Omicron

They’re fucked. They’re all completely fucked.” — Julians Rum

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Patel Patriot:

On January 22, 2009 (Second full day in office) Obama signed EO 13492 which was supposed to close the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2009/01/27/E9-1893/review-and-disposition-of-individuals-detained-at-the-guantaacutenamo-bay-naval-base-and-closure-of

However he never succeeded in getting it shut down.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/01/why-obama-has-failed-to-close-guantanamo

It was reported in August of 2017 that Trump was going to spend $500M on construction at GITMO.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/trump-plans-500m-spend-on-guantanamo-bay-construction/503110/

Biden set out to close Guantanamo 

From a Feb 12, 2021 NPR article: 

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/12/967480526/biden-administration-aims-to-close-guantanamo-bay-prison

The DOD is again doing something different than what the Biden Admin is publicly saying they want.

From April 22 2021: https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2582656/

Here is the contract details (You only get a few opportunities to look at this site before they put it behind a paywall so you may need to clear your cookies and browser to view multiple times)

https://govtribe.com/award/federal-contract-award/delivery-order-n6274216d3552-n6945019f0500

I could be wrong, but my understanding is the original contract with Vectrus Systems has built-in options to continue working on specified projects. The April 22, 2021 agreement was exercising option one. 

So this appears to be a project started under Trump now being fulfilled under Biden’s “presidency”.

This GITMO situation is another instance of something happening behind the scenes that we don’t have the full scope of. 

At its peak, there were over 700 detainees at GITMO. Currently there are 39.  

Why are they adding an additional courthouse (Among other things) with a declining prisoner population?

What are they anticipating?

In January of 2018, Trump issued EO 13823: Protecting America Through Lawful Detention of Terrorists

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/02/02/2018-02261/protecting-america-through-lawful-detention-of-terrorists

It is interesting that the section pictured from Trump’s EO doesn’t necessarily state terrorists, but just states “the US may transport additional detainees to U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay When lawful and necessary to protect the Nation.”

Can’t wait to see how this plays out!