US says 'no' to handing Guantanamo back to Cuba

[Zorro]

Source: AFP

Efforts to improve ties with Cuba will not extend to handing control of Guantanamo Bay back to Havana, the White House said on Thursday.

"The president does believe that the prison at Guantanamo Bay should be closed down," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "But the naval base is not something that we wish to be closed."

The base, on Cuba's southeastern tip, is currently the site of a large naval base as well as a deeply controversial prison used to detain terror suspects without trial.

Cuban President Raul Castro on Wednesday said handing back control of the 45 square mile (116 square kilometer) site was a precondition for normalizing ties with the United States.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/us-says-no-handing-guantanamo-back-cuba-201916697.html

[Cooley Hurd]

1. There it is...

A hundred years ago, we coerced the Cuban Government to give us a virtually-unlimited "lease", and we, apparently, cannot let it go, despite better options regarding base placement and how it affects national security...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban%E2%80%93American_Treaty

[7wo7rees]

2. Thought just the same. There it is.

Why though?
Why can we not just go home?
Why must we continue to occupy land in other countries?

[forest444]

4. I suspect they can't because too many bodies are buried there

figuratively and literally.

[happyslug]

5. The US Military love Guantanamo, due to its isolation.

Yes, the US has more isolated bases, Thule in Northern Greenland was considered the worse base (and to be sent they was viewed by many as some sort of punishment, i.e "who did you offend, and you were RIGHT and get them mad at you to be posted at Thule?", Officially Thule was NOT a punishment post, unofficially many people thought it was, especially for Officers,

Back to Guantanamo. It is the only US base that people on the base can NOT go into the town next to it. Everything is on base, if you want to go off base you have to fly to Florida. At the same time it is NOT US Soil, so US laws, outside of Military law, does not apply (Thus the massive resistance in the Courts to rule the long detention without a trial violates the US Constitution, the courts have ruled the application of the US Constitution outside the US is limited, and there have ruled the right to a speedy trial really does not apply to someone held in Guantanamo.).

Thus the US Military LOVES Guantanamo, the nearest non-Cuban area is Haiti, a place most people do NOT want to go to. In Guantanamo you are completely isolated from the rest of Society, even Michael Moore was threaten with hostile action as he sailed near Guantanamo (See Moore's Movie "SICKO" for the incident).

Thus the US loves Guantanamo for it is the most isolated US base (other then in the arctic and antarctic) in the world.

[MADem]

12. Better options? Not from a cost-benefit analysis....

I'm not getting into the whole "right or wrong" stuff, but from a practical standpoint, Gitmo is convenient, it's OFFSHORE (no "US rules" that can interfere with management, no minimum wage considerations for foreign nationals--Jamaicans, often as not--who are making good money from their POV), it has a well developed infrastructure, and it's compact. Oh, and it's built.

Again--I'm not talking about moral conversations, but practically speaking, Gitmo is a lot of bang for our buck, and close, too.

[libdem4life]

3. Ah, the White Man's Burden. So many conquests, so little gives a sh##.

[craigmatic]

6. Don't we still pay them for using the land?

[Adrahil]

8. Yeah, some pittance... Which they don't even accept, but...

... It's not really about that. It just a political symbol more than anything.

At least until Camp X-Ray.

[MADem]

13. We send the check, they don't cash it. nt

[Adrahil]

7. The Cubans are blowing it, IMO.

I think they could get Gitmo back, have the embargo lifted, and number of other things too once relations were restored as part of bilateral agreements, but by insisting on those things as preconditions, they aren't gonna get anything.

I think Obama would gladly negotiate Gitmo away. But not as a precondition. It won't happen, IMO.

We don't really need Cuba. If they don't wanna normalize, no skin off our nose.

[7962]

9. You are correct. nt

[cstanleytech]

11. I am not surprised really but imo until the time that the US changes its mind

Cuba should consider trying to get part of the area turned into a special economic zone instead.

[ReRe]

14. IMO

I don't know how we obtained it to begin with, but it should be given back so a real normalization can take place. Of course, the return could not take place until we clean it up and get all of our military junk out. How many years would that take? I say 10 years.