US to build massive prison in Afghanistan costing millions
88 replies, posted
[b]Source:[/b] [url=http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/]Linkage[/url]
[quote]As the Obama administration announced plans for hundreds of billions of dollars more in domestic budget cuts, it late last week solicited bids for the construction of a massive new prison in Bagram, Afghanistan. Posted on the aptly named FedBizOps.Gov website which it uses to announce new privatized spending projects, the administration unveiled plans for "the construction of Detention Facility in Parwan (DFIP), Bagram, Afghanistan" which includes "detainee housing capability for approximately 2000 detainees." It will also feature "guard towers, administrative facility and Vehicle/Personnel Access Control Gates, security surveillance and restricted access systems." The announcement provided: "the estimated cost of the project is between $25,000,000 to $100,000,000."
In the U.S., prisons are so wildly overcrowded that courts are ordering them to release inmates en masse because conditions are so inhumane as to be unconstitutional (today, the FBI documented that a drug arrest occurs in the U.S. once every 19 seconds, but as everyone knows, only insane extremists and frivolous potheads advocate an end to that war). In the U.S., budgetary constraints are so severe that entire grades are being eliminated, the use of street lights restricted, and the most basic services abolished for the nation's neediest. But the U.S. proposes to spend up to $100 million on a sprawling new prison in Afghanistan.
Budgetary madness to the side, this is going to be yet another addition to what Human Rights First recently documented is the oppressive, due-process-free prison regime the U.S. continues to maintain around the world:
Ten years after the September 11 attacks, few Americans realize that the United States is still imprisoning more than 2800 men outside the United States without charge or trial. Sprawling U.S. military prisons have become part of the post-9/11 landscape, and the concept of "indefinite detention" -- previously foreign to our system of government -- has meant that such prisons, and their captives, could remain a legacy of the 9/11 attacks and the "war on terror" for the indefinite future. . . . .
The secrecy surrounding the U.S. prison in Afghanistan makes it impossible for the public to judge whether those imprisoned there deserve to be there. What’s more, because much of the military's evidence against them is classified, the detainees themselves have no right to see it. So although detainees at Bagram are now entitled to hearings at the prison every six months, they're often not allowed to confront the evidence against them. As a result, they have no real opportunity to contest it.
In one of the first moves signalling just how closely the Obama administration intended to track its predecessor in these areas, it won the right to hold Bagram prisoners without any habeas corpus rights, successfully arguing that the Supreme Court's Boumediene decision -- which candidate Obama cheered because it guaranteed habeas rights to Guantanamo detainees -- was inapplicable to Bagram. Numerous groups doing field work in Afghanistan have documented that the maintenance of these prisons is a leading recruitment tool for the Taliban and a prime source of anti-American hatred. Despite that fact -- or, more accurately (as usual), because of it -- the U.S. is now going to build a brand new, enormous prison there.
One last point: recall how many people insisted that the killing of Osama bin Laden would lead to a drawdown in the War on Terror generally and the war in Afghanistan specifically. Since then -- in just four months since bin Laden's corpse was dumped into the ocean -- the U.S. has done the following: renewed the Patriot Act for four years with no reforms; significantly escalated drone attacks in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan; tried to assassinate U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki with no due process; indicted a 24-year-old Muslim for "material support for Terrorism" for uploading an anti-American YouTube clip after he talked to the son of a Terrorist leader; pressured Iraq to keep U.S. troops in that country; argued that it has the virtually unlimited right to kill anyone it wants anywhere in the world; and now finalized plans to build a sprawling new prison in Afghanistan. If that's winding things down, I sure would hate to see what a redoubling of the American commitment to Endless War looks like.
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Oh because we really need one and that is what will help us in our economical needs.
Maybe the US prisons wouldn't be so overcrowded if people weren't being sentence to # years for a drug related crime?
Really? A prison that the goverment can barely afford? Just legalize the weed.
EDIT: Title says it's building in afghanistan?
[QUOTE=lolo;32390114]Really? A prison that the goverment can barely afford? Just legalize the weed.[/QUOTE] also cut the military budget
[QUOTE=lolo;32390114]Really? A prison that the goverment can barely afford? Just legalize the weed.
EDIT: Title says it's building in afghanistan?[/QUOTE]Bagram, Afghanistan.
This is dumb.
So US Government cut NASA budget to build huge prison in Afganistan, so USA can police the world.
Why? More waste of money.
[QUOTE=Appolox;32390193]So US Government cut NASA budget to build huge prison in Afganistan, so USA can police the world.[/QUOTE]
Sadly, that seems to be the case.
How about you try and figure out that debt problem before you create more shit you have to pay for?
The US military are so definitely pulling out of Afghanistan, yeah. Definitely.
Cool story, USA.
And you all bitch on us for wanting to build a mountain :rolleyes:
This is fucking stupid.
Edit: start trialing those guys and putting them into normal prisons or release them and be done with it. Does US really afford another massive torture facility?
Edit2: if you're going to build another prison, build it on your home soil to make it actually useful.
Yeah that'll sure get the Afghan people on your side when they see you building a huge prison in their country.
[QUOTE=Nubsy;32390258]The US military are so definitely pulling out of Afghanistan, yeah. Definitely.[/QUOTE]
[quote]One last point: recall how many people insisted that the killing of Osama bin Laden would lead to a drawdown in the War on Terror generally and the war in Afghanistan specifically. Since then -- in just four months since bin Laden's corpse was dumped into the ocean -- the U.S. has done the following: renewed the Patriot Act for four years with no reforms; significantly escalated drone attacks in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan; tried to assassinate U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki with no due process; indicted a 24-year-old Muslim for "material support for Terrorism" for uploading an anti-American YouTube clip after he talked to the son of a Terrorist leader; pressured Iraq to keep U.S. troops in that country; argued that it has the virtually unlimited right to kill anyone it wants anywhere in the world; and now finalized plans to build a sprawling new prison in Afghanistan. If that's winding things down, I sure would hate to see what a redoubling of the American commitment to Endless War looks like.[/quote]Pulled out of the article.
Fucking stupid.
US seems to like their prisons, but it's time that they that fix the root of the problems rather than locking everyone behind bars.
This would've been good if it wasn't for the poor economy now. They should've done this years ago. Would've saved money deporting them too.
Financial crisis ? Nope, not for the [B]A R M Y[/B]
First of all, the price of the prison would be at [I]most[/I] 0.007% of the current US debt(last I checked, 14 trillion).
The Government isn't one massive institution that decides everything. This particular project was posted by the [B]Department of the Army[/B], so the money are coming out of their budget, it's not just some extra expense.
As the URL of this article rightly states, this is an opinion piece, and really shouldn't be considered news as it's obviously skewered. The author does a very good job of making it look like Obama personally signed off on the construction of a second Guantanamo Base. He also appears to be implying that the prison would be used for American citizens aswell, by bringing overcrowding of domestic prisons into the article when it has absolutely no relevance to the piece.
In short: This article is biased as fuck, and this thread is dumb.
ITT: Only "insane extremists" and "frivolous potheads" think the 'war on drugs' is a complete waste of valuable resources which are desperately needed elsewhere.
Wow.
[QUOTE=Marbalo;32391269]That doesn't change the fact that this is a completely retarded and an unnessecary waste of money.[/QUOTE]
Considering the [URL=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/13/afghanistan.taliban/index.html]security[/URL] of [URL=http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-18/world/afghanistan.prison.escape_1_taliban-inmates-taliban-militants-prison?_s=PM:WORLD]afghan[/URL]-led [URL=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13184920]prisons[/URL], I'd say the purchase is justified.
Didn't they try this once before? But in like Iraq or something?
"I'm gonna close Guantanamo Bay in the next year or so!"
[SUB][SUB][sub]nevermind, they won't let me do that, i'll just build another prison[/sub][/sub][/SUB]
what a waste of fucking money
FUCKING WHY.
Just over 9% of the US population is unemployed and they want to spend millions building a prison in the fucking desert?! GAH!
[QUOTE=Bishop869;32392217]Just over 9% of the US population is unemployed and they want to spend millions building a prison in the fucking desert?! GAH![/QUOTE]
It's higher then that, we don't count the people who have just given up looking for a job, we only count those actively looking for work.
Surely this will come out of the insane defence budget, so the money has probably been set aside for ages for it.
Or will it be like the UK where "international development" funding goes to building things like this (and funding India's space program).
I've given up hope for this country. What can we do?
Can't they build with Hesco barriers and cargo containers, like how they build buildings there?
I hate to use this stupid meme, but:
The People of the United States didn't ask for this.
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