Posted on 01/04/2018 12:51:49 PM PST by ransomnote
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Behind the scenes, the U.S. military is planning for nearly a half-billion dollars in new construction during the Trump administration, including a Navy request to build a $250 million, five-bed hospital here that has been singled out for study by a Senate committee.
Despite President Donald J. Trump's campaign promise to reduce costs at the remote U.S. Navy base -- at one point he mused that his new Cuba policy might import cheap, local labor from across the minefield -- the Pentagon's appetite to spend at this outpost of about 5,500 residents and 41 wartime prisoners continues unsated.
In two other major projects, Congress is poised to give the Army $124 million to build a new barracks for 848 prison troops to be ready four years from now. And on a different corner of the base, the Pentagon is soliciting bids of up to $100 million to build a skeletal structure for a 13,000-migrant tent city and housing for 5,000 U.S. forces.
But it was the hospital plan that prompted the Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee to ask Defense Secretary James Mattis to conduct an analysis of "remote locations with high family support costs" -- noting the "proposed $250 million replacement hospital at Guantanamo Bay would cost $50 million per bed."
The Senate tasked Mattis to undertake a "comprehensive study" that essentially asks the Pentagon to take a hard look at the costs of bringing families to distant, remote places like Guantanamo Bay and Kwajalein in the South Pacific. The Pentagon proposes to build 52 family homes at a cost of $1.3 million each on the atoll in the Marshall Islands. The Senate, however, called small post, so-called unaccompanied tours, costly, "which is a primary reason why locations such as Diego Garcia are unaccompanied."
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
5,000? Why?
This sounds nuts.
My earlier proposal of pushing Muslim terrorists out of helicopters over the Atlantic remains the cheapest option.
I hope that's a misprint.
Qanon knows.
Hopefully looking ahead to thousands of new prisoners after future the “deepstate” coup investigations...
Crazy.
Heck, build a private resort hotel with a military discount- and make a profit!
OBama spent 744k on 1 soccer field at Gitmo...for a place he was trying to close ?
$250 million for a five-bed hospital? Uhmmmm Red Lined.
But the Army can build for only $124 million a new barracks for 848 prison troops? That $250 million hospital is looking stupider
The Pentagon proposes to build 52 family homes at a cost of $1.3 million each on the atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Freakin Mansions can be built for that….
My preference is to launch them from the tube of a submarine...
Hillary is going to need that hospital.
Only the best for the Clinton crew.
I can build a prison there for a heck of a lot less than 500 million.
Meh - muslims or Clintons - I saw drop them ALL out of a chopper - waaay out in the Atlantic.
Hitlary doesn’t need a hospital. She needs a change of venue. Some place warmer.
High price tag. How much do waterboards cost?
I hope there is a big "Hell No" to that assinine request.
Guantanamo is NOT remote— it is isolated because of the Cuban regime, the double fence and Cuban laid mine field that surrounds it, that’s true. A very short flight from Miami, and/or Key West. The housing is 1950’s cement block, there’s a Mcdonalds and KFC and a whole lot else. It ain’t Kwajalein, nor is it Diego Garcia.
Friend was military hospital commander at Gitmo, a US Navy Captain back in the 60’s. They started a bank on base for the Cuban nationals day laborers and every night, when they went back into Cuba they were searched and had what ever money they had on them stolen. Hence the bank and the referral for emigration. Was a while ago. And the labor was cheaper, and really pissed off Castro. Cuban govt. still takes 50% of any fisherman’s catch.
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