Posted on 01/29/2009 1:06:13 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Havana - For more than a century, the United States has controlled the Guantanamo naval base in eastern Cuba for a measly $4,085 in lease fees per year. Cuba has long refused to cash the checks.
Now, with President Barack Obama ordering the prison for terrorism suspects at the base closed within a year, Cuba is renewing demands that the U.S. hand over the entire base.
"We have always said that Cuba expects to recover this territory," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Wednesday, after announcing that Cuba was inviting the U.N. special investigator on torture to visit the island this year.
The U.S. military base was built on land permanently leased from Cuba under terms dating back to 1903. For the Bush administration, a foreign naval base under full American control was the perfect place for holding and interrogating suspected terrorists. Many Guantanamo prisoners said they were beaten and tortured at the hands of the United States.
"Cuba is a country where in the last 50 years there has not been a single person 'disappeared,' case of torture nor extrajudicial execution," Perez Roque said.
Cuba holds more than 200 political prisoners and fails to respect basic rights such as freedom of speech and assembly, according to rights monitors. The state considers the prisoners mercenaries working for the United States to undermine the communist system.
On Wednesday, Perez Roque said Obama's presidential order to close the20controversial detention center was "positive" but "insufficient."
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
I’ll bet that prisoners at Gitmo are treated better than people with AIDS in Cuba.
Oh, wait zer0 is POTUS now....
Jimmy Carter handed over the Panama Canal. I wonder if Barry Hussein will follow along and Hand over Gitmo?
Carter gave away the Panama Cannel so it would not surprise me in the least for Obama to give away Guantanamo.
“... I wonder if Barry Hussein will follow along and Hand over Gitmo?”
Of course he will.
Maybe the apartheid government of Cuba can just hand Cuba over to the Cubans.
Cuba, one end of the AIDS treatment spectrum, and the U.S. the other end of the AIDS treatment spectrum. We should have met somewhere in the middle.
Allowing folks to knowingly infect others in mass, was a mistake that reached a certain level of criminality IMO.
As for Guantanamo, Obama will surrender and beg Cuba not to, “Hurt me.”
> “Cuba is a country where in the last 50 years there has not been a single person ‘disappeared,’ case of torture nor extrajudicial execution,” Perez Roque said.
Cuba holds more than 200 political prisoners and fails to respect basic rights such as freedom of speech and assembly, according to rights monitors. The state considers the prisoners mercenaries working for the United States to undermine the communist system.
Looks like the writer for the article doesn’t have any sympathy for Cuba either.
Yes dear, right away dear. Anything else, dear?
To Cuba: Molon Labe!
would like to see him try
He sure will, his balls haven’t dropped yet.
Well, there were the 400 people Che offed at La Cabana. And then Armando Valladares wrote a book about how lovely it was for him in the enlightened Cuban penal system. I don't think that dog's going to hunt, Mr. Roque.
My prediction is that Obama will normalize relations with Cuba very soon. I’ve been saying within the first year of his administration unless he loses his nerve for some reason.
And my further prediction has been that he will negotiate for Guantanamo to be a joint US/Cuban base. And he’ll probably grant them an enormous increase in the rent and make it retroactive. Maybe adding up to billions. Enough to bring Cuba back from the brink and give all the old commies a well-healed investment portfolio, at least the ones in Raul’s inner circle, and the generals in the high command.
So I’m curious to see how good is my crystal ball. I keep repeating my prediction so when I’m wrong I won’t be able to deny predicting it.
If we do, which I hope we don’t, we should destroy all buildings, the Airfield and the Docks. Let those commie bastards rebuild it. Then again, we would probably tear it down and THEN rebuild it for them.
Ah yes, Minister Roque. I am the president Obama. Would you like me to bend over lower and unzip your pants for you?
Send Halibuton in there to dig up every inch of that base and dump it 15 miles out at sea.
Does this surprise anyone? This is almost identical to what happened in Great Britain as the sun set on that once-great empire. Third-rate nobodies began to spit in John Bull’s face and he meekly cringed and watched his holdings dwindle.
Be assured: if we hand over Gitmo, it will set a precedent that will ultimately cost America all its territorial interests around the world.
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