They work hard for the money. So hard for the money. I'm not talking about that waitress in the 80s video, I'm talking about the people hired to do PR for Halliburton. Why do they keep doing stuff like this? Why don't they wait until all this Guantanamo crap has died down? Its about as smart as committing murder when Jessica Fletcher is in town. Enough already!!
The Pentagon capped a week of intense debate on the future of its prison for terrorism suspects Friday with an announcement that
Vice President Dick Cheney's old firm will build a new, $30 million 220-cell prison block at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The $30 million will cover a two-story, air-conditioned building overlooking the Caribbean called Camp Six as well as a security fence. Work should be completed by July 2006 and will include day rooms, exercise areas and space for medical personnel to treat captives.
Amnesty International blasted the decision, noting it came as members of Congress have just begun debating the wisdom and cost-effectiveness of the detention project.
''Amid numerous calls to dismantle the facility, the administration instead plans to memorialize in bricks and mortar its decision to operate outside of the law,'' said deputy director Curt Goering.
The prison camp commander has said the new cells could ultimately replace portions of the more troop-intensive Camp Delta which was specially built for al Qaeda and Taliban suspects brought to the base from Afghanistan, starting in January 2002.
The prison camp already has a similar building called Camp Five -- with 100 single cells and a central monitoring system and locking hub, which requires fewer guards than Camp Delta.
With 520 prisoners at Guantánamo, the new building and electric fence could permit the Pentagon to consolidate more captives into the two buildings and likely decrease the number of soldiers guarding the prisoners and its perimeter.
Army Col. David McWilliams, a spokesman for the Southern Command, said the military had submitted the proposal for the more permanent structure long before the current debate. It was unclear why the announcement of its approval came this week.
Halliburton's KBR subsidiary already has done extensive work at the base in southeast Cuba. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said this week that prison camp construction has already cost about $100 million, and the Pentagon spends $90 million to $95 million a year to run it.
The Bush administration had initially included $41.8 million for the new prison and high-tech fence in its supplemental appropriations request that sought $81.9 billion in war-on-terror funding.
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
Entire Story
So that's why it was SOOO hard for me to pay my taxes this year. I sure hope the Halliburton CEO's trophy wife appreciate her new Mercedes convertible that I paid for.