Scientists Propose Biodiversity Lab To Redeem Guantanamo Prison Camp

HughPickens.com writes: The American presence at the Guantanamo Prison Camp has been deeply contentious since even before terrorism suspects began to be housed there beginning in 2002. Now as President Obama prepares to make the first presidential visit to Cuba in almost 90 years, ecologists Joe Roman and James Kraska have published their case in the influential journal Science for creating a Guantanamo-based research center to study biodiversity in the Caribbean. The primary benefit of a Guantanamo Bay research station is symbolic. "The main goal is trying to take Guantanamo and make it an inspiring place, and redeem it," says Roman. But the case for Guantanamo Bay as a science lab goes beyond political optics. According to Roman and Kraska the land and the sea offer an ecosystem uniquely worthy of study. The research hub of Roman's dreams would be a state-of-the art facility to help understand how biodiversity loss can be prevented across the Caribbean. "A parcel of the land, perhaps on the developed southeastern side of the base, could become a 'Woods Hole of the Caribbean,' housing research and educational facilities dedicated to addressing climate change, ocean conservation, and biodiversity loss. With genetics laboratories, geographic information systems laboratories, videoconference rooms — even art, music, and design studios — scientists, scholars, and artists from Cuba, the United States, and around the world could gather and study. The new facilities could strive to be carbon neutral, with four 80-meter wind turbines having been installed on the base in 2005, and designed to minimize ecological damage to the surrounding marine and terrestrial ecosystems" Hugh Pickens continues: According to Roman, the main idea is that science can be healing: a way to bring diverse nations together, a way to rectify a complicated history, and a way to help better the lives of all people through research. The biggest roadblock won't be the Obama administration but Congress. Republican lawmakers have derided Obama's preliminary framework for closing the prison, so for the foreseeable future, the status quo will remain. But Roman can still dream. "At a certain point, I don't know when, that base is going to close. It's going to return to Cuba at some point. This is a great use of that property. You don't have many places in the world like that."

Comments

its not that convenient.

[nimbius]

to Redeem Guantanamo Prison Camp...

there is no redemption in a torture camp. Auschwitz and Dachau didnt find salvation in an agricultural or a climate research institute. Instead they perist in silence, discipline, and remorse as a sterling reminder of some of the most profound human genocide mankind has ever committed. Many israeli jews, including new IDF troops, make a pilgrimage to these sites yearly to remember.

Prisoners at Guantanamo have been beaten, waterboarded, subjected to forced intubation and rectal feeding, extreme temperatures, and have experienced some of the most brutal and least reported abuse under the US governments authority that any human has seen in the 21st century outside of Darfur. Some prisoners have been kidnapped from their home countries under extraordinary rendition, and others simply scooped up during the occupation campaign in Iraq. Once theyre free, many are in limbo as their home countries no longer want them and no foreign nation will consider them for immigrant status.

Re:its not that convenient.

[rmdingler]

Guantanamo is not a source of pride for many Americans, and yet, the bulk of the human rights violations that did exist there were flushed out by the American people and the US press.

Yes. Obama was unable to fulfill that campaign promise, and the base should be converted to something else, but comparing this to the WWII concentration camps is a bit much.

These people are being held without American constitutional protection, but they are, by and large bad guys, and they were not indiscriminately rounded up man, woman, and child because of their race.

Re:its not that convenient.

[KGIII]

I'd say the mass killing, slavery, burning, starvation (we definitely won't let them starve), lack of health-care, etc... Nah, there's still a whole lot of differences.

That doesn't mean that I like it - it just means you're minimizing the hell out of the WWII era NAZI concentration camps when you compare the two. I don't give two shit but I suspect somewhere there are people who'd be either appalled or angry with your doing so. I've been to two of the old camps and I've seen a lot of documentaries as well as read a bunch of books.

Maybe you just don't know what happened in them? They're not even remotely similar. Not really. That doesn't mean this isn't a tragedy in and of itself but, c'mon now... That's pretty hyperbolic, don't you think? Or do you really not know what went on in them?

Primarily a Naval Base

[Attila Dimedici]

Guantanamo Bay is primarily a U.S. Navy Base. It is only secondarily, if that, a prison camp for those who made war against the U.S. outside of the boundaries of the Geneva Convention (this may not be true of all of those imprisoned there, but that is the justification for the prison camp aspect).

Guantanamo Bay is the best harbor in the Caribbean for Naval operations and the U.S. has retained control over it for that reason.

Re:Give it back?

[Gavagai80]

The USA claims that Guantanamo Bay is a lease as well, not a conquest. Analogy: It's like renting an apartment from your brother at a super low token rate of $50 a month. Then he dies and the new owner of the complex tries to evict you. You refuse to leave the apartment and send the new owner a $50 check every month which he refuses to cash, and you tell everyone that this is a legal lease where you have every right to stay in the apartment for as long as you pay your $50 a month. For the next 55 years, because you're the one lucky renter who has more guns than the police who come to evict you.

Re: Give it back?

[ganjadude]

ok lets be serious for a minute.

we cant compare gitmo to Auschwitz.

stop.... just....stop

Re: Give it back?

[ganjadude]

you can...but you would be a moron if you did