Pentagon Officials Point to Need for Elder Care at Guantanamo Bay
In January 2018, Donald Trump issued an order to keep the detention facility at Guantanamo open, with the potential for the Pentagon to add new prisoners. Following that decision, Pentagon officials, described in some accounts as being “unusually frank,” discussed the need for long-term care facilities for aging prisoners who will grow old and frail. From an article in The Military Times:
The Pentagon was investing in upgrades at the Navy base under President Barack Obama, whose push to shutter the detention center couldn’t overcome opposition in Congress. But those projects, including the $150 million barracks, were funded with the understanding that they could be used by the personnel of the Navy base that hosts the detention center. Now they are viewed as part of a broader effort to be able to operate the prison for many years to come.
“Now my mission is enduring,” said Adm. John Ring, commander of the task force that runs the jail. “So I have all sorts of structures that I have been neglecting or just getting by with that now I’ve got to replace.” . . .
Officials say Camp 7 is in need of major repairs, with cracking walls and a sinking foundation, and it is not suitable to hold men who will likely be in custody for many years to come. The new unit, which would be known as Camp 8, would have cell doors wide enough for wheelchairs and hospice beds and communal areas so elderly prisoners could help each other as they grow old.
For more, read the June 2018 article, “U.S. Military Plans for Future at Guantanamo Because of Trump.”
I drafted the above language for this post on Sunday, April 28, after reading a more recent, more detailed story in another publication, Defense One, titled “Guantanamo Is Becoming A Nursing Home for its Aging Terror Suspects.”
From that article we hear again from Admiral John Ring, the commander in charge of the Guantanamo Task Force:
The aging population at Gitmo poses unique challenges for Adm. John Ring, the latest in a string of officers who have led the prison on one-year deployments. Defense attorneys say many detainees suffer the ill effects of brutal interrogation tactics now considered to be torture. The United States has committed to providing the same health care to the remaining detainees that it provides to its own troops, as required by the Geneva Conventions. But the secure medical facilities built to treat the detainees — Ring calls them “guests” — can’t cope with every kind of surgery geriatric patients typically need, and weren’t built to last forever. Congress has prohibited the transfer of detainees to the continental United States, which means any treatment they receive will have to take place at a remote outpost on the tip of Cuba.
“I’m sort of caught between a rock and a hard place,” Ring said. “The Geneva Conventions’ Article III, that says that I have to give the detainees equivalent medical care that I would give to a trooper. But if a trooper got sick, I’d send him home to the United States.
So, it was with interest that I read a third new story, on Monday morning, April 29, reporting that Admiral Ring has been discharged from his post, with the briefest of explanation, “loss of confidence in his ability.” See The New York Times article: Guantanamo Bay Prison Commander Has Been Fired.