President Barack Obama continues to call for closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison, but its not just supposed human rights violating inching him along. Keeping the detention center open will cost the government $5.2 billion by the end of next year.
More than 160 men remain detained at Gitmo, many serving indefinite stints without ever being brought to trial. Keeping that prison open comes at a cost that exceeds just human rights concerns, though, according to a report presented to Congress last week by the Department of Defenses Office of the Comptroller.
Speaking on Capitol Hill last week, Sen. Dick Durbin said the cost of keeping Gitmo open for just 2013 will top $454 million, amounting to roughly $2.7 million for each one of the detainees held on the United States military base on the Cuban coast.
By comparison, Durbin said housing any of those detainees at a federal, high-security prison outside of the base would run no more than $72,000 a year.
"Our national security and military leaders have concluded that the risk of keeping Guantanamo open far outweighs the risk of closing it because the facility continues to harm our alliances and serve as a recruitment tool for terrorist, the senator said.
According to the Pentagon report, the $454 million price-tag includes $14.1 million to fund prisoner review boards that will assess the cases of 71 detainees at the base, as well as $40 million for a planned fiber-opic cable between the base and mainland America, nearly $60 million for contractors and $116 million to operate the Gitmo military court.
Meanwhile, President Obama says Congress must act appropriately to expedite his plan to pull the plug on the facility.
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