Smoke and mirrors in Cuba

They are all lying but they got the pictures and that's what matters

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SHOCKING NEWS!

It’s over. Much to your surprise I’m sure, the last few dozen detainees of the heavily promoted Guantanamo Bay immigrant detention facility were all sent to a holding center in Louisiana on Tuesday. The Trump Administration didn’t announce this but journalists from several outlets were able to confirm the much promoted prison has been emptied.

Seems like it was just a few weeks ago that Trump announced that he planned to send the most ‘dangerous’ undocumented immigrants to Guantanamo Bay. Not just a few of them either. He had big plans while signing the Laken Riley Act on January 29th.

AP had the story,

“Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re gonna send ’em out to Guantanamo,” Trump said. He said that he’d direct federal officials to get facilities in Cuba ready to receive immigrant criminals.

“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal aliens threatening the American people,” the president said.

The White House announced a short time later that Trump had signed a presidential memorandum on Guantanamo. Migrant rights groups quickly expressed dismay.”

Pretty exciting stuff and it only took a matter of days for the Pete Hegseth led Department of Defense to swing into action sending Marines to the base to begin setting up what would be hundreds of tents to house thousands of the most dangerous immigrants.

The flow started quickly with Venezuelan “gang members” who as it turned out were not gang members at all. That didn’t stop the triumphant headlines:

Soon more service members arrived to great fanfare and of course, well placed photographers and videographers to catch every moment.

They are packing weapons because Donald told us these people were the worst of the worst of the worst. We are talking bad people….or maybe just a father of five trying to take care of his family, as reported by CNN,

With his hands and feet handcuffed, tied leg to leg with other detainees, José Daniel Simancas Rodríguez was put on a plane. He says he was told he would go to Miami.

Hours later, when they landed, Simancas and his fellow passengers were transferred to a bus with the windows covered by bags. By then he already suspected where he had arrived: Guantanamo. What he did not imagine was that this was just the beginning of a nightmare that would last 15 days.

Simancas was one of 177 Venezuelans deported by the United States who had been transferred to the US naval base in Cuba, a measure criticized by human rights organizations who say the base is not appropriate for housing migrants.

He says he can attest to these complaints: in the place where they locked him up, there was barely a sheet and pillow, they gave him almost no food and he was completely isolated, Simancas told CNN. The only sound that accompanied him during what he describes as “hell” were the screams of the other prisoners. The experience was so unbearable that, he says, he even thought about suicide.

That first group was actually housed in the same dilapidated and poorly maintained area of Gitmo where they had previously housed terrorists from Afghanistan. They were only there for a few weeks before the entire place was emptied on February 20th.

Don’t worry though, Instagram model, and part time Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem was able to visit for a photo shoot on February 10th. There are no reports if she actually ate which appears to be something she only does rarely.

After all what’s the point of deporting a few hundred people if you don’t get the pics? The Department of Defense wasn’t missing an opportunity to show how tough they were as videographers carefully recording immigrants being loaded on planes in chains.

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In case you missed it:

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Of course, Secretary of Defense, and totally sober…really. Pete Hegseth made is way to Gitmo. He didn’t allow press to come with him but that didn’t stop him from getting amazing headlines like this on DOD’s official site.

Yes, there he is “engaging with troops.” So inspirational.

Note that was on February 26th when he told the assembled service members this,

Hegseth told the troops that their efforts were recognized throughout the chain of command.

"When you send the data and the stats up, and you wonder where [they go], it lands on my desk every day. I see and understand and know what you are doing here," Hegseth said.

A government official speaks in front of troops seated at tables in a classroom.

"That's how important it is to the president and to [DOD, DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection] as we ramp up and execute this mission," he added.

Hegseth also said that the work being done at Guantanamo Bay is central to the current administration's overall message concerning the border.

"From our view, [Guantanamo Bay holding operations are] central to what we're doing and [to] the message we're sending to the world — which is that our border is closed," he said, adding that the current administration "means business," and that the service members at Guantanamo Bay are at "the tip of the spear" to make that happen.

As a former soldier this almost brought me to tears. Well…so close.

So inspiring….but also so much bullshit.

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Never mind

Remember how they sent Marines and Army engineers to Gitmo to quickly build a tent city to house upwards of 30,000 immigrants? Funny thing that. By the time Hegseth was able to arrive for his photo op it was already clear that the military had wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars and troop time for nothing,

CNN has the story,

The Trump administration has halted efforts to place migrants in tent structures built at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amid concerns that the emerging facilities don’t meet detention standards because they lack air conditioning or electricity, a US official and a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

It comes weeks after officials scrambled to set up additional housing for migrants at the controversial US base on the island — and only days after those on location were deported. While the tent structures are currently not being used, migrants are still being placed in the detention facility on the base, and at the Migrant Operations Center, or MOC.

The Trump administration said it would be building out tent structures at Guantanamo Bay to house an anticipated 30,000 people transferred there from the southern border. But the sources said Monday that the tents don’t currently meet detention standards set by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The two sources, and a third US official, also said there haven’t been enough people transferred to the base to justify building more.

My favorite part of that story? It’s dated February 24th, two days before Hegseth visited. He knew when he hopped his private military jet that the mission was a total waste of time. He knew that he had ordered over a thousand troops to deploy away from their families to build hundreds of tents for absolutely nothing but a photo.

They all leave and nobody wants to talk

So on Tuesday the last of just 40 detainees remaining at Gitmo were quietly flown to Louisiana. Oddly there was no press release. No photo op. Just a little whimper that leaked when reporters started asking base contacts complicated questions like, “hey, where did all the immigrants go?”

You will not believe the results. The New York Times reports, “The operation has so far cost $16 million, according to representatives of the Guantánamo migrant detention mission who briefed a congressional delegation during a visit last week. It has a staff of 1,000 security forces and civilian contractors, many of them mobilized from military bases in the United States.”

But, wait there’s more. “As of Friday, according to a court filing this week, 290 migrants from 27 countries have since cycled through the base.”

While Elon Musk is firing $40,000 a year Park Rangers, Trump and his idiot people burned an astonishing $16M to briefly hold 290 people. I wish I was kidding but I am not.

It’s all about the optics

This was never about actually holding illegal immigrants or making us safer. It was always about the illusion of doing it and the cost and impact on lives never mattered. All Trump ever wanted was the visuals…just like very fascist before him.

The picture is the story.

Your tax dollars being put to work. Welcome to the new efficiency era.