How did the United States acquire Guantanamo Bay?
364438
In 1903, the new Republic of Cuba leased to the United States the Naval Reservation on which the Naval Station was to be located. The lease was negotiated to implement an act of Congress of the United States approved 2 March 1901, and an appendix to the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba promulgated 20 May 1902. Each of these contained an identical article, to wit:\n\n"VII. That to enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as its own defense, the government of Cuba will sell or lease to the United States lands necessary for coaling and Naval stations at certain specified points to be agreed upon by the President of the United States".\n\nThe terms of the lease arrived at are contained in three documents -two agreements and a treaty. The contents of these documents are not well known. At times they have been misunderstood locally and also in Havana and Washington. It is small wonder that such has been the case. It was reported officially in 1936 that the Naval Station did not even possess a copy of the original lease agreement. This is only one example of a number that could be cited. It therefore appears desirable to devote a chapter to the terms of the lease, and to their precise meaning with regard to the obligations of Cuba and the United States, together with a description of the area of land and water acquired in the transaction.\n\nFirst Lease\n\nThe first lease agreement, copy appended for reference, was signed by President Estrada Palma on 16 February 1903, and by President Theodore Roosevelt on 23 February 1903. By this instrument Cuba leased to the United States certain areas of land and water in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda for the purpose of "coaling and naval stations". (Bahia Honda was abandoned after nine years of occupation). Concerning Guantanamo, the agreement describes the leased "areas of land and water" as follows:\n\n"In Guantanamo (see Hydrographic Office Chart 1857), from a point on the South Coast, 4.37 miles to the eastward of Windward Point Light House, a line running north (true) a distance of 4.25 nautical miles; from the northern extremity of this line, a line running west (true), a distance of 5.87 nautical miles; from the western extremity of this last line, a line running south-west (true), 3.31 nautical miles; from the southwestern extremity of this last line, a line running south (true) to the seacoast".\n\nThe land area above described comprises 19,621 acres, 11,058 on the windward side, and 8,563 on the leeward. The water areas, consisting principally of Guantanamo Bay from the mouth of the harbor (theoretical line joining Leeward and Windward Points) to the northern boundary line, comprise 9,196 acres. The total naval reservation contains 28,817 acres or about 45 square miles of land and water. (The foregoing figures are based on the original survey).\n\nFurthermore, the agreement granted the United States the right to use and occupy the waters adjacent to the above described areas of land and water. "Adjacent waters" are interpreted to mean the water leading up to the harbor entrance and the water along the seacoast out to the three mile limit. The United States has the right to improve and deepen the entrances to the leased areas of land and water, and to improve and deepen the anchorages therein, and generally to do any and all things to fit the premises as a coaling and naval station, and for no other purpose.\n\nOver the leased areas of land and water, comprising the Naval reservation, Cuba consented that during the period of occupation, the United States would exercise "complete jurisdiction and control over and within said areas," including the right to acquire for the public purposes of the United States any land or property therein by purchase or by right of eminent domain with full compensation to the owners thereof. On the other hand, the United States reco
317187
Originally it was set up as a penal colony for all prisoners. This was done by the English. Just ship them there is what they did by sailing.
201760
I think this is what you are referring to: \n\nBERKELEY, CA — A Halliburton subsidiary has just received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide "temporary detention and processing capabilities." \n\nThe contract — announced Jan. 24 by the engineering and construction firm KBR — calls for preparing for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies, such as "a natural disaster." The release offered no details about where Halliburton was to build these facilities, or when. \n\nTo date, some newspapers have worried that open-ended provisions in the contract could lead to cost overruns, such as have occurred with KBR in Iraq. A Homeland Security spokesperson has responded that this is a "contingency contract" and that conceivably no centers might be built. But almost no paper so far has discussed the possibility that detention centers could be used to detain American citizens if the Bush administration were to declare martial law. \n\nThese are interesting times.
955653
Yes I do because at the battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan in December of 2001, we had Osama Bin Laden cornered, and rather than using Special Forces troops to either nab him or just kill him, our military paid Afghan War Lords to go after him, and god knows where he went or what happened. Point being, he got away. Ever since then, I think America has had a black eye because the rhetoric of our president after 9/11 was we're going to get him dead or alive, and it never amounted to what he promised.
1123726
For all of you who say that the U.S does not care where Osama Bin Laden is, think again.  The United States is asking $50 million for him.
1122505
We went to kick some middle east butt,  that is what the America people wanted and almost demanded after 9/11.\n\nNow we are stuck because the county did not find freedom as great as we thought they would.
775123
there are a couple of CNN reports on this including one\nwhich mentions Britain giving money & British ships taking evacuees. I think there's something about the prisoners from the jail being taken to another prison...\n\nhop it helps & is not too late for you
592645
It is generally in the interests of the US to abide in the hope that its opponents will treat US soldiers well in exchange.\n\nHowever, since terrorists are not lawful combatants and do not reciprocate good treatment the US should be following its own consicence in the matter. Guantanamo isn't an example of this because of the first point I made. Moreover, by most accounts the inmates there are fed well and regularly, clothed, allowed religious practice and visits from rights monitors to some extent. This is more than has happened for combatants in most wars - Vietnam and North Korea didn't grant access to US POWs for example.\n\nThe US is doing well in this regard, despite the silly and historically stupid 'Gulag' comparison of an Amnesty report - that wil forever haunt AI, as it was once an genuinely non-partisan and worthy organisation.
193336
Well Guantanamo is in Cuba (sort of) and there are the US run prisons in Iraq eg Abu Ghraib
61378
Yes, the first bush administration are the ones that trained Bin Laden and supplied them with arms. Then The US Government screwed them over.
472622
We are pretty darn ignorant of our surroundings. 89% of America did not know where Afganistan was prior to 9/11.\n\n40% still don't.
363239
The US got rights to military bases in Newfoundland and in the Caribbean.
120343
Yes !!! I live in New ORleans (one of the ports). My family has been hear long before the LOuisiana Purchase. We are Americans rather that French today only because the America of 1803 had enough sense to realize the port of New ORleans was critical to the survival of the United States. During the War of 1812 we fought the Battle of New Orleans to stop the British from taking the port. During the Civil War the the first move of the Union Andaconda Plan was to seize the port of New Orleans and during WWII the first place combat occured between the U.S. and Germany was with German submarines trying to close off the port of New Orleans. Now, in 2006, we sell our ports to a country which helped produce the 9/11 highjackers? What is going on in Washington these days?
1129360
by US military............
663805
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base at the southeastern end of Cuba (19°54′N 75°9′W) has been used by the United States Navy for more than a century. The United States controls the land on both sides of the southern part of Guantánamo Bay (Bahía de Guantánamo in Spanish) under a lease set up in the wake of the 1898 Spanish-American War. The Cuban government denounces the lease on grounds that article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties voids treaties procured by force or its threatened use. (However, article 4 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties explicitly states that it is not retroactive, applying "only to treaties which are concluded by States after the entry into force of the present Convention."\nThus the Vienna Convention cannot apply to the 1898 lease agreement.)\n\nSince 2001, the naval base has contained a detainment camp for persons alleged to be militant combatants captured in Afghanistan and later in Iraq that the U.S. maintains are not protected under the Geneva Convention.
1105779
america got their asses handed to them
647471
1. The US controlled the Phillippines as a "colony."\n2. The US controlled Cuba but didn't make it an official "colony."\n3. The US decided it needed Panama to make a canal.\n4. The US decided Hawaii could not stay an independent nation.