Village Journals
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
GUANTANAMO BAY 'Gitmo'
For those who are interested....I thought you might want to know how Guantanamo Bay (GB) actually came about....coz i certainly didn't know *:
Last night i went and saw the new west end play called 'A Few Good Men' (based on the movie with tom cruise, demi moor and jack nickalson)......the play was starring Rob Lowe...and a load of other telly soap british stars...actually it was a quiet a 'celebrity' cast.
Anyway the film is based around an incident that took place in GB.
So here is the history of how the US got GB......in 1903, US president Roosevelt made a lease agreement with Cuban president Estrada Palma. In exchange for an annual payment of $2,000, the US Navy would be able to use a prime peice of land near GB as a rest stop and refueling station for its ships in the area.
Decades later, the land would be given to the US in perpetuity by Castro's predecessoor, Baptista , but when Castro took over, he wanted (for fairly obvious reasons) the US Navy the hell out of his country and he told the US to leave. The US said no. He told them again, this time with soldiers pointing kalishnikovs at them.
The US built a wall around the base (the fenceline) and created an elite unit of marines to stand watch. Marine Rifle Security Company Windward has been guarding the fenceline 24 hrs a day, seven days a week ever since.
In 2005, with nearly 10,000 troops stationed at GB, GB is the only US base in operation on communist soil!
The more recent use of GB as a military prison has attracted protest from all over the world. Its exceptional legal status was certainly a factor in choice.
Because sovereignty of GB ultimately rests with Cuba, the US gvt have argued (unsucessfully) that detainees at GB are legally outside the US and cannot enjoy the constitutional rights they would have if they were held on US soil.
In 2004, however, the Supreme Court ruled that prisoners held in GB have access to American courts by virtue of the fact that the US has exclusive control there.
GB is on a 99 year lease to the US gvt until 2033. There was already a history of controversy when the lease was signed back in 1934 and, with less than 33 yrs to go, it looks like there has been little in the way of reconciliation between the reluctant landlord and the powerful sitting tenant.
So there you have it...ur history lesson on GB for today :P
Last night i went and saw the new west end play called 'A Few Good Men' (based on the movie with tom cruise, demi moor and jack nickalson)......the play was starring Rob Lowe...and a load of other telly soap british stars...actually it was a quiet a 'celebrity' cast.
Anyway the film is based around an incident that took place in GB.
So here is the history of how the US got GB......in 1903, US president Roosevelt made a lease agreement with Cuban president Estrada Palma. In exchange for an annual payment of $2,000, the US Navy would be able to use a prime peice of land near GB as a rest stop and refueling station for its ships in the area.
Decades later, the land would be given to the US in perpetuity by Castro's predecessoor, Baptista , but when Castro took over, he wanted (for fairly obvious reasons) the US Navy the hell out of his country and he told the US to leave. The US said no. He told them again, this time with soldiers pointing kalishnikovs at them.
The US built a wall around the base (the fenceline) and created an elite unit of marines to stand watch. Marine Rifle Security Company Windward has been guarding the fenceline 24 hrs a day, seven days a week ever since.
In 2005, with nearly 10,000 troops stationed at GB, GB is the only US base in operation on communist soil!
The more recent use of GB as a military prison has attracted protest from all over the world. Its exceptional legal status was certainly a factor in choice.
Because sovereignty of GB ultimately rests with Cuba, the US gvt have argued (unsucessfully) that detainees at GB are legally outside the US and cannot enjoy the constitutional rights they would have if they were held on US soil.
In 2004, however, the Supreme Court ruled that prisoners held in GB have access to American courts by virtue of the fact that the US has exclusive control there.
GB is on a 99 year lease to the US gvt until 2033. There was already a history of controversy when the lease was signed back in 1934 and, with less than 33 yrs to go, it looks like there has been little in the way of reconciliation between the reluctant landlord and the powerful sitting tenant.
So there you have it...ur history lesson on GB for today :P
Comments on this journal
the proliferation of fast food chains like mcdonalds, etc + US media/pop culture can be found in almost every country now.
effing yankee doodle dandies!!!
I got this off the blurb in the 'programme booklet' that i brought last night while watching the play :P
where did you get this from li'l-miss-historian :) most useful..
Its Funny how US always seems to have this rep for taking other peoples property, one would think that looking back at history it was time to stop such non sense, but history keeps repeating.