Obama’s Gitmo by the Numbers

A graphic look at what happened to 779 detainees.


As of July 16, it’s been 166 days since the Obama administration missed its self-imposed deadline to close Guantanamo Bay. The first detainees arrived at the notorious prison camp over eight and a half years ago. With little public support for closing the base, and no political will to bring the most infamous detainees to trial, there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. Here’s a by-the-numbers look at what has become Obama’s Gitmo.

 

You can read more about Khadr—in his own words—here.

In June, the Washington Post reported that at least half a billion dollars had been spent renovating Guantanamo Bay since 9/11. That includes $219 million for constructing the prison camps, $54 million more for constructing the high-security facilities for the so-called “high-value detainees,” and $13 million for a courthouse complex. But it doesn’t include some $150 million a year in operating costs.

Photo: Flickr/Prisoner 159753 (Creative Commons).

All told, the cost of the post-9/11 Guantanamo has been somewhere around $2 billion. That includes the KFC/Taco Bell remodel.

Flickr/Paul Keller (Creative Commons).

A CNN/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted in March found that 60 percent of Americans opposed closing Guantanamo Bay. 

Photo: US Military

July 16, 2010 represented the 3108th day since the first prisoners arrived at Guantanamo Bay. The vast majority of the people detained at the prison arrived there in 2002 or 2003, meaning they have now been detained without trial for seven or more years. 

Photo: Flickr/Obama-Biden Transition (Creative Commons).

 

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In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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