U.S. to build new massive prison in Bagram

[ensho]

http://www.salon.com/news/afghanistan/?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/09/19/bagram


As the Obama administration announced plans for hundreds of billions of dollars more in domestic budget cuts, it late last week solicited bids for the construction of a massive new prison in Bagram, Afghanistan. Posted on the aptly named FedBizOps.Gov website which it uses to announce new privatized spending projects, the administration unveiled plans for "the construction of Detention Facility in Parwan (DFIP), Bagram, Afghanistan" which includes "detainee housing capability for approximately 2000 detainees." It will also feature "guard towers, administrative facility and Vehicle/Personnel Access Control Gates, security surveillance and restricted access systems." The announcement provided: "the estimated cost of the project is between $25,000,000 to $100,000,000."

In the U.S., prisons are so wildly overcrowded that courts are ordering them to release inmates en masse because conditions are so inhumane as to be unconstitutional (today, the FBI documented that a drug arrest occurs in the U.S. once every 19 seconds, but as everyone knows, only insane extremists and frivolous potheads advocate an end to that war). In the U.S., budgetary constraints are so severe that entire grades are being eliminated, the use of street lights restricted, and the most basic services abolished for the nation's neediest. But the U.S. proposes to spend up to $100 million on a sprawling new prison in Afghanistan.

-snip-
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and before you know it this brand new huge prison will be sold to a private company

[spin]

1. Meanwhile back in the United States the Governor of New York may close prisons ...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo calls for shutting state prisons, investing in community in light of gun violence
Sunday, September 18th 2011, 4:41 PM


Gov. Andrew Cuomo said instead of spending $200,000 per jailed juvenile, the state should create community programs that prevent violence.

Gov. Cuomo bemoaned the city's recent spate of gun violence Sunday and made a pitch for his plan to shutter state prisons.

"This recent rash of gun violence should concern us all, because it's frightening and it's only getting worse," Cuomo said at a Harlem breakfast to kick off the African-American Day Parade.

He said closing some prisons would allow more funding for local programs.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/09/18/2011-09-18_gov_andrew_cuomo_calls_for_shutting_state_prisons_investing_in_community_in_ligh.html#ixzz1YbFGoHrQ

And New York City may cut back on police.

NYC fire, police forces may fall to decade lows
NEW YORK | Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:44pm EDT

Reuters) - New York City's firefighting staff would fall to the lowest number since 1980 while its police force would be cut back to its 1992 roster under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's austere budget plan, a report said Friday.

Bloomberg, who has ordered 10 rounds of budget cuts since 2007, pins the city's fiscal health and its future on ensuring its residents' safety and improving public school education.

Budget cuts risk imperiling these priorities, reducing the number of firefighting staff to 10,282, and the number of uniformed police officers to 34,413. Bloomberg's $65 billion budget plan also includes just under 5,000 teacher layoffs.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/18/us-newyorkcity-budget-idUSTRE72H75Q20110318

[Blue_Tires]

2. So some contractor will grift $100+ million to build a $10 million building

his buddy with the other company will charge $20 million for staffing and daily operations; they'll pocket the rest and still have millions to donate to the teabag presidential candidate of their choice...Do I have this straight?

[Faryn Balyncd]

3. (2009) Obama: US troops presence in Afghanistan " not permanent"

http://www.idsa.in/TWIR/6_1_2009_Afghanistan

[Fuddnik]

4. Or in Iraq either.

Except they are.

[The Northerner]

5. They're just spreading that "democracy" in Afghanistan, folks. n/t

[xchrom]

6. Recommend