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Thread ID: 99947	2009-05-20 19:34:00	US Senate Rejects Funding to Close Guantanamo Prison	SurferJoe46 (51)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
775507	2009-05-20 19:34:00	It's not for lack of money or humane compassion, but it's "LOCATION - LOCATION - LOCATION" . The problem is that no-one can say where the detainees will or should be sent after the possible detainee site is closed . Places with strange-sounding names like: Papakura and Toowoomba and N . I . M . B . Y . <sic> or "Not In My Back Yard" were being heard in Washington this morning as the Democrats and Republicans alike in a very powerful yet strange co-dependent corpus role voiced concerns for the eventual re-insertion into "some-body's or "some OTHER country's" indigenous inhabitants . "Send 'em to Hell or New Zealand; whichever is cheaper" was the by-phrase as senators and congressmen were seen leaving their offices to the hoots and catcalls of normally-taxed, Untermensch-type people . South American countries, by-and-alike - have decided that they will not accept nor consider adding these religio-zealot, ex-patriots to their own populations, yet they are the first to voice strong opposition to perceived violations of civil rights by the US Gummermint . Many other countries have expressed concern that they may not have sufficient numbers of vestal virgins to satisfy immersion of the returnees to their populations either . "Give them a map, a pair of kids' inflatable swimming pool FloatEze® and a compass and point them east", has been tossed around as a viable option . Any successful arrivees would be accepted wherever they land; the others would not much concern by that point . Suggestions can be submitted to: The World Health Organization in Launceston . The US White House e-mail site is closed for the duration of the debate .	SurferJoe46 (51)
775508	2009-05-20 20:41:00	Why the **** dont you just let them go home? like any decent country would.	prefect (6291)
775509	2009-05-21 01:02:00	And so YOU fell for my "reporting"? I had great sport with it and some of it is fictionalized by me . It was in jest - didn't you feel the jocularity? Somehow you didn't notice . <sigh!> :groan: But now that you open a bleeding wound (I am NOT for penal colonies, even those where the inmates all escape, go bush, eat their jailers and build a new life and country for themselves) . The US keeps it's local despots, drug addicts and rapists in prisons and cells of it's own making and basically on it's own turf . It's expensive, but somebody's gotta do it . BUT there are exceptions, so gleaned from this country's less than noble birthright . The US doesn't have the opportunity to send just common dissidents and ne'er-do-wells to - say - uh, ooh, ah, I don't know - a "prison colony" like Australia (Norfolk Island, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and New South Wales) - or - Bermuda, off the North American coastline (also used during the Victorian period) . Who's your daddy? Convicts were there housed in hulks that were used to build the Royal Naval Dockyard, and during the Second Boer War, Boer prisoners-of-war were sent to the archipelago and imprisoned on one of the smaller islands . In colonial India, the British had made various penal colonies . Two of the most infamous ones are on the Andaman islands and Hijli . Alack! Alas! In the early days of settlement, Singapore was the recipient of Indian convicts, who were tasked with clearing the jungles for settlement and early public works, building homes and minor palaces for the high ranking officials who took it upon themselves to offer "consolation" and education to attempt rehabilitation . Ahem! Seems strange that not many were ever recorded as "rehabilitated" . . Busy hands are not thinking or even happy hands let alone seeking forgiveness and new horizons to conquer . . Devil's Island - (a rocky, palm-covered island that rises 40 meters (131 ft) above sea level was the penitentiary first opened by Emperor Napoleon III's government in 1852, and became one of the most infamous prisons in history . In addition to the prisons on all three islands, prison facilities were located on the mainland at Kourou . Over time, they became known collectively as "Devil's Island" in the English-speaking world, while they are known in France as the bagne de Cayenne, Cayenne being the main city of French Guiana . While the colony was in use (1852-1946), the inmates were everything from political prisoners (such as 239 republicans who opposed Napoleon III's coup d'Etat) to the most hardened of thieves and murderers . A great many of the more than 80,000 prisoners sent to the harsh conditions at disease-infested Devil's Island were never seen again) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . just like good ol' Briton did until just a few history book revisions ago: right Gov? Guantanamo is NOT without international precedent however as a place to keep anarchists, mad bombers and rapists . OK, maybe the "rapist" part is unsubstantiated . I'll concede that point . The biggest mistake was classifying the prison . . . . - er "dissidents" as criminals in the first place . I guess a person sworn to destroy a country is not to be considered guilty until that person actually does something . Here's a few examples of unfairly housing (for their own good, of course) people with dissimilar ideals and ideologies . . . . * During the Argentine rule of the Falkland/Malvinas Islands Major Esteban Mestivier was commissioned by the Buenos Aires government, as the new governor of the islands, to set up a penal colony . He arrived at his destination on November 15, 1832 but his soldiers mutinied and killed him . Lt . Col . José María Pinedo quelled the rebellion and took charge as governor . Argentinas southermost city Ushuaia was founded as a penal colony . * France sent criminals to tropical penal colonies including Louisiana in the early eighteenth century . [2] Devil's Island in French Guiana, 1852 - 1939, received forgers and other criminals . New Caledonia in Melanesia (in the South Sea) received dissidents like the Communards, Kabyles rebels as well as convicted criminals . * In Ecuador, the Island of San Cristóbal (in the Galapagos archipelago) was used as a penal colony 1869 - 1904 . * Both Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union used Siberia as a penal colony for criminals and dissidents . Though geographically contiguous with heartland Russia, Siberia provided both remoteness and a harsh climate . In 1857, a penal colony was established on the island of Sakhalin . The Gulag and its tsarist predecessor, the katorga system, provided slave-type penal labor to develop forestry, logging and mining industries, construction enterprises, as well as highways and railroads across Siberia . * The Netherlands had a penal colony since the late 1800s . A town called Veenhuizen, originally set up to "re-educate" vagrants from the large cities in the west like Amsterdam, by a private company; it was taken over by the Department of Justice to be turned into a collection of prison buildings . The town is located in the least populated province of Drenthe in the north of the country, isolated in the middle of a vast area of peat and marshland . * Currently in Mexico, the island of María Madre (in the Marías Islands) is used as a penal colony . With a small population (less than 1200), the colony is governed by a state official who is both the governor of the islands and chief judge . The military command is independent of the government and is exercised by an officer of the Mexican Navy . The other islands are uninhabited . * Tarrafal was a Portuguese penal colony in the Cape Verde Islands, set up by the head of the Portuguese government, Salazar, before WWII (1936) where anti-fascist opponents of this right-wing regime were sent . At least 32 Anarchists, Communists and other opponents of Salazar's regime died in that camp . The camp was closed in 1954 but was re-opened in the 1970s to jail African leaders fighting Portuguese colonialism . * Taiwan had a penal colony at Green Island during Chiang Kai Shek's White Terror . * Con Dao Island in Vietnam was served as a penal colony by both the French colonists and the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War . And for the future? Oh, I dunnow . Try this list out concerning penal colonies on other planets: The concept of remote and inhospitable prison planets has been employed by science fiction writers . Some famous examples include: * Kessel, a prison planet which specialized in spice mining in the Star Wars universe . * Robert Sheckley's Omega * Salusa Secundus in Frank Herbert's Dune, * Fiorina 'Fury' 161, the penal colony in Alien³ that was an abandoned leadworks, * The CoDominium series of Jerry Pournelle showed several planets, such as Tanith and Haven, that were used as dumping grounds for criminals and dissidents, * Rura Penthe, a Klingon colony where prisoners mine dilithium in the Star Trek universe, * The Doctor Who serial Frontier in Space features a lunar penal colony in the 26th century; a lunar penal colony of the 2002nd century is also mentioned in the episode "Bad Wolf", * In several episodes the TV series Stargate SG-1, whole planets are used as penal colonies, generally by the goa'uld, e . g . Hadante in episode 25 (season 2) * Crematoria is the sun scorched prison planet in The Chronicles of Riddick, * "Hawksbill Station" by Robert Silverberg is a 1970 novel where political prisoners are sent to the pre-Cambrian period via a one-way time travel machine . * The Moon in Robert A . Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress * The planet Shayol appears in Cordwainer Smith's stories . * In episode 1-2 Trust of the Starhunter series, the planet Mercury is a fully automated prison . * On Star Trek Deep Space Nine, New Zealand (AGAIN? Good Grief!) is mentioned as the location of the Federation's minimum security Penal Settlement . In the pilot of Star Trek Voyager the character Tom Paris is recruited from said Penal Settlement . * The 1979 musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" written by Stephen Sondheim and based upon Christopher Bond's 1973 play of the same name, begins with its protagonist, Sweeney Todd, returning to London in 1846 having spent fifteen years in an unnamed British penal colony in Australia . AHEM! In fiction too! Must be something in the water .	SurferJoe46 (51)
775510	2009-05-21 01:39:00	Hemet would be a good place to house prisoners of war.	prefect (6291)
775511	2009-05-21 01:53:00	It's already full of them. I live in San Jacinto, and it's getting bad here too what with all the social-re-engineering and rehab. We don't have jungles and cannibal bellies to conveniently lose them in.	SurferJoe46 (51)
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