Photos & videos from New York's "Little Guantanamo"

NYC mayor bloomberg swept his dirty little problem under the rug for a few days...

Lot nicer than Rikers....move along folks...nothing to see here.

They came to destruct and disrupt and thanks to our police did not get the opportunity.

I still think it's marvellous (in its own bizarre way) that Chinese food delivery fellas on their bikes got arrested in that sweep. They were delivering to the conventioneers

wowsa

oh sod it, thats life eh...
dont forget we have our own guantanamo in london too..
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=35120
just so you americans dont feel so alone

Some interesting photos. Thanks for the heads-up, Walter.

Seriously? That happened? Even if delivering to the protesters, they shouldn't be arrested for doing their job. Right?

what ive never understood is... that the 'real' guantanamo bay is in cuba...but but the US and cuba dont get on... and fidel castro hates the US... so what is the Us doing with a base in cuba???
its a strange illogical world we live in...

Ahhh Col man, welcome to the world of Might Makes Right

As a result of the Spanish-American War the United States acquired Cuba, among other Spanish territories. The war, which was instigated by yellow journalists in the U.S., was intended to (1) punish the Spanish for their supposed role in blowing up the "Maine", and (2) to relieve the Cuban people from their Spanish oppressors who were doubtless cruel and exploitive. As we now know, the Maine blew up because of an internal problem connected with the storage of coal used to fire the engines. Once Cuba was liberated, the United States turned over the government to native Cubans. Certain "favored nation" privileges were also retained, and a very long lease on what was later to become the Guantanamo Naval Base was concluded. The U.S. wanted the base originally as a coaling station for Atlantic, Gulf and caribbean waters. The amount paid for the lease seems low now, but at the time was thought far too high.

I seriously doubt that the U.S. will give up the base until after the lease has expired, and all attempts to negotiate a new lease are abandoned. In a post-Castro Cuba we might hope that a new lease would be signed.

yeah panzade, i know what you mean

wow, i never knew that Asherman.
thanks

Getting a long-term lease on Gitmo was part of the deal for giving Cubans thier "freedom", i.e. autonomy. We could have just kept Cuba as a dependency, like we did with Puerto Rico at the same time. But it would have been too messy as the Cubans would probably have mounted an Aguinaldo type of rebellion against the occupying Americans. We had our hands full in the Philippines and the Puerto Ricans weren't giving us any trouble, so we decided to let Cuba go, as long as we could have bases there. 1898. And, as Casey Stengle used to say, you can look it up.

thx 2u2 andrew

FINALLY! I've been wondering about that for 3 years!

Interesting that they fight back and earn their freedom through rebellion, only to be taken over by a dictator.

Now there's something to chew on.

Yes, Squinney, it is ironic that after fifty years of corrupt leadership under a succession of brutal dictators that the Cuban Revolution should be hijacked. Castro had a lot of support within the U.S. and in the Cuban expat community during the struggle to free Cuba from a terrible dictator who was largely "owned" by American organized crime. We all failed to see, or willfully overlooked Castro's Communist connections. Back in those days Marxism was chic among the young and intellectuals. Hmmnn, it Marxism still has some cache in those circles, doesn't it. Oh well.

Its too bad that when the Cuban revolution was successful, Castro forcefully filled the governmental vacuum with a Communist dictatorship just as brutal as the one the Cuban people had just freed themselves from. Hopefully when Fidel dies there will be new opportunities to return Cuba to its people.