The detainees at Camp 6 in Guantanamo Bay will soon have access to a new, $750,000 soccer field, Fox News reports:
At a time of record deficits, a new soccer field for detainees at Camp 6 in Guantanamo Bay is just getting the finishing touches -- at a cost of $750,000 to taxpayers.
The project was the highlight of a tour Tuesday of the detention camp for reporters at the facility covering the arraignment in a military court of Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident and the the only legal U.S. resident on trial at Guantanamo.
The project began in April 2011 and is due to finish this spring. The detainees will now have three recreation facilities at Camp 6, which is home to "highly compliant" detainees who live in a communal setting.
The soccer field was mentioned in an earlier report from Guantanamo by Catherine Herridge, on the trial of Majid Khan, a high-value detainee expected to testify against two 9/11 suspects:
HERRIDGE: A short time ago we returned from those camps and what we saw, Jon, is a new soccer field that's being built for the detainees at Camp 6 at a cost of nearly $750,000.
Right now, there are about 170 detainees in the camps, including Majid Khan. He grew up in Baltimore between 1996 and 2002, and after graduating high school he returned to his native Pakistan where it's alleged he was hand-selected by the 9/11-architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to be part of a second wave of attacks. Specifically, it's alleged that Khan was part of a plot to attack gas stations within the United States, and also to investigate whether it was possible to tamper or poison the water supply; that was later deemed to be too difficult. According to military documents, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tested Khan in two ways: He asked him to be part of a suicide attack against the Pakistani president, and he also asked him to hand carry $50,000 for the successful strike on the Marriott hotel in 2003 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Khan, significantly, is one of the 14 high-value detainees who were transferred to Gitmo from the CIA's secret prisons.
CIA REP: In each and every case, if memory serves me, Catherine, we actually felt we had what we called an R.T.B. on each of the 14. We had an R.T.B.--reason to believe--that each one of these had committed crimes against the United States.
HERRIDGE: The expectation is that, in the courthouse about 50 yards behind me, Khan will accept the plea agreement tomorrow in return for a much-reduced sentence. We expect he will testify against at least two of the 9/11 suspects, and this may really signify that the trials here at Guantanamo are on the fast track.