Pentagon Considers $150M Gitmo Renovation

A Guantanamo detainee carries a workbook as he is escorted by guards after attending a class in “Life Skills,” inside Camp 6 high-security detention facility at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, March 30, 2010. Cuba. (Brennan Linsley/AP)

The U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay was supposed to be temporary. After 11 years of operation, General John Kelly, who oversees Guantanamo, says it’s more or less falling apart.

Now, the Pentagon is considering a $150 million renovation of  Gitmo.

The planned overhaul would include a $12 million dining hall for troops, a $10 million communication network, another $10 million for a legal meeting complex for detainees and their lawyers, and an $11 million hospital to meet the medical demands of the aging detainees.

But would a Guantanamo renovation mean that President Barack Obama’s plans to close the facility are permanently dead?

• NBC News: Pentagon ponders Gitmo overhaul amid growing detainee unrest

With Guantanamo “falling apart,” would you support renovations? Tell us on Facebook.

Guest:

• Charlie Savage, Washington correspondent for The New York Times.