MIAMI — Some members of Congress are questioning the wisdom of the Pentagon’s spending $744,000 on a soccer field to keep captives busy at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for crying out loud?” Rep. Gus Bilirakas, R-Fla., said in a television interview. “Our deficit this year is $1.2 trillion, and we’re spending this kind of money on terrorists?”
Prison-camp commanders unveiled the complex during a visit last week by reporters to cover a Pakistani man’s guilty plea to war crimes. Besides a soccer field, there’s also a walking trail and exercise equipment. The yard opens in April after contractors install latrines and goals.
Commanders called it part of the cost of doing business at the remote outpost and keeping captives diverted.
Bilirakas led the charge of indignation over the expense, writing a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., went further and introduced the “NO FIELD Act.”
“Gitmo should not be a place of comfort,” Ross said. “It should house the worst of the worst of the world’s terrorists, not be a training ground for the World Cup.”
