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Article: Gitmo back in the news.(Editorials)(Editorial)
- Article from:
- The Register Guard (Eugene, OR)
- Article date:
- January 8, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Register Guard. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: The Register-Guard
Its nickname is "Gitmo," and the U.S. presence at Guantanamo Bay, a 45-square-mile patch of land on the southeastern tip of Cuba, dates to 1898 when Marines in the Spanish-American War landed there.
The Pentagon's announcement that detainees from Afghanistan will be housed at Guantanamo focuses attention on a facility that has been under U.S. control since 1903, when President Theodore Roosevelt leased the base from Cuba.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro has protested the U.S. presence at Guantanamo since 1959, and refuses to cash U.S. lease checks. The base assumed a high profile during the 1990s when it housed thousands of ...