As we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation, your support is urgently needed. Please make a year-end gift to Truthout today.

At least a dozen people have died in Gaza as winter storms batter displaced Palestinians forced to shelter in makeshift tents among the rubble of collapsing buildings severely damaged by Israeli bombing. That rubble is being eyed by U.S.-based contractors, who are already vying for lucrative contracts to rebuild Gaza under the Trump-backed ceasefire deal. “People are lining up and treating this the way they treated reconstruction in Iraq,” says Aram Roston, whose latest investigation for The Guardian US looks at how the company behind the notorious Florida immigration detention jail nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” has been involved in rebuilding plans spearheaded by Trump’s so-called Board of Peace.

Roston also discusses his reporting on the CIA’s involvement in U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean. “It plays this key role in picking the targets that are chosen by the military for destruction.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We go now to a new investigation published by The Guardian. It’s headlined “’They’re trying to get rich off it’: US contractors vie to rebuild Gaza, with ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ team in the lead.” We are joined now by the co-author of the piece, the Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Aram Roston, senior political enterprise reporter for The Guardian US.

Aram, welcome back to Democracy Now! Explain exactly what’s happening. Who is this team that built “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, and what do they have to do with Gaza?

ARAM ROSTON: Thank you, Amy.

So, Cate Brown, my colleague, and I wrote this story. What we looked at is the budding plans to rebuild Gaza, if in fact this U.N.-approved plan of Trump’s moved forward. And what we found is really two things. One is there’s a effort by White House officials to sort of get ahead of this plan for a, quote, “Board of Peace” run by Trump that would rebuild Gaza. Two of the staffers on it are ex-DOGE. They used to work on the Elon Musk team. And they’re the ones sort of talking to contractors and trying to plot out things, although there’s no authority to issue contracts yet.

We found that the lead, it seemed, at this point when we wrote the story, was a company that was involved in building this — what’s nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.” Really, it’s the South Florida Detention Center, run by the state of Florida to house immigrant detainees in really almost — in conditions that are considered quite inhumane, in this sort of swamp, where it’s incredibly hot, and in a sort of tent city. So, this company, which was, you know, in the — it’s run by a very politically connected entrepreneur named Matt Michelsen.........

© Truthout