US Reports Surge in Guantanamo Hunger Strike
by Will Dunham
Friday, December 30, 2005 by Reuters
WASHINGTON - The number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in
a hunger strike that began nearly five months ago has surged to 84
since Christmas Day, the U.S. military said on Thursday.
Forty-six detainees at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at
the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, joined the protest on
the Christian holiday on Sunday, said Army Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin,
a military spokesman.
The prisoner population, which the Pentagon says numbers about 500,
is believed to be uniformly Muslim. Only nine have been charged with
any crime.
"There's been a significant increase in the number that have been
added to the hunger strike," Martin said by telephone from Guantanamo.
Lawyers for some of the detainees call the strike a protest of jail
conditions and prisoners' lack of legal rights. The military has
denied allegations of torturing detainees.
Medical personnel were force-feeding 32 of the hunger strikers
with plastic tubes inserted into the stomach through the nose, the
military said. Asked the purpose of the force-feeding, Martin said,
"Because our policy is to preserve life."
Military officials define a hunger striker as a detainee who has
refused nine straight meals, and often refer to the strike as a
"voluntary fast" and force-feeding as "enteral feeding."
The detainees began the strike in early August after the military
reneged on promises to bring the prison into compliance with the Geneva
Conventions, their lawyers said. Detainees are willing to starve to
death to demand humane treatment and a fair hearing on whether they
must stay, the lawyers said.
Most of the detainees were captured in Afghanistan and have been held
for nearly four years.
'ALLOWED TO DIE'
Amnesty International official Jumana Musa said this week's surge
illustrates the strike's seriousness.
"You are talking about a prison population of hundreds who have decided
that with no conceivable change in their future that they just don't
care to live anymore, or they are going to make a statement in dying,"
Musa said.
Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a lawyer for three detainees including Bahraini
striker Isa Almurbati, said, "Isa told me that he will end the hunger
strike when he is sent home. His philosophy is that he should be sent
home or allowed to die because the idea of spending the rest of his
life at Guantanamo without any due process is simply unbearable."
In a statement, the military said a hunger strike "is consistent
with al Qaeda training and reflects detainee attempts to elicit
media attention and bring pressure on the United States government
to release them."
Martin said the peak participation in the strike was on September 11,
the fourth anniversary of the attacks on America orchestrated by the
al Qaeda network, with 131 detainees taking part. Human rights lawyers
have estimated at least 200 detainees were participating at the peak.
"Enemy combatants on voluntary fast are closely monitored by medical
professionals, receive excellent medical care, and when required,
the appropriate amount of daily nutrition and hydration through
enteral feeding," the statement said.
In an October court filing, Julia Tarver, a lawyer for detainees,
said U.S. personnel violently shoved tubes through the men's noses
and into their stomachs without anesthesia or sedatives. "When they
vomited up blood, the soldiers mocked and cursed at them, and taunted
them with statements like 'look what your religion has brought you,'"
Tarver wrote.
Martin said called "totally false and baseless" allegations of
deliberately inflicting suffering in this feeding process.
==========================
WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE OVER GUANTANAMO PRISONERS?
by Judi K-Turkel and Franklynn Peterson
the Madison Capital Times
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
For four years we kept silent while our government, with the tacit
consent of the people we helped send to Congress, imprisoned 550 to 750
men and boys in a remote concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
For four years we watched while fellow reporters swallowed everything
the government says about these prisoners without checking claims
against facts. We can't sit by anymore while men and boys are jailed
under conditions you'd call heartless if anyone did it to your dog
or cat.
Lists published on the Web tell us that among the prisoners are:
Asadullah Rahman, captured at age 10.Muhammed Ismael Agha of
Afghanistan, captured at 14.
Mohammed al Gharani of Chad and Naief Fahad al Otaibi, Youssef al
Shehri and Abdul Salam al Shehri of Saudi Arabia, all four captured
at 15.
Afghan writer Badr Badrzamen, master of English literature, moved to
Cuba from an Afghanistan prison the Taliban threw him in for writing
articles lampooning them.
332 men and boys identified only by name and country of origin.
>>From 210 to 410 people of unpublished origin and unaccused crimes.
Of these 550 or 750 (depending on who's counting), 332 were captured
by Pakistan, not the United States, and conveniently dumped on us
"for interrogation" before October 2002.
"In custody" (some probably at other places than Guantanamo) are 62
"al-Qaida terrorists" though actual terrorism is only alleged for
11 of them (The government also admits 37 on its terrorist list are
"still at large.")
The score: 62 alleged terrorists caught out of 99 identified, and
488 to 688 others imprisoned for over four years without charges
of wrongdoing.
What has all this inhumane, probably illegal caging accomplished? Have
we heard of any terrorist killed or captured due to a prisoner's
information? Have we heard of any specific terrorist attack being
thwarted due to a prisoner's information? Have we heard of any
financing stopped or training compound destroyed due to a prisoner's
information? Wouldn't Rumsfeld or Cheney brag if a Guantanamo
prisoner's "interrogation" foiled an attack or captured an outlaw?
Having no other evidence of results, let's see what
our government claims Guantanamo prisoners provided, as
listed in a report issued by the Department of Defense
(www.defenselink.mil/news/March2005/d20050304info.pdf):
1. Provided information about al-Qaida operatives and the identities
of seven explosives trainers who remain at large.
2. Identified 11 fellow detainees as bin Laden bodyguards who may
have information as to his whereabouts.
3. Identified the locations of terrorist training compounds and safe
houses and routes used for smuggling terrorists and equipment.
4. Provided information on al-Qaida training techniques used to build
improvised explosive devices (IEDs) threatening our troops as well
as training on the use of poisons.
5. Helped decode widespread financial networks used to fund terrorist
activities.
6. Explained the al-Qaida recruitment process and how terrorist travel
is facilitated.
7. Provided insights into the type of individuals sought out for
terrorist recruitment.
Other claims in the report:
8. Detainees at Guantanamo Bay continue to pose a threat to Americans.
9. At least 10 former detainees have rejoined the fight against
coalition forces.
10. One released detainee assassinated an Afghan judge.
Let's examine the value of these "results."
1. The seven named explosives trainers are "still at large," probably
under different names. Scrap that bit of intelligence.
2. We were told bin Laden's whereabouts, but he's still at large. Scrap
that, too.
3. Did locating terrorist training compounds, safe houses and
smuggling routes (a claim repeated in result No. 7) capture or kill
terrorists? If it did, wouldn't the Defense Department have bragged
that it was the result of information gleaned at Guantanamo? And has
bombing them slowed terrorism? Do you now feel safer?
4. Anyone can figure out that people (even al-Qaida terrorists)
learn by being shown how. (Anyone can also order a government manual
on bomb-making at Amazon.com.) Would you list this "accomplishment"
as information that would stop terrorism?
5. We know who funds the terrorists among them Saudi Arabian oil
princes. If we had arrested anyone, or even cut off funding, due
to tips from Guantanamo, wouldn't the Defense Department tell the
press? Our exhaustive search turned up no reports.
6 and 7. If the department didn't know how al-Qaida recruits and whom
they attract, any of us could have told them: They recruit by making
their goals known, and by now we bet everyone thinks of joining who
hates the United States for invading their land, trashing their homes
and killing their relatives and friends.
8. After four years in a dog pen, maybe with torture thrown in, we'd
want to kill our captors, too. Anyone who wasn't our enemy before
inhumane treatment is surely our enemy now! Can we ever release
them? The alternative is killing them all, just like we put badly
abused dogs out of their misery.
It's easy to make a case that they're no longer fit for society
especially if, as No. 9 reports, they might pursue revenge if
we let them go. (Wouldn't you?) Our government's list is mostly
generalities with no proofs, no specifics. But No. 10 can be checked
for accuracy. So we searched the Web exhaustively. We couldn't find
one Afghan judge who'd been assassinated between Sept. 11, 2001,
and the report's publication.
Is this sorry list all that our government can come up with to justify
locking up more than 500 men and boys in our Guantanamo gulag? Where's
the shame? And isn't anyone outraged besides us?
Judi K-Turkel and Franklynn Peterson are journalists and authors
based in Madison, Wisconsin.
