Some of the hunger-striking detainees at Guantanamo Bay were cleared for release years ago.

A few excerpts from a great post at endthelie.com

By Madison Ruppert

Editor of End the Lie

Amnesty International demonstrates in front of theUS Embassy in London on January 11, 2007 for the closure of the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay (Image credit: casmaron/Flickr)

Some of the hunger striking detainees being force-fed at Guantanamo Bay were actually cleared for release years ago, according to a report.

Currently, government numbers indicate that 100 of detainees are participating in the hunger strike, and 20 are currently being given tube feedings.

While Guantanamo officials have refused to identify the hunger strikers, the Justice Department has notified attorneys if their clients have become malnourished to the point of requiring tube feedings.

The Miami Herald has learned of the identities of eight of the men through their attorneys, four of those are being held even though they were cleared for release.

These individuals are just a tiny slice of the 55 total men eligible for release that have been identified by the Justice Department separately in federal court filings.

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30 of those detainees, on average, were being “enteral fed,” according to House. Enteral feeding is when a tube is placed up the detainee’s nose, down the back of their throat and into their stomach. A nutritional supplement is then pumped into the detainee’s stomach.

This practice is regularly referred to as force-feeding, though Guantanamo officials refuse to identify it as such.

“I refuse to say ‘force-feeding,’” House said to AFP. “It refers to a cartoon where individuals are strapped, yelling, screaming, mouth open and food is dumped down the person’s throat and that is not the case.”

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“The World Medical Association and international officials have clearly identified that process as cruel, in human and degrading treatment,” Thomson said. “And given the level of brutality could extend to torture.”

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The New York Times even published an op-ed by a Guantanamo Bay detainee named Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel.

“I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose. I can’t describe how painful it is to be force-fed this way,” he wrote. “As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t. There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone.”

Read more at EndTheLie.com


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That's not "change we can believe in."