I'm sure you've heard about this story already:
http://www.latimes.com/...
Prominent senators, the American Medical Assn., human rights activists and a federal judge agree: The force-feeding of more than 40 hunger strikers at the prison at Guantanamo Bay is a disgrace. What's more, it also appears to be a violation of prohibitions in international law against cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
The process itself is disgusting: Food is forced through a 2-foot-long nasal tube down the throat and into the stomach while the prisoner is immobilized. It requires an enormous commitment of medical personnel: 140 Navy doctors, nurses and corpsmen, including 37 reinforcements dispatched in April to accommodate the spreading hunger strike. Like Guantanamo itself, the force-feeding of the strikers has fueled anti-American opinion abroad. (And that's unlikely to be undone by the Pentagon's surreal decision to confine force-feeding to nighttime so that inmates won't be violating the Ramadan fast.)
The Pentagon wouldn't be facing this agonizing problem if President Obama had made good on his promise in his first term to close Guantanamo and move its inmates (now numbering 166) either to foreign countries or to a secure prison in the United States. But thanks to both congressional opposition and his skittishness about returning prisoners to countries that serve as breeding grounds for terrorism, 86 prisoners cleared for release in 2010 remain at the prison. Of the remaining 80 inmates, 46 have been classified by an administrative task force as too dangerous to release and impossible to put on trial, and the rest are undergoing or awaiting trial by military commissions.
Although the hunger strike was initiated as a protest against intrusive searches of personal belongings, it now involves more than 100 prisoners and has become a primal scream against indefinite detention. - Los Angeles Times, 7/14/13
The two Senators that have been calling for an end to force feeding are Senators Dick Durbin (D. IL) & Dianne Feinstein (D. CA):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
"We ... encourage you to direct the Department of Defense to stop conducting such large-scale force-feedings and, where force-feeding is medically necessary to save a detainee's life, to observe the protections required at U.S. Bureau of Prisons facilities," Sens. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.) wrote in a letter to Obama. "It is our understanding that the U.S. federal prison guidelines for force-feedings include several safeguards and oversight mechanisms that are not in place at Guantanamo Bay."
Feinstein visited Guantanamo with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) earlier this year. She has previously been critical of the force-feeding procedures, which began on a larger scale after a hunger strike began in February.
As of Wednesday, military officials said that 106 low-value detainees were being tracked as hunger strikers, and 45 were on the "enteral feed," or force-feeding, list. Military officials claim many of the detainees will choose to drink a supplement or eat a meal rather than have a tube snaked down their nose and into their stomach.
Some detainees in Guantanamo's Camp Six have been allowed to return to communal living following a lockdown that began after a raid in mid-April. - Huffington Post, 7/10/13
Here's the letter Durbin and Feinstein sent to President Obama:
Feinstein also sent a separate letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in calling for ending the forced feedings last month:
The letter from Feinstein calls for action on ending the force-feedings and Durbin has joined her call:
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/...
"We're going to join together, and perhaps others wish to join us in a letter to the president asking him to exercise his executive authority to end this force feeding in Guantanamo," he said.
There are 166 prisoners at Guantanamo, which was established to house terror suspects following the 2001 al Qaeda attacks on the United States and the start of the Afghan war, and 106 have been on hunger strikes since early this year. More than 40 have been force-fed, military officials said.
On Monday, a federal judge in Washington rejected a bid by detainees to end force-feeding during the holy month of Ramadan, saying the court lacked jurisdiction.
But U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler urged President Barack Obama to do something about it, calling it a "painful, humiliating, and degrading process."
The government has said force-feeding provides "essential nutrition and medical care." - CNN, 7/9/13
Right now the only humane thing done about this is that the force feedings aren't taken place during the day during Ramadan:
http://tv.msnbc.com/...
The U.S. government said it will respect the religious traditions of the hunger strikers at the Guantanamo Bay prison by shifting force-feedings to nighttime hours during the holy month of Ramadan.
A spokesman for the prison said last week that feedings would be administered at night to keep with the Muslim custom of not eating or drinking anything during daylight hours for an entire month. In years past, prisoners who wished to observe Ramadan have been given their meals after dark. “We are confident that we will be able to provide life-preserving enteral feeds where necessary without violating a fundamental tenet of the Islamic faith,” Navy Captain Robert Durand said in an interview with the Miami Herald.
Ramadan is considered to be the holiest month of the Islamic calendar; in the Koran, it is when the prophet Muhammad first received revelations from God. Muslims around the world refrain from eating or drinking anything during daylight hours and spend time in prayer and reflection. - MSNBC, 7/10/13
Here's a little more background info on the force feedings:
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
The military counts a detainee as a hunger striker when he has skipped meals for at least three days and lost a certain amount of body weight.
"We have made no changes in our criteria. Many detainees who were on hunger strike are now eating, and have eaten enough consecutive meals to remove the status as hunger striker," Navy Captain Robert Durand told CBS News, Guantanamo's director of public affairs.
As of Sunday, 45 detainees had lost enough weight to qualify for force feedings of Ensure liquid nutrients through a tube pushed up their noses and down their throats while they are strapped to a chair.
House said only one-third of the detainees qualified for tube feedings are being subjected to them, while two-thirds are drinking cans of Ensure or eating a meal or enough calories to count as meal.
"Some detainees are taking a token amount of food as part of the traditional breaking of the fast at the end of each day in Ramadan, so that is now conveniently allowing them to be counted as not striking," said Clive Stafford Smith, a London-based attorney whose organization, Reprieve, represents Guantanamo detainees. - CBS News, 7/14/13
Personally, I think Guantanamo Bay needs to be closed down but I thank Senators Durbin & Feinstein for leading on this issue. Please do con act your Senator, Congressman and the White House and let them know you object to how prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are being treated:
Senate: http://www.senate.gov/...
House: http://house.gov/...
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/...