Posted on 02/09/2006 1:37:29 PM PST by Daralundy
Lawyer for Gitmo Detainees Say Forced-Feeding Caused Drop in Number of Hunger Strikers
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A lawyer for detainees at Guantanamo Bay said Thursday that the military has used increasingly harsh methods, including strapping prisoners to a special chair, to force-feed those on hunger strike and persuade them to end their protest.
Military personnel have strapped the striking detainees into a "restraint chair" to aggressively force-feed hunger strikers, Tom Wilner said. The attorney returned from the prison at the U.S. base in eastern Cuba last week and had his notes declassified by the government late Wednesday.
The harsher methods, Wilner said, began in December and included the removal of so-called comfort items like blankets from the prisoners.
The lawyer said this new treatment is the reason the number of strikers has dropped to four from several dozen at the end of 2005.
"That's what stopped the hunger strike," said Wilner, who represents six prisoners from Kuwait including one who has resumed eating after starting the protest in August. "They purposely force-fed these people to end the strike."
A spokesman for the detention center did not immediately return a phone call Thursday seeking comment about the alleged use of the restraint chair.
But the military said Wednesday that it has not changed how it handles the hunger strikers. Four detainees are now refusing food, including three who are being force-fed the lowest number since the strike began in August.
"We haven't changed anything. Our processes and procedures are the same," said Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, a spokesman for the detention center. "But the numbers have fluctuated."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Force-fed? I hope the meals were pork rinds and bacon strips.
1) Those are starving
2) Those who are eating
Both of these groups are being submitted to cruel and unusual punishment.
I think this time the detainees have a point. Keeping them alive is bad for everyone. Let 'em starve to death. In fact, they should be assisted: if they declare an intention to hunger strike, they should not be offered any food, no matter how much they beg...
I was thinking pork-chop smoothies.
I was thinkin' "Lawyer Nuggets"
A special chair. Hmmm. I wonder if its anything like Old Sparky?
Dramatization. Not actual detainee feeding.
Of course, had the prisoners starved to death, the government would be attacked for that as well.
Culture of death. Now they are arguing for us to starve their clients. if they starve, they will argue they were starved. filthy liberal swine. do what the Israeli's do. BBQ right outside their kennels till they can't take it anymore.
If they start beggin offer them bacon.
Feed 'em some 5.56's.....
The only "torture" we should engage in is forcing these guys to step onto a scale, then stand back and applaud for every pound they lose. And hmmm.... after 120 more days or so, the idiot will disappear altogether.
They even took away their blankies.
WTF is with these lawyers anyway?
Do they want their clients dead so that they can blowiate in front of the bar?
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