Free Republic

When hunger pangs hit Patricia Brooks, she turns to stitching. Her needle flashes silver as she stitches squares of purple and blue, pink and red. It may also be her message of goodbye to her two granddaughters, ages 5 and 7. Brooks, 68, who lives in a subsidized senior-citizen apartment in Coupeville, Island County, has been on a hunger strike since Sept. 11. A longtime activist who joined Coupeville Peace and Reconciliation on the street corner at Highway 20 and Main Street, Brooks was frustrated over the lack of progress in ending the war in Iraq. "I have been in...

SADDAM HUSSEIN ended his 19-day hunger strike last Wednesday with a meal of beef, rice and Coca-Cola, but he had little to show for his starvation. Iraqis in particular, living day-to-day with brutal sectarian violence, viewed Mr. Hussein’s self-sacrifice as an insult. “Saddam’s hunger strike didn’t work because it came from someone who is finished in Iraq and has no political or personal value for the Iraqi people,” said Fauwzya al-Attiya, a sociologist at Baghdad University. “Most of us wish he was executed just to end this problem so we can face our other problems.” But if Mr. Hussein tarnished...

Five antiwar activists, four of whom have been on a hunger strike for 25 days, were arrested yesterday... {snip} The arrests occurred after the five blocked the entrance and ignored police orders to move..... Three of the people arrested are members of CodePink, including its co-founder, Diane Wilson of Seadrift, Tex.

For two months the van was parked outside the Packard Bell computer factory in Angers, western France. Inside were three former employees on hunger strike: Tony Berthelot, Bruno Mouillé and Betty Bergeon. The trio said they were subsisting on fruit juice and water in protest at the way Packard Bell had handled their voluntary redundancies, claiming they had not received adequate support in the search for other work. On July 12 their stamina gave out. After Mr Berthelot had been taken to hospital with heart problems, the others reluctantly ended their fast too. Yet there are plenty of others still...

SADDAM Hussein is receiving psychiatric counselling to convince him to start eating again after 12 days on hunger strike in a US military prison. Saying that the 69-year-old ousted Iraqi president was still refusing food but taking liquid nourishment, a US spokesman said such counselling was part of additional daily medical care for inmates who risked damaging their health by their actions. "Medical and mental health professionals counsel the detainees on the dangers," Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry said. "They try to convince the detainees to end their fast." Saddam and three co-defendants who last ate on July 7 are all...

Iraq: ninth day of hunger strike for Saddam Hussein BAGHDAD - former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein spent Sunday his ninth day of sharpened without feeding. He carries out a hunger strike in order to claim a protection increased for his lawyers. "In spite of its refusal to eat, it is always considered in good health", specified a spokesman of the American army. With three of his co-defendants, the former Iraqi leader, whose lawsuit for crimes against humanity takes again the next week, refuses to feed since July 7. He drinks sweetened coffee and others liquidate, specified the army. The...

Iraq - Saddam Hussein in hunger strike since five days BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein and three of its co-defendants have been in hunger strike for five days, announced Wednesday the army American, thus confirming a declaration of lawyer of the former president. The ex president would go however well thanks to an enriched drink. The four strikers have refused to feed for Friday evening, protesting against the procedures of their lawsuit for crime against humanity and claiming more safety for their lawyers. A third of them was killed last month.

*With the White House as her backdrop Tuesday, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan ate her last meal at midnight and begin a hunger strike designed to call attention to her efforts to bring home U.S. troops fighting in Iraq. Danny Glover, Rev. Al Sharpton and Susan Sarandon are among the celebrities joining Sheehan for the nationwide effort, dubbed “Troops Home Fast.” So far, more than 3,000 people from the U.S. and 18 other countries have signed up to join the “rolling fast,” meaning they’ll be giving up food on designated days and encourage others to fast with them on those days....

After six straight agonizing hours without food, deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has ended his hunger strike. The strike was launched to protest the use of a generic substitute for his customary Kellogg's Fruit Loops. Curtis Debabbler, a human rights lawyer who has been retained to defend Saddam Hussein, labeled the shift to generic "Fruity Hoops" as "shabby and indecent." "This man was absolute ruler of a sovereign nation of over 20 million people," said Debabbler. "To try to foist this inferior substitute on him is another chapter in the book of American atrocities committed in Iraq." Debabbler asserted that...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Guantanamo Bay detainees are staging suicide attempts and hunger strikes to undermine American policy in the war on terror, a senior U.S. military official said, calling the acts a "jihad" against the United States. "The detainees view this as a struggle. They view this as a jihad ... They're trying to figure out ways that they can continue the fight," Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of the U.S. prison on Cuba's southeastern tip. "They do that with hunger strikes, overdosing on medicines. And now they've succeeded in killing themselves." Three detainees -...

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein ended a brief hunger strike after missing just one meal in his U.S.-run prison, a U.S. military spokesman said on Friday.

Saddam, 7 Co-Defendants on Hunger Strike Jun 21 1:29 PM US/Eastern Email this story By JAMAL HALABY Associated Press Writer AMMAN, Jordan Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants went on a hunger strike Wednesday to protest the killing of an attorney on the defense team, Saddam's chief lawyer said. Khalil al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press, "President Saddam and other members of his leadership went on a hunger strike today to protest the killing of Khamis al-Obeidi." "They pledged not to end the strike until international protection is provided to the defense team," said al-Dulaimi, who was visiting Jordan.

There were no diamond-studded stilettos on display for what Drudge called, "The Night of the Golden Statue" last night. As Hollywood stargazers watched their faves arrive for ceremonies in green cars, a worldwide hunger strike to protest China's recent attacks on Human Rights defenders was getting underway

ALARM - Saddam Hussein stopped the hunger strike BAGHDAD - Iraqi deposed president Saddam Hussein ceased there is one week his hunger strike after having refused during eleven days to feed, affirmed Monday with AFP his principal defender Khalil Al-Doulaimi.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein and three former officials in his regime on Tuesday told the court handling their trial that they were on a hunger strike in protest of the judge overseeing the proceedings. Saddam said he had not eaten in three days, while his former intelligence chief, Ibrahim Barzan, said he had been on strike for two days. Their claims of a hunger strike could not be independently confirmed. The defendants are being held in U.S. detention, and U.S. officials could not immediately be reached to comment. Investigative judge Raid Juhi did not deny the defendants were refusing...

Saddam Hussein and her co-defendants in hunger strike since three days BAGHDAD - Iraqi president deposed Saddam Hussein affirmed Tuesday with the court that it had started with his seven co-defendants for three days a hunger strike. "We have been in hunger strike for three days", said the former dictator while sitting down in the dock.

Reuters - SADDAM HUSSEIN LAWYERS SAY FORMER IRAQI PRESIDENT TO START HUNGER STRIKE ON MONDAY TO PROTEST TRIAL

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...

Bus Workers Go On Strike in Prison Bahram Rafiee Feb. 5, 2006 Iran’s domestic media have been banned from publishing news on the government crackdown of the strike of bus drivers who again took to the streets in protest of their conditions. There are news reports that many arrests have followed the government clampdown and that those arrested had been transferred to the harsh 209-ward of the notorious Evin prison in northern Tehran. There are also reports that the prisoners have gone on a hunger strike to protest their imprisonment. Khedmat, an internet news site close to hardline president Ahmadinejad...

TEN alleged terrorists were on hunger strike in a Victorian prison in protest over a refusal to allow them to pray together. The men, devout Muslims who are being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in the maximum security Barwon Prison at Lara, began the hunger strike this week. The 10, arrested in pre-dawn raids in November, are facing charges of being members of a terrorist organisation Their lawyer, Rob Stary, said they had not been allowed to pray together. He said the men wanted to hold a short prayer service on Friday afternoons. "They just want...