US Navy Order Ends Florida-To-Gitmo Commercial Flights
US Navy Order Ends Florida-To-Gitmo Commercial Flights
Eric Lach 12:04 PM EDT, Monday March 18, 2013
The Florida-based company IBC Travel announced on Friday that it will cease commercial air passenger service to Guantánamo Bay after April 5, following an order from Navy Capt. John “JR” Nettleton, the Guantánamo Navy commander.
According to The Miami Herald, IBC said it would continue weekly cargo flights to the base, and will also offer $17,000 one-day charters on a case-by-case basis. A base spokesperson said that a review of federal regulations had led to the decision.
“After a detailed review of Federal Regulations it has been brought to the attention of the installation commanding officer that allowing IBC Airways to operate out of NS Guantánamo Bay is a violation of regulation 32CFR766,” Kelly Wirfel told the Herald.
=From the Herald:
The small shuttles that carry about 20 passengers had been a vital air bridge to Guantánamo, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court gave attorneys access to the prisoners in August 2004. The flight also served as a gateway for journalists, entertainers, business executives and contractors who streamed to the base in the years following the establishment of the prison camps in January 2002.
Once IBC stops flying, according to base spokeswoman Wirfel, lawyers and journalists can ask the Defense Department’s Office of Military Commissions for a seat on its weekly flight from Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, D.C. The government mounts the mostly wide-body charter flights for $90,000, usually departing Washington on Monday, according to a May 2012 war court filing. The schedule for return flights varies.
MORE AT:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/navy-order-ends-florida-to-gitmo-commercial-flights
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gitmo press agent denies abuses amid ongoing hunger strike
Despite a long history of reported human rights abuses at Guantanamo prison, which both the UN and US President Barack Obama denounced as torture, the prison’s Director of Public Affairs Captain Robert Durand has denied any wrongdoing.
“We will continue to carry out our mission to provide a safe and humane environment,” he said.
Earlier this month, Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) denied the existence of an ongoing hunger strike at the facility. Durand called detainee allegations of mistreatment, “outright falsehoods and gross exaggerations,” implying that the protest was insignificant compared to one that took place in 2006. He also claimed that detainees had fabricated incidents of misconduct.
“If the definition of a hunger striker is entirely in their control and is a matter of their discretion, then I think that explains how they are able to say that there are no more than a handful of men on hunger strike,” Pardiss Kebriaei of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) told RT.
“While JTF-GTMO continues to deny the existence of a mass hunger strike at Guantánamo, attorneys report that the prisoners’ health is declining rapidly as the hunger strike enters its second month,” CCR said in a statement on Thursday.
Gitmo prisoners have reportedly been on a hunger strike over alleged mistreatment at the hands of prison guards. Some 130 people housed in Camp 6 of Guantanamo Bay are believed to be participating, and a reported two-dozen men have lost consciousness due to their low blood glucose levels from the hunger strike.
The prisoners are protesting against the sacrilegious disrespect displayed towards their religion by the confiscation of Korans, according to detainees and their lawyers. Although Durand has categorically denied “any claims of abuse, desecration or mishandling,” it is unclear how he defined those terms.
Detention center "Camp Delta" at the US Naval Base inGuantanamo Bay, Cuba on October 18, 2012 in this photo reviewed by the US Department of Defense. (AFP Photo)
Approximately five men have been subjected to force-feeding – a procedure that can be considered a form of ‘cruel or unusual punishment,’ contrary to the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution and tantamount to torture, according to a UN Human Rights Commission report in 2006. The same report demanded the immediate closure of the offshore prison, and to cease all such “practices amounting to torture.” Force-feeding involves restraining a detainee by strapping them into a chair, inserting a tube down their throat and into the stomach, often through the nose; Durand confirmed that the five undergoing force-feeding have been subjected to the nostril-tube method.
MORE AT:
http://rt.com/news/guantanamo-durand-hunger-strike-422/