US Will No Longer Report Guantanamo Hunger Strikes

[Redfairen]

Source: Associated Press

The U.S. military will no longer disclose to the media and public whether prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are on hunger strike, a spokesman said Wednesday, eliminating what had long been an unofficial barometer of conditions at the secretive military outpost.

Hunger strikes have been employed by men held at Guantanamo since shortly after the prison opened in January 2002 and the U.S. has long disclosed how many are refusing to eat and whether they meet military guidelines to be force fed.

Officials have now determined it is no longer in their interest to publicly disclose the information, said Navy Cmdr. John Fiolstrat, a spokesman for the military's Joint Task Force-Guantanamo.

"JTF-Guantanamo allows detainees to peacefully protest, but will not further their protests by reporting the numbers to the public," Filostrat said in an e-mail. "The release of this information serves no operational purpose and detracts from the more important issues, which are the welfare of detainees and the safety and security of our troops."



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=21098481&sid=76

[sakabatou]

1. White washing?

[mahannah]

2. What a steaming crock of shit. On all counts.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. We are neck-and-neck with the devil and starting to pull ahead.

[raouldukelives]

4. Well it is kind of a bummer. Nobody wants to hear that 2 second blurb

sandwiched between the latest celeb gossip and how well the environment killing stocks they own are doing.

[JDPriestly]

5. No right to appear. No right to be heard. No right to confront the witnesses against them.

An experiment in totalitarianism.

This is a worse black mark on our history than were the Japanese internships.

[blkmusclmachine]

20. This is a psychological experiment to beat us all down to thinking this sh!t is "normal."

[olddad56]

6. wouldn't want to detract from the welfare of the detainees.

because they are getting treated so humanely now.

[Ash_F]

7. Problem solved!

Just look away.

[Poll_Blind]

9. Disgusting. nt

PB

[Ace Acme]

10. Just goes to show that when you're in the dungeon

... you're in the dungeon, and nobody knows how you fare.

[Kelvin Mace]

11. Becuase ignoring reality just makes it go away

[MsLeopard]

12. Don't report it - didn't happen

See how easy it is!

[longship]

13. There's no torture going on here. Absolutely none!!

That's what we heard during Bush II.

President Obama has a real problem here. He promised to close this shit down in 2008. What happened to stop that, I will not speculate. However, I firmly believe that Gitmo is a blot on our country. One that will need to be addressed eventually, one way or another.

[Festivito]

14. I guess they won't want to privatize their reporting system. eom.

[pscot]

15. Evil

[Hell Hath No Fury]

16. Utterly shameful.

GWB would be so proud.

[blkmusclmachine]

18. Hope

for Change

[hughee99]

27. Funny you mention *...

5 years ago, 90% of the posts would be blaming the Administration and specifically * for this, now (so far), the current president has rated exactly as many mentions in this thread as the previous one, and no one seems to be putting this on president Obama.

[blkmusclmachine]

17. How can we know if those prisoners are even still alive?!!

[City Lights]

19. Sweep it under the rug.

No one will see it then.

[happyfunball]

21. Its not a war crime

If nobody knows about it.

[Judi Lynn]

22. Only the enemy commits war crimes. We are incapable of criminality.

That's why the creator has seen fit to bestow so many deadly weapons upon this nation.

It's our reward for being so good.

Welcome to D.U., happyfunball.

[nilesobek]

23. I don't care if they are guilty or not

The prisoners have suffered and have been tortured for 12 years. Release them to their home countries.

[bemildred]

24. "in here, we make the rules ..." nt

[Solly Mack]

25. Disgusting.

[malthaussen]

26. "Officials have now determined that it is no longer in their interest..."

Who cares about your interest, "officials?" You are supposed to be operating in our interest.

"Detracts from operational purpose..." what lovely gibberish. This is why the military should not be entrusted with matters of public interest: their "mission" contradicts them.

-- Mal