Photos: Stark Scenes From the Guantanamo Hunger Strike

[polly7]

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Photos: Stark Scenes From the Guantanamo Hunger Strike
Military photographs show guards throwing away uneaten food and the "feeding chair" where detainees are force-fed.

—By Dave Gilson | Sat May. 4, 2013 3:00 AM PDT
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A "feeding chair" in the Guantanamo medical wing where hunger-striking detainees are force fed. Sgt. Brian Godette, Army 138th Public Affairs Detachment

For more than two weeks, 100 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba have been on hunger strike to protest conditions at the prison and their indefinite confinement. First denied and downplayed by the military, the strike has now become a full-blown emergency, as the Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly reports:

Twenty-three detainees are currently being force-fed. At least twice a day, guards in riot gear tie each detainee to a chair or bed, and medical personnel force a tube up his nose and down his throat, and pump a can of Ensure or other dietary supplement into his stomach. There are so many detainees being force-fed that Guantanamo's medical personnel are working around the clock to keep up with the demand, and approximately 40 additional medical personnel just arrived in Guantanamo to help deal with the growing crisis.

Though they do not show any of these frantic scenes, recently released military photos offer a window onto how Guantanamo has been dealing with the unprecedented protest: A "feeding chair" where detainees are force-fed sits next to a tray of feeding tubes and a bottle of butter pecan Ensure; guards deliver meals through "bean holes" in detainees' cells, only to throw away the uneaten food; hospital beds behind chain-link fences with rings for shackles beside them.

Other images in the series, taken in early April by Sgt. Brian Godette of the Army 138th Public Affairs Detachment, depict scenes from Camps V and VI, where most prisoners are held: a sign asking soldiers to respect praying detainees, a stuffed recliner in the "media room" that looks almost normal until you notice the ankle restraints. Original photo captions are in quotes. (h/t Public Intelligence)

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/photos-hunger-strike-guantanamo-force-feeding

[gopiscrap]

1. Our country is sick

we wonder why other nations hate us...at least some of those countries make no bones about how they treat people...we on the other hand lie about it, violate our own laws and then boast to the world how wonderful we are...

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Call the White House at 202-456-1111, and tell them to close Guantanamo Bay.

If the line is busy, keep calling.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Guantanamo camp burns through $900,000 a year per inmate

plus they are building NEW wings there.

[Solly Mack]

4. kr