Gitmo officials use "restraint chairs," feeding tubes on hunger strikers

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Tough U.S. Steps in Hunger Strike at Camp in Cuba

By TIM GOLDEN
Published: February 9, 2006



An ad on the Web for the restraint chairs that were sent to the Guantánamo detention center.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/politics/09gitmo.html?ex=1297141200&en=0dc89ad985ac6d20&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

United States military authorities have taken tougher measures to force-feed detainees engaged in hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after concluding that some were determined to commit suicide to protest their indefinite confinement, military officials have said.

In recent weeks, the officials said, guards have begun strapping recalcitrant detainees into "restraint chairs," sometimes for hours a day, to feed them through tubes and prevent them from deliberately vomiting afterward. Detainees who refuse to eat have also been placed in isolation for extended periods in what the officials said was an effort to keep them from being encouraged by other hunger strikers.

The measures appear to have had dramatic effects. The chief military spokesman at Guantánamo, Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin, said yesterday that the number of detainees on hunger strike had dropped to 4 from 84 at the end of December.

Some officials said the new actions reflected concern at Guantánamo and the Pentagon that the protests were becoming difficult to control and that the death of one or more prisoners could intensify international criticism of the detention center. Colonel Martin said force-feeding was carried out "in a humane and compassionate manner" and only when necessary to keep the prisoners alive. H e said in a statement that "a restraint system to aid detainee feeding" was being used but refused to answer questions about the restraint chairs.

[adriennui]

1. why not let them starve

if that's what they want?

[Mnemosyne]

5. I don't think they want to

fucking starve, they want to go home. Most or all are innocent.

[High Plains]

6. Why not set them free if there are no charges against them?

[High Plains]

7. "Why not let them starve"?

I shake my head at the cold-hearted idiocy of this comment.

[adriennui]

9. let's compromise

stop force feeding, it's their choice whether they eat.

[central scrutinizer]

2. paging Dr. Frist - stat

Let's get some videotape so Bill Frist can diagnose their condition

[gratuitous]

3. And this doesn't qualify as torture . . . how again?

You know, I'm so old, I remember a time when the United States fought against rogue nations and international outlaw regimes that locked people away indefinitely without charge or trial, tortured them, and forced confessions out of them.

Now, we're the world's foremost practitioner without even the bad excuse that our survival as a nation depends on doing this.

[ladjf]

4. Are they still down there torturing those guys. It's been several

years since they were put in prison. If they had known any information then, it would be obsolete by now. What are we doing, practicing our torture skills for training purposes?

[Neil Lisst]

8. I can't believe the things done under Bush in the name of security.

What happened to the US leading by being an example of the RIGHT way to do things?

Bush is anathema to everything the country has stood for. One man has turned 200 years of liberty and freedom on its ear.

What happened to the US that doesn't torture, doesn't treat the captured like animals, doesn't mistreat its own citizens?!

He's burning down the house to get rid of the termites.