I wonder if these include the ones being force-fed intravenously?
Study Paints a Threatening Portrait of Detainees
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: July 25, 2007
WASHINGTON, July 25 — Accelerating the public relations battle over Guantánamo, a new study requested by the Pentagon argues that large numbers of detainees were a direct threat to United States forces, including al Qaeda fighters, terrorism-training camp veterans and men who had experience with explosives, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
The report, by a terrorism study center at West Point, is essentially a rebuttal by the military of growing assertions by advocates for detainees that the naval station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is filled with hapless innocents and low-level cooks and other support personnel who pose no real threat.
It paints a chilling portrait of the Guantánamo detainees. Publicly available information, the report says, indicates that 73 percent of them were a “demonstrated threat” to American or coalition forces. It says that 95 percent were at the least a “potential threat,” including detainees who had played a supporting role in terrorist groups or had expressed a commitment to pursuing jihadist violence.
The authors make clear that one of the report’s purposes is to affect public attitudes. The report says its conclusions should “enhance our collective understanding of the threats facing the United States, its allies and its interests and how we respond to them.”
more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/washington/25cnd-gitmo.html?_r=2&ref=washington&oref=slogin&oref=slogin**********************************
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/22/2685/US Force-Feeds Guantanamo Hunger Strikers
by Ben Fox
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Twice a day at the U.S. military prison, Abdul Rahman Shalabi and Zaid Salim Zuhair Ahmed are strapped down in padded restraint chairs, and flexible yellow tubes are inserted through their noses and throats. Milky nutritional supplements, mixed with water and olive oil to add calories and ease constipation, pour into their stomachs.
Shalabi, 32, an accused al-Qaida militant who was among the first prisoners taken to Guantanamo, and Ahmed, about 34, have refused to eat for almost two years to protest their conditions and open-ended confinement. In recent months, the number of hunger strikers has grown to two dozen, and the military is using force-feeding to keep them from starving.
An Associated Press investigation reveals the most complete picture yet of a test of wills that’s taking place out of public view and shows no sign of ending, despite international outrage.
more...
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
