Guantanamo Force Feeding
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Detainees held in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
' Guantanamo Bay detention camps have initiated both individual and widespread hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay, and camp medical authorities have initiated force-feeding programs. In 2005, Captain
John Edmonson ''V-J Day in Times Square'' is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays a U.S. Navy sailor embracing and kissing a total stranger—a dental assistant—on Victory over Japan Day ("V-J Day") in New York City's Times Square on August 1 ...
, who was then Naval Base's chief medical officer, asserted that
force feeding Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose ( nasogastric) or mouth (orogastric) into ...
was a last resort, used only when counseling failed, and when the detainee's body mass index fell below the healthy range. According to Edmonson detainees normally cooperated, and restraints were unnecessary. According to Edmonson detainees were normally only given 1500 Calories per day. The
UN Human Rights Commission The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...
said it regards force-feeding at Guantanamo as a form of
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
and the
World Medical Association The World Medical Association (WMA) is an international and independent confederation of free professional medical associations representing physicians worldwide. WMA was formally established on September 18, 1947 and has grown to 115 national ...
specifically prohibited force-feeding in its Declaration of Tokyo. Rapper
Yasiin Bey Yasiin Bey (; born Dante Terrell Smith, December 11, 1973), previously and more commonly known by his stage name Mos Def (), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. His hip hop career began in 1994, alongside his siblings in the s ...
, also known as Mos Def, volunteered for a demonstration with Reprieve based on the leaked documents of the procedure. Guantanamo medical personnel criticized the demonstration as false. One nurse said of the detainees, "Most are asking us to hurry up, make it go faster." A Guantanamo watch commander, and former fan, reacted by deleting Mos Def's music from his iPod.


Medical concerns

More than 250 doctors from the UK, the US, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Italy and the Netherlands condemned the US for force-feeding of hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They said "We urge the US government to ensure that detainees are assessed by independent physicians and that techniques such as force-feeding and restraint chairs are abandoned," The doctors said also that the
World Medical Association The World Medical Association (WMA) is an international and independent confederation of free professional medical associations representing physicians worldwide. WMA was formally established on September 18, 1947 and has grown to 115 national ...
specifically prohibited force-feeding and they want the association to instigate disciplinary proceedings against any members known to have violated the code. In 1975, the
World Medical Association The World Medical Association (WMA) is an international and independent confederation of free professional medical associations representing physicians worldwide. WMA was formally established on September 18, 1947 and has grown to 115 national ...
issued the Declaration of Tokyo, guidelines for physicians. The declaration states: "Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and is considered by the physician as capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgement concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, he or she shall not be fed artificially."


Torture Claims

Former prisoner
Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah is a Kuwaiti citizen formerly held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. He had been detained without charge in Guantanamo Bay since 2002.BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in 2006 that force-feeding of hunger strikers in Guantanamo amounts to
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
and the
UN Human Rights Commission The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...
said it regards force-feeding at Guantanamo as a form of
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
, a charge the US firmly has repeatedly denied. On 29 February 2006, Richard G. Murphy Jr. and other lawyers for detainee Mohammad Bawazir filed a claim that force-feeding was torture. The lawyers claim that the military made the force-feeding process unnecessarily painful and humiliating to break a hunger strike that at one point included more than 100 detainees.


History

The earliest known case of force-feeding prisoners in Guantanamo Bay occurred in early 2002 when two hunger strikers were hospitalized for malnutrition. The pair were holdouts from a hunger strike which began as a response to Guantanamo guards removing a makeshift turban from one of the prisoners. The strike initially had up to 194 participants, however that number dropped precipitously when the general in charge of the prison announced that prisoners would be allowed to wear turbans. In these initial cases, prisoners were sedated as opposed to restrained prior to being given nutrition. Restraints were used in force feeding at least as early as early 2005 in response to another hunger strike by prisoners to protest prison conditions. In this case, 105 prisoners were refusing food, although to varying extents. The military acknowledged that twenty prisoners were being force fed. In these cases, many prisoners passively accepted nasal feeding, though others were restrained with leg shackles and handcuffs.


Practice

Though initially not used, the military began the use of restraint chairs for feeding hunger-striking prisoners in December 2005 to prevent them from vomiting up forced nutrition.


Litigation

In 2005, the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District ...
ordered the military to provide to prisoners' attorneys: notice within 24 hours of the commencement of force feeding, the prisoners' medical records, and weekly status updates about the prisoners' health. In 2013, hunger striker Jihad Ahmed Mustafa Dhiab sought an injunction in federal court to stop the government from
force-feeding Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose ( nasogastric) or mouth (orogastric) into ...
him. On 16 May 2014, Senior United States District Judge
Gladys Kessler Gladys Kessler (born January 22, 1938) is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Education and career After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University ...
ordered the military to stop the force-feeding of the Syrian prisoner until his appointed hearing, scheduled for 21 May 2014. The judge has since authorized the force-feeding. In October 2014, District Judge Kessler determined that she had no jurisdiction over confinement conditions at Guantanamo. After the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate co ...
rejected that theory, Dhabi again sought an injunction to stop the force feedings. In November 2014, District Judge Kessler again denied Dhabi relief. However, in the course of
discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discover ...
, the government disclosed that it had recorded its force-feedings of Dhabi and classified the videotapes as "SECRET". Sixteen news organizations intervened seeking access to the tapes of Dhabi being force fed. In October 2014, District Judge Kessler ordered the tapes unsealed. The D.C. Circuit, in an unsigned opinion joined by Chief Circuit Judge
Merrick Garland Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist serving since March 2021 as the 86th United States attorney general. He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of ...
, determined it did not yet have jurisdiction over the interlocutory order but encouraged the district court to consider additional declarations made by the government. In December 2015, District Judge Kessler again ordered the tapes to be redacted and unsealed. In March 2017, the D.C. Circuit ordered that the tapes remain secret, with the panel unanimously voting to reverse but with each of the three judges providing different reasons in separate opinions. Senior Judge
A. Raymond Randolph Arthur Raymond Randolph (born November 1, 1943) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was appointed to the Court in 1990 and assumed senior status on November 1, 200 ...
argued that the press has no right to access classified court filings made by prisoners petitioning for
habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
and that the lower court clearly erred by not deferring to declarations by Rear Admirals
Kyle Cozad Kyle James Cozad (born 1962) is a retired United States Navy rear admiral who was the former Chief of Naval Education and Training from 2017 to 2020. He was the commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo from July 2014 to June 2015. Education Rai ...
and Richard W. Butler asserting a national security threat. Judge
Judith W. Rogers Judith Ann Wilson Rogers (born July 27, 1939) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Education and career Born in New York City, Rogers received an Artium Baccalaureus ...
argued that the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...
provides the public a qualified right to access prisoners' court filings but agreed that the government had identified a national security interest justifying secrecy. Senior Judge
Stephen F. Williams Stephen Fain Williams (September 23, 1936 – August 7, 2020) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit until his death from complications of COVID-19 on August 7, 2020. Early l ...
also agreed that national security justified secrecy but questioned if the government could logically keep all Guantanamo filings secret.


See also

*
Fawzi al-Odah Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah is a Kuwaiti citizen formerly held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. He had been detained without charge in Guantanamo Bay since 2002.Sami al-Hajj Sami Mohy El Din Muhammed Al Hajj ( ar, سامي محي الدين محمد الحاج), aka Sami Al-Haj (Khartoum, Sudan, February 15, 1969) is a Sudanese journalist for the Al Jazeera network. In 2001, while on his way to do camera work for th ...


References


External links

* * * * *
Force-Feeding at Guantánamo Is Now Acknowledged

Scandal of force-fed prisoners









Sami al-Haj’s Guantánamo torture pictures

Guantanamo man tells of 'torture'

Doctors attack US over Guantanamo

Guantanamo force feeding is unnecessary

Torture In Guantánamo: The Force-feeding Of Hunger Strikers

Yemeni Gitmo Detainees Continue Hunger Strike Despite Forced Feeding

Take Action to End Torture and Hold Health Professionals Accountable





Two examples of force feeding
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guantanamo Force Feeding Guantanamo Bay detention camp Torture in the United States