Billed as an exclusive, CNN sent their Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence to cover the hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay prison this week. At least two segments aired on Erin Burnett’s program. The Pentagon decided to have CNN interview a female guard who could talk about the “dire conditions” that guards face at the prison. “For [...]

It has now been one hundred days since prisoners being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison launched a hunger strike. According to the Miami Herald‘s Carol Rosenberg, the Pentagon says 102 prisoners are now on hunger strike, and thirty are being “tube-fed.” The hunger strike was sparked in February. As noted in a letter sent by [...]

Reposted with permission from Andy Worthington’s blog, Guantanamo hunger striker Younus Chekhouri describes what happened when prison camp authorities raided the hunger strikers on April 13. Chekhouri also describes his own physical and mental anguish, as he experiences both the abuse and torture inside the prison and the effects of the hunger strike undertaken out of desperation, as he has been imprisoned without charges for over 11 years, and while cleared for release, has no idea when or if he will ever leave the U.S. military prison.

The indefinite detention of individuals at Guantanamo Bay prison, “most of whom have not been charged, goes beyond a minimally reasonable period of time” and “constitutes a flagrant violation of international human rights law,” the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and a United Nations (UN) working group on arbitrary detention stated today. The condemnation also [...]

There are steps President Barack Obama could take right now to expedite the closing of Guantanamo Bay prison camps, where prisoners currently engaged in a major hunger strike continue to be held in detention. Yet, Obama and his defenders insist Congress is solely responsible for why the prison continues to be open and why prisoners [...]

His hunger strike is approaching its seventieth day. He is beyond the point where experts say “irreversible cognitive impairment and psychological damage” can result yet British prisoner Shaker Aamer, who has been detained without charge or trial in the Guantanamo Bay prison camps for eleven years, remains committed to resistance. The Observer in the United Kingdom [...]

A major report on the United States government’s use of torture was released on April 16. The product of a two-year intensive study. It examined discussion involving President George W. Bush and his top advisers after 9/11 and the how they had considered inflicting “pain and torment on detainees” in custody as part of challenging [...]

Considering the way the military has handled the situation at Guantanamo — forbidding reporters at the island, making nice to the ICRC only to conduct violent raids on detainees as soon as Red Cross officials leave, force-feeding hunger-striking detainees against all medical ethics and protocols — you’d think the Pentagon thought they had another Koje-Ko prison camp rebellion on their hands.

Apparently the White House was notified in advance of the nighttime raids on the debilitated hunger strikers, who according to military accounts (which one must take with maximum suspicion), fought back with mop and broom handles and plastic water bottles.

Whatever military police met in terms of opposition, what they certainly encountered were emaciated prisoners, worn down by years of interrogation, isolation, brutality, and now hunger, as they wield the only real weapons they know, their very bodies, choosing death over the hopelessness and torture that is indefinite detention.

A journalist for the Miami Herald, who has been diligently covering Guantanamo Bay prison and those being held there in detention, has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking the names of prisoners who are not being prosecuted yet have not been cleared for release. Carol Rosenberg submitted a FOIA request on December [...]

Guantanamo prisoners engaged in a hunger strike that has been ongoing for over a month are losing considerable weight, according to attorneys for the prisoners. The Pentagon also continues to report a number of hunger strikers that does not match reports from attorneys, who have said there are many more prisoners on strike. The Associated [...]