Forced feeding = torture

Is it a form of torture to force feed a prisoner on hunger strike?

Let's forget for a second the question of whether it's torture to hold someone without charges thousands of miles from their own country for over a decade.

Rapper Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) took part in a demonstration to show the world just what is involved in the forced feeding of a hunger striker. The doctors followed the procedures as set out in the military instructions that were leaked earlier this year.

The entire process takes about two hours but the demonstration only lasted about four minutes because of the pain and discomfort to Mr. Bey. While you watch, picture yourself or a loved one strapped into that chair.

Think about the pain and humiliation those being force fed must suffer over and over again.

What's going to happen as the Muslim world enters the month of Ramadan? Are we going to violate these prisoners' right to practice their own religion?

This is the reality of the War on Everything Terror. Our government has done everything it can to dehumanize those whom we don't like. Our conduct has been shameful and my only hope is that one day someone will have to answer for the crimes that have been committed in our name.






H/T The Guardian

Shutting down dissent anyway possible

By now it is quite obvious to the most oblivious observer that President Obama has failed miserably in his attempt to close down the prison at Guantanamo Bay. You'll remember that he told everyone who would listen back in 2008 that one of the first things he would do as president was close it down.

Like many of his other promises for progressive reform, his promise to close down GITMO has fallen to the wayside. He has been far too interested in killing innocent men, women and children with remote controlled drones to put any effort into closing Guantanamo. He was more concerned about smoothing over the summary execution of three US citizens than in ending the program of torture on Cuba.

If you follow the mainstream media you probably aren't aware that more than 100 of the detainees at Guantanamo are on hunger strike to protest the conditions in the prison. These are men who have been held without charge for, in some cases, over a decade. History will not judge the US kindly over its treatment of the detainees - the constant hysteria for the war on terror has been used to dull the American people's senses when it comes to concepts such as due process and rule of law.

Now the government is fearful that its power to compel the detainees to do what it wants them to is waning. In order to show the detainees who's boss, prison officials have begun force-feeding 30 of the hunger strikers.

This memo obtained by Al-Jazeera spells out the program of forced compliance. You see, it just wouldn't do for a detainee to drop dead from starvation at GITMO. That might just garner a bit of press attention (though just a bit). That might just pique the American public's interest in what is being done in our name. It might re-ignite a debate on the regime of torture started under Bush and accelerated under Obama.

For those detainees who are subject to being force-fed a liquid diet, they are strapped to a chair while a feeding tube is fed through their nose down to their stomach. A mask is placed over the detainee's face and liquid is fed through the tube for up to two hours. Afterward the detainee is placed in a so-called "dry cell" and observed for 45-60 minutes for any signs of induced vomiting. If the detainee vomits he is placed back in the chair and the process is begun anew.

These forced feedings are nothing more than an extension of the torture regime that detainees around the world have been subject to - ever since the Bush administration decided that torture wasn't torture if you called it something else. If there were justice in this world, George W. Bush would sit in a courtroom in The Hague facing charges of human rights violations at the International Criminal Court. Maybe one day Barack Obama could be his cellmate.

The men who are being held illegally at GITMO are adults who are more than capable of making medical decisions for themselves. They have the right to withhold their consent from being force-fed. They have the right to refuse to eat. They have the right to die with dignity, if they so choose. Sadly it is the only form of protest that is garnering any attention to the ways in which the United States is imposing the law of rule.

The Obama administration and other apologists for GITMO claim that the remaining detainees can't be released because there are no assurances they won't immediately take up arms against the United States. Well, to be quite honest, who the fuck could blame them? If they weren't already inclined to take up arms you can bet they sure as hell are now after the way they have been treated and the myriad ways in which the US government has violated their human rights.

It's time to man up, President. Either the men in Guantanamo have committed crimes against the United States or they haven't. If they haven't, it's time to set them free. If they have committed crimes, set their cases for trial.

If President Obama had any humanity he would put an end to the forced feeding of hunger strikers and he would address the problems at Guantanamo. Unfortunately for the detainees, they don't have an effective lobby and they don't have millions of dollars to funnel to Super PACS. All they have are their lives to give in their cause.

Where there's smoke, there's a microphone

The fix was in from the beginning. You know it. I know it. We all know it but the government is deadset on proceeding with a show trial in the best traditions of the Soviet Union and China.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the other accused ringleaders of the 9/11 attacks don't stand a chance. The deck is stacked against them. Military tribunal. Evidence of torture is inadmissible (what a delightful irony). Defense attorneys forced to sign agreements not to disclose certain information. They might as well have signed an agreement to defend their clients with one arm tied behind their backs and a gag in their mouths.

We've already heard that a government agency is listening to the court proceedings and hitting the silence button whenever someone brings up something embarrassing that the government insists is confidential. But even that is not enough.

The latest allegations have to do with smoke detectors in the huts where attorneys visited with their clients that weren't really smoke detectors. They were listening devices.

The government has assured the court that these devices weren't being used to eavesdrop on attorney-client conversations in the huts. And, well, if the government says they didn't do anything wrong, who are we to disbelieve them?

And then there's that little matter involving the opening of legal mail coming into Guantanamo. Back in 2011, because there was some alleged contraband coming into the base, government officers opened all mail delivered to the detainees - including mail from their lawyers. Once again, government officials insist that the mail was just opened to make sure there was no contraband present and that no one ever looked at the contents of the letters. Now doesn't that just make you feel so much better?

These trials should have been conducted in public courtrooms in the United States. The government should have been held to its burden of proof and not have been allowed to hide behind the curtain of "classified information." Any information obtained through the use of torture should have been deemed inadmissible. Admissions that the huts in which defendants met with their attorneys and admissions that legal mail was opened should have led a judge to dismiss the prosecutions.

While these men may be viewed as the ultimate embodiment of evil by some, they still deserve a fair trial. In fact, they deserve a "fairer" trial because of how unpopular they are. You see, it's really easy for folks to turn a blind eye to the excesses of the government when the defendant is unpopular or accused of a truly heinous act. And once we have agreed that he is not as deserving of a fair trial as someone else, it becomes easier for the government to do the same to someone else.

See also:

"The (show) trial of the century," The Defense Rests (12/14/2012)

"Judge, jury and executioner," The Defense Rests (8/8/2012)

"Let the show trial begin," The Defense Rests (5/7/2012)

What right to know?

In our government's ongoing quest to keep us in the dark about all that it does in our name, government prosecutors have requested that a military judge set to preside over the trials of five Guantanamo detainees prevent those detainees from revealing the extent of the torture regime they were subjected to.

This from the same government that felt no compunction to subject these men to utter brutality in contravention of all international conventions on the treatment of prisoners. Oh, they were so proud to let the public know they were waterboarding detainees back in the day. But, when faced with detainees testifying about what they were forced to endure out come the requests for protective orders and other devices to keep the truth from being known.

So much for that crap about the truth setting you free.

Our government is supposed to be accountable to the citizenry. If we are to be proper guardians of the public trust then there should be no government secrets. We have a right to know exactly what our government does in our name. Of course it is much easier just to sit there like a lemming and pretend that everything's okay.

Prosecutors are arguing that the torture regimes constitute confidential information that should not be released to the public. To quote a legal term, that is absolute bullshit. Can you imagine any other criminal forum in which the court would deny a defendant's right to testify that he had been subjected to torture?

If the judge is anything other than a stooge for the prosecution the request should be denied. It is time the world heard exactly what Presidents Bush and Obama authorized. It is time the world heard exactly how the Bush and Obama administrations conspired to violated international law. It is time the world heard the truth about what our government did.

Presidents Bush and Obama are war criminals and should be brought to justice. There is no excuse for a (nominally) democratic government to subject people to torture. Our government is quick to condemn other governments who do the same - yet it's all right for our government to do it and then try to keep it secret.

I just hope I live to see the day that Bush and Obama are forced to stand inside the dock at the International Criminal Court and answer the charges against them.