89 Gitmo detainees on hunger strike

[Guest BlackJesus]

[size=3][u][quote][img]http://home.earthlink.net/~root.man/gitmo.jpg[/img]
[b][size=4]89 Gitmo detainees on hunger strike [/size] [/b]
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press [/u] [/size]


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - More [b]Guantanamo Bay detainees have joined a hunger strike[/b], raising the [b]total to 89[/b], and [b]six of them were being force-fed[/b], the U.S. military said Thursday.

The strike — which [b]last weekend jumped from three participants to 75[/b] — is now the biggest of the year at the [b]U.S. prison on Cuba, where about 460 men are being held[/b] on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

The U.S. military said the detainees were trying to pressure the United States to release them, but a human rights attorney described the [b]strike as a desperate appeal for justice.[/b]

Six hunger strikers were being force-fed, said Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand — two more than last weekend.

"All are being closely monitored by the ... medical staff and being counseled on the health effects of long-term hunger striking," Durand said in a statement from Guantanamo Bay.

[b]Military officials said the hunger strikers are an attempt to gain public sympathy to pressure the United States to release them.[/b]

[img]http://images.indymedia.org/imc/washingtondc/media/image/13/1_gitmo1.jpg[/img]

Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who has been to Guantanamo Bay, said the growing hunger strike [b]appears more like a call for help by detainees.[/b]

[b]"The vast majority have never been charged with any crime,[/b] and [b]have been prevented from communicating directly with the outside world,"[/b] Wizner said in a telephone interview from New York. "So it may well be [b]their attempt to ensure that the world is reminded of their unlawful detention."[/b]

[b]A U.N. panel said May 19 that [u]holding detainees indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay violates the world's ban on torture.[/b][/u] [b]The panel said the United States should close the detention center.[/b]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith are among those who also recently have called on the United States to close Guantanamo.

But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington cannot turn loose "people who have vowed to kill more Americans if they're released."

[b]Only 10 Guantanamo detainees have been charged with crimes. [/b] The Supreme Court is expected to rule in June whether President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering the detainees to be tried by U.S. military tribunals.

The hunger strike comes amid increasing displays of defiance from the [b]prisoners, who have been held for up to 4 1/2 years,[/b] with many claiming their innocence.

[b]On May 18, a detainee staged a suicide attempt to lure guards into a cellblock where they were attacked by prisoners armed with makeshift weapons, the military said.[/b] Earlier that day, two detainees overdosed on antidepressants they collected from other detainees and hoarded in their cells. The men have since regained consciousness.

[b]The hunger strike began in August and peaked at 131 last fall,[/b] according to the military's count, before declining to three earlier this year as the military used more aggressive force-feeding methods, including a restraint chair. [b]Force-feeding is done through tubes inserted into the nose.[/b]

[b]Physicians for Human Rights has called on the United States to halt the "brutal and inhumane force-feeding tactics."[/b]

"The commanders of Guantanamo are not tolerating people on hunger strike," said Leonard Rubenstein, executive director of the doctors' group, adding that detainees were apparently being force fed before their lives are at risk.

"These are policy decisions made by commanders, not by physicians," Rubenstein said from Washington in a telephone interview.

U.S. officials said the measures are "safe and humane" and have been used in American civilian prisons.[/quote]


[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060601/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_hunger_strike"]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060601/ap_on_...o_hunger_strike[/url]

[Guest BlackJesus]

[center][img]http://www.onemanbandwidth.com/wordpress/wp-content/gitmogothic5.gif[/img]


[/center]

[Jason]

Other. Don't ever feed them again.

[Guest Johnsons4Life]

I dont know why people cry and whine about this stuff. If they choose to not eat and die let them. They have it a lot better than they should anyway. If you get captured than your head would get cut off after they fuck with you for a couple of days or weeks. So they cry that they are force feeding them now. Wow what a crime. You cant let them hunger strike themselves and you cant force feed them. WTF is supposed to happen with these people.

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote name='Johnsons4Life' post='276083' date='Jun 1 2006, 07:19 PM']WTF is supposed to happen with these people.[/quote]


[b]Well according to the international Law the U.S. expects everyone else to go by .... they are supposed to be tried for a crime ... and have an opportunity to defend themself against their accuser.

We are supposed to believe in due process .... but this administration is supposed to believe in a lot of things they don't follow. [/b]

[Guest Johnsons4Life]

[quote name='BlackJesus' post='276089' date='Jun 1 2006, 06:24 PM'][b]Well according to the international Law the U.S. expects everyone else to go by .... they are supposed to be tried for a crime ... and have an opportunity to defend themself against their accuser.

We are supposed to believe in due process .... but this administration is supposed to believe in a lot of things they don't follow. [/b][/quote]

Well theres no international law these days i guess so everybody should quit their bitching. I guess we will follow the rest of the world that is better than the terrible United States. And if somebody shot an RPG at you and you catch them thats all you have on them. You cant exactly go into the streets and close it off for a crime scene investigation and bring in the forensics team. You will never find the launcher and trace it back to them. Its your word that you saw them verses their word that he was just selling stuff in the street and wrong place wrong time. A lot of people would be freed because of lack of evidence. I'm not sure how the stuff works in Gitmo or what they have done to get there but in iraq 90% of the people taken into custody because of stuff like that get released within a couple days if not hours even though you know for a fact that they are up to no good. There should be a better system but its hard given the environment your in.

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote name='Johnsons4Life' post='276098' date='Jun 1 2006, 07:42 PM']Well theres no international law these days i guess so everybody should quit their bitching. I guess we will follow the rest of the world that is better than the terrible United States. And if somebody shot an RPG at you and you catch them thats all you have on them. You cant exactly go into the streets and close it off for a crime scene investigation and bring in the forensics team. You will never find the launcher and trace it back to them. Its your word that you saw them verses their word that he was just selling stuff in the street and wrong place wrong time. A lot of people would be freed because of lack of evidence. I'm not sure how the stuff works in Gitmo or what they have done to get there but in iraq 90% of the people taken into custody because of stuff like that get released within a couple days if not hours even though you know for a fact that they are up to no good. There should be a better system but its hard given the environment your in.[/quote]


[b]even under a military court ... you could at least have the soldier testify to what you just said "so and so shot an RPG on me" ... and allow him to answer those charges ....

The military is not saying who is there, what their names are, why they are each there, when they will be tried for something, how they speak to their crime, when they will be released, how long they will be held --- etc etc etc.

You can't just have people swept off the street into our secret prison on Cuba (ironically - and we call Castro the tyrant) .... and then hold them indefinetly ... without ever saying why they are there.


And quit comparing our system to the people you claim are terrorists .... sure others may behead people ... but that doesn't mean that we should lower our standards and decency and do so.
[/b]

[Homer_Rice]

I think the media needs to stop reporting about Gitmo. Out of sight, out of mind. I know I'd feel a lot better if I didn't have to think about stuff like this.

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote name='Homer_Rice' post='276104' date='Jun 1 2006, 07:49 PM']I think the media needs to stop reporting about Gitmo. Out of sight, out of mind. I know I'd feel a lot better if I didn't have to think about stuff like this.[/quote]


[center][img]http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2006/04/13/PH2006041302215.jpg[/img][/center]

[Guest BadassBengal]

[quote name='BlackJesus' post='276089' date='Jun 1 2006, 07:24 PM'][b]Well according to the international Law the U.S. expects everyone else to go by .... they are supposed to be tried for a crime ... and have an opportunity to defend themself against their accuser.

We are supposed to believe in due process .... but this administration is supposed to believe in a lot of things they don't follow. [/b][/quote]

Um.... they don't belong to any army that the US recognizes. They're members of a terrorist organization, THUS, they have no rights.

Strap them down, force feed them, and tell them to shut the fuck up. It's happened before, it's all to easy to fix it again.

If we release them and send them back to their own country, their government would MOST LIKELY fuck them up and end up executing them. If you truly care about these sons of bitches, then let em stay.

[STRAYCAT]

Fuck'em let them die. More than likely they would launch an rpg,kill you or me in the name of Ala. Like someone posted,they don't belong to international law so they don't get the same treatment. Can't believe
someone would want to defend terrorist. Anybody who does...... [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/30.gif[/img]

[Guest #22]

The good Reaganites would say what we'd expect:
[img]http://www.charmaineyoest.com/archives/margaret_thatcher_200.jpg[/img]
"Crime is Crime is Crime. It is not Political."


People who a.) Love freedom and justice, and b.) know their history would remember that after the death of Bobby Sands in 1981 (and the subsequent deaths of nearly a dozen more hunger strikers), the IRA membership in No. Ireland grew faster than it ever had, and violence increased. [img]http://www.tkb.org/documents/Members/MEM3969_sands.jpg[/img]


The world is watching. It's up to us.
At least the prisoners in H Block were tried for crimes. Kidnapping people and holding them without trial is a violation of what this country was founded upon. Violation of Illegal Search and Seizure is unamerican.

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote name='BadassBengal' post='276112' date='Jun 1 2006, 08:09 PM']Um.... they don't belong to any army that the US recognizes. They're members of a terrorist organization, THUS, they have no rights.[/quote]

[b][u]International law applies to ALL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD !!! [/u] regardless of what group they belong to.


[size=3]- They are not Prisoners of WAR = Because we have [color="#FF0000"]NOT DECLARED WAR [/color] [/size]

- They are men who were kidnapped from Afghanistan and Iraq by an invading army, who didn't have the legal authority to take them in the first place and bring them to a Gulag in Cuba.

- They are being held in violation of the Geneva Convention - A convention that the U.S. signed


Why the fuck is it so hard for some of you to understand .... you have to have rule of law or else anyone government could just randomly start kidnapping anyone from anywhere in the world and hold them forever.

How would you feel if China invaded Ohio tomorrow and just started swooping guys off to a Gulag in Bermuda ... without ever saying whom they captured ....

If any of these men committed a crime then charge them for it .... and then they would transfer to a military prison (which is governed by a set of laws and standards) .....[/b]

[Guest #22]

[quote name='Jason' post='276068' date='Jun 1 2006, 06:57 PM']Other. Don't ever feed them again.[/quote]
Good Christian outlook there. Bravo, compassionate conservative

[quote name='Johnsons4Life' post='276083' date='Jun 1 2006, 07:19 PM']I dont know why people cry and whine about this stuff. If they choose to not eat and die let them. They have it a lot better than they should anyway. If you get captured than your head would get cut off after they fuck with you for a couple of days or weeks. So they cry that they are force feeding them now. Wow what a crime. You cant let them hunger strike themselves and you cant force feed them. WTF is supposed to happen with these people.[/quote]
1.) Find me the documents, news articles, whatever proving or even stating that these people are enemy combatants (which would merit them rights, btw), terrorists, or a threat to you in Kansas.
2.) These folks are getting exactly what they want. Attention from the global community and [u]support for their cause[/u]. If they were treated like human beings fundamentally deserve to be treated, there wouldn't be any issue.

[quote name='BadassBengal' post='276112' date='Jun 1 2006, 08:09 PM']Um.... they don't belong to any army that the US recognizes. They're members of a terrorist organization, THUS, they have no rights.

Strap them down, force feed them, and tell them to shut the fuck up. It's happened before, it's all to easy to fix it again.If we release them and send them back to their own country, their government would MOST LIKELY fuck them up and end up executing them. If you truly care about these sons of bitches, then let em stay.[/quote]
We don't know that they are members of anything. People have a guaranteed set of rights (human rights), regardless of who they are. It is a foundation of civilization.

When you say "It's happened before," you sound as if you know what you are talking about. I'm going to ignore that little fantasy briefly, and move on to point number 3 (three), wherein you say that there own gov't would kill them. Highly doubtful, as these men are already making themselves heroes in their native Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the ones we have already released have all gone back on living their normal lives. It's been 4 years since a lot of these people have been held in conditions that Amnesty International calls "a global embarrassment;" in situations that are being compared to Darfur and Somalia.

[quote name='STRAYCAT' post='276117' date='Jun 1 2006, 08:50 PM']Fuck'em let them die. More than likely they would launch an rpg,kill you or me in the name of Ala. Like someone posted,they don't belong to international law so they don't get the same treatment. Can't believe
someone would want to defend terrorist. Anybody who does...... [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/30.gif[/img][/quote]
1.) Who the fuck is Ala? Is that like Pecan Pie [b]Ala[/b] Mode? I could worship that, I think. Learn how to spell.
2.) These men are not terrorists. If you would have read the above posts, you would have seen that they haven't been tried or convicted of anything, and many of their peers have already been released back to their homes.

[Guest #22]

I just noticed the Malcolm X sig of BAB's, and found it very, very apropos.

I wonder how Malcolm X would feel about the illegal containment (kidnapping, really) of foreign muslims?
I can offer an educated guess, if anyone is interested.

[Jason]

They want to starve, I have no problem with helping them. They are enemy combatants, not American citizens. Compassionate conservatism does not apply to them.

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote name='STRAYCAT' post='276117' date='Jun 1 2006, 08:50 PM']kill you or me in the name of Ala.[/quote]


[b]Cue up the dumb american video I posted a few days ago [/b]

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote name='Jason' post='276135' date='Jun 1 2006, 09:37 PM']They want to starve, I have no problem with helping them. They are enemy combatants, not American citizens. Compassionate conservatism does not apply to them.[/quote]

[b]The Compassion of Christ should apply to all human beings, should it not ? ... and if you say you believe in emulating the principles with which Christ spoke ... then I would think you need to take some time to have some inner reflection .... [/b]

[Jason]

[quote name='BlackJesus' post='276136' date='Jun 1 2006, 09:37 PM'][b]Cue up the dumb american video I posted a few days ago [/b][/quote]

Written by an Australian Dentist...

To Kill an American:
You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let
everyone know what an American is , so they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)" An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, Swiss, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Peruvian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, Agnostic, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!
As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan
Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.
The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote name='Jason' post='276139' date='Jun 1 2006, 09:42 PM']Written by an Australian Dentist...and too good to delete....

To Kill an American:
You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let
everyone know what an American is , so they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)" An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, Swiss, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Peruvian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, Agnostic, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!
As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan
Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.
The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Written by an Australian Dentist...

To Kill an American:
You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let
everyone know what an American is , so they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)" An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, Swiss, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Peruvian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, Agnostic, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!
As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan
Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.
The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.[/quote]

[b]wow this had nothing to do with what the fuck we are talking about ....

And All of those races,creeds,religions, etc are supposed to respect the rule of law .... and a few neo con shits have smeared our flag in torture and blood and ruined all of our principles we should stand for. [/b]

[STRAYCAT]

[quote name='BlackJesus' post='276136' date='Jun 1 2006, 09:37 PM'][b]Cue up the dumb american video I posted a few days ago [/b][/quote]



You won't see this dumb american hugging a terroist or promoting Castro ways either

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote name='STRAYCAT' post='276141' date='Jun 1 2006, 09:44 PM']You won't see this dumb american hugging a terroist or promoting Castro ways either [/quote]


[center][b]wow these gems just keep coming ....[/b]

[img]http://www.jamesfaqs.com/Morans.jpg[/img][/center]

[Jason]

[quote name='BlackJesus' post='276140' date='Jun 1 2006, 09:43 PM'][b]wow this had nothing to do with what the fuck we are talking about ....[/quote]

You honestly can't see how this applies?

[Jason]

[quote name='BlackJesus' post='276138' date='Jun 1 2006, 09:39 PM'][b]The Compassion of Christ should apply to all human beings, should it not ? ... and if you say you believe in emulating the principles with which Christ spoke ... then I would think you need to take some time to have some inner reflection .... [/b][/quote]

First, Christ was perfect, I am not.

Second, Christ had compassion on those who wanted to change. The religious zealots (and Muslim terrorists are religious zealots) he ripped from top to bottom.

[Guest BlackJesus]

[quote name='Jason' post='276143' date='Jun 1 2006, 09:47 PM']You honestly can't see how this applies?[/quote]

[b]To Gitmo detainees not being given due process .... no. [/b]


[quote]The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty ,[/quote]

[center][img]http://www.adamzyglis.com/images/cartoon234.jpg[/img][/center]