Judge OK's use of Guantánamo forced-feeding chair

[struggle4progress]

Source: Miami Herald

A federal judge accepted a government argument that guards strapping hunger-strikers into a feeding chair is safe and humane.
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
[e-mail]

A federal judge refused Wednesday to stop Guantánamo guards from strapping hunger strikers into a restraint chair in a decision that named President Barack Obama, not George W. Bush, as the unlawful detention petition's target.

''Significant harm could befall medical and security staff at Guantánamo Bay if the injunction is granted,'' U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler wrote in her 24-page ruling, which accepts the Pentagon's argument that its forced-feeding regime is humane.

Two Yemenis had sought an injunction against use of the chair as part of their habeas corpus petition.

One, Mohammed Bawazir, has fasted on-again, off-again for years to protest his confinement. But, his lawyers argued, the 29-year-old Yemeni has never resisted his tube feedings and did not need to be confined to a restraint chair ...

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/guantanamo/story/900105.html

[liberalsince1968]

1. This is very disturbing. Would Obama consider this "humane"? If not -

why is his administration letting it continue?

Or should I even be surprised at this after their shocking continuation of Bush's state secrets torture policy?

[ixion]

2. yeah, because it's totally "humane" to

"detain" someone for years without charges and torture them, and when they try and hunger strike, to strap them to a chair like a goose and force feed them so you can, you know, torture them so more.

Yeah, pretty freakin' human that. NOT! :grr:

[Solly Mack]

9. Amazing isn't it? Detain people for years...torture them..and then dare use words like "humane"

[midnight]

3. Can these poor people receive any dignity?

[Xenotime]

29. Obama is waiting too long to take action on this. He should have demanded it be shut down now!

[chill_wind]

4. This is an escalating nightmare. Binyam's US Lawyer

is publicly pleading for intervention:

" (...)

Bradley recently met Mohamed in Camp Delta’s sparse visiting room and was shaken by his account of the state of affairs inside the notorious prison.

She said: “At least 50 people are on hunger strike, with 20 on the critical list, according to Binyam. The JTF are not commenting because they do not want the public to know what is going on.

“Binyam has witnessed people being forcibly extracted from their cell. Swat teams in police gear come in and take the person out; if they resist, they are force-fed and then beaten. Binyam has seen this and has not witnessed this before. Guantánamo Bay is in the grip of a mass hunger strike and the numbers are growing; things are worsening.

“It is so bad that there are not enough chairs to strap them down and force-feed them for a two- or three-hour period to digest food through a feeding tube. Because there are not enough chairs the guards are having to force-feed them in shifts. After Binyam saw a nearby inmate being beaten it scared him and he decided he was not going to resist. He thought, ‘I don’t want to be beat, injured or killed.’ Given his health situation, one good blow could be fatal,” said Bradley.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/08/binyam-mohamed-torture-guantanamo-bay


Top US lawyer warns of deaths at Guantánamo

[newtothegame]

13. I'm torn...

Michael Moore would have had good reason to show Guantanamo Bay in as bad a light as possible in "Sicko," and yet he showed them playing soccer and talked up how good the treatment was. Then articles like this. What gives?

ed for sp

[chill_wind]

19. This:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5031999#top

[Proletariatprincess]

5. OMG. This ruling doesn't even make sense.

''Significant harm could befall medical and security staff at Guantanamo Bay if the injunction is granted,''
That is a horrific ruling.
The Suffragettes were force fed in this country over 100 years ago and it was an outrage then. Have we lost all humanity in this country?
And what is it about Florida? Nothing good comes out of that state it seems.
Will there be an appeal, I wonder. If so, this torture will continue for months..maybe years yet.
This whole Gitmo thing is revolting...literally.

[intaglio]

6. Forced feeding is never humane

Ask the Suffragettes in the UK.

It is also medical malpractice under the 1975 Declaration of Tokyo of the World Medical Association as long as the prisoner is "capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment."

It may be considered torture and a war crime in itself if the method of administration is inhuman or degrading.

[Freddie Stubbs]

16. Is allowing someone in your custody to starve to death a humane action?

:shrug:

[LostinVA]

18. They have a right to starve themselves via a hunger strike

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. Has that right been recognized by international law?

:shrug:

[Kingofalldems]

24. Wow, based on your replies I guess Joe Lieberman

is all for force feeding. :shrug:

[Freddie Stubbs]

25. Are you in favor of allowing those in US custody of starving to death?

:shrug:

[mike_c]

26. yes it is...

...if they are "capable of forming an informed and rational judgment." People have the right to choose whether to eat or not.

on edit:

http://www.wma.net/e/policy/c18.htm

Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and is considered by the physician as capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, he or she shall not be fed artificially. The decision as to the capacity of the prisoner to form such a judgment should be confirmed by at least one other independent physician. The consequences of the refusal of nourishment shall be explained by the physician to the prisoner.

[intaglio]

28. It happened in the UK - Northern Ireland

Bobby Sands and others chose to die. Not nice perhaps, but what he wanted. It could have ended if the IRA prisoners had been returned to "Special Category".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Sands

[LostinVA]

17. Ask the Suffragettes HERE -- that was the tipping point that won us the vote in the US

[Eryemil]

7. This is the kind of stain that might just linger long after the current...

...incarnation of the United States is nothing but a footnote in history books.
Of course, it might just pass into relative anonymity like so many atrocities of the old British empire.

History's fickle.

[Solly Mack]

8. Damn

Damn damn damn damn damn

[Jefferson23]

10. From Kessler:

Kessler also noted: ``Respondents are acting out of a need to preserve the life of the petitioners rather than letting them die from their hunger strikes.'' and she adds later, "''From all accounts -- those presented in classified information the court has had access to, in affidavits of counsel and in reports from journalists and human rights groups -- their living conditions at Guantánamo Bay have been harsh,'' she wrote.

This ruling surprises me too. Kessler certainly doesn't seem to be in the bag for the Bush Regime from her past rulings. This is from wiki but it is confirmed by AP too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Kessler

snip** Kessler is the first judge to consider an appeal that the Executive branch is violating the new Detainee Treatment Act.<2> Lawyers for Mohammad Bawazir argued that the measures Camp Delta authorities instituted to break a six-month hunger strike were abusive, cruel and unusual. Department of Defense spokesmen argued that the Detainee Treatment Act didn't apply to suspects held captive in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.<3>

On October 10, 2007, the Washington Post headlined "Judge Orders U.S. Not to Transfer Tunisian Detainee," and reported that Judge Kessler "ruled last week that Mohammed Abdul Rahman cannot be sent to Tunisia because he could suffer 'irreparable harm." The detainee's lawyer said, "The executive has now been told it cannot bury its Guantanamo mistakes in Third World prisons." He also stated that, "This is the first time the judicial branch has exercised its inherent power to control the excesses of the executive as to treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay."

[Ian David]

11. Maybe the hunger-strikers don't know there's a new sheriff in town?

If I was in prison on a hunger strike, I'd start eating again until I knew what Obama was going to do.

[Gregorian]

12. They care enough to keep them alive, but not enough to determine if they're innocent.

What is this, the Spanish Inquisition years? Are we still living in the 15th century?

Obama has his hands full.

[TacticalPeek]

14. Sick.

Show up, Campaign Obama.

[Blue_Tires]

15. things just were not the same for me

after the day that 1. An average American with a straight face defended using torture...and 2. A different average American with a straight face defended the use of mercenaries...

[NewEnglandKnowledge]

20. Obama's achilles heel

Obama will not allow the media, or his administration to look
backwards.  Unfortunately, we will not see a change in the
policy until the economy trends upward.  Obama cannot afford
to revitalize the ingnorance of the right wing when they are
weak.  I don't like it, but long term change cannot be reached
without more gains in the mid-term elections.  We must be
patient.  A mere 2 seats in the senate will give us enough
muscle to change all the Bush policies, but if we allow them
to fight a social issue campaign, we will not gain those
seats.  Clinton got two years of autonomy before the
republican revolution based on Gays in the military, the ban
on assault rifles and opposition to health care reform.  Obama
will not make the same mistakes.  This is a war people, not a
battle...patience is truly a virtue of the strong.  

[chill_wind]

21. Pres Obama is said to be fast-tracking the visit/release

of one of the high-profile prisoners (Binyam)according to the British press.
There are also disturbing charges that the DOD may be trying to keep classified information from President Obama.

Yes, he has his hands full. These people that have been running the show all those years have to know they are fucked. They've been thinking about that for a long time now, I bet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/11/binyam-mohamed-release-torture-letter

[atreides1]

22. And She's a Liberal Judge????

Gladys Kessler is an United States District Court Judge for the District of Columbia. She was nominated to the court by President Clinton, a Democrat, and is known as one of the most liberal judges in the D.D.C.

[knitter4democracy]

27. The judge doesn't know her history, then.

How does she think we got the freakin' vote and she her office?!