Does your gut clench a bit when you read about force feeding? You ain't read nutthin' yet!

[No Elephants]

(Apologies to whichever screenwriter wrote the first line spoken in a commercial "talkie" in the US.)

Federal judges reinstate groin searches pending appeal

snip

Past practice of shaking a captive’s trousers to see if “nails, shanks, ragged scraps of metal” fall out “posed an unacceptable risk to the safety and security of detainees and guards,” Kelly said.

Last week, detainee lawyers persuaded U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth that the invasive searches, adopted amid a widespread hunger strike, were discouraging some of Guantánamo’s 166 captives from voluntarily leaving their cells for meetings with their lawyers. Lamberth ordered the guards to stop it, and resume the practice of physically shaking the waistband of the pants of a prisoner to see if any contraband comes out.

snip

“Doesn’t the government have more important things to do than defend its right to grope detainees?” said attorney David Remes in Washington. In London, detainee attorney Cori Crider* called the searches “a transparent effort to break the hunger strike and to staunch the flow of information about it to the outside world.”

snip

The groin searches were reinstated, at least temporarily, by a three-judge panel — two appointed to the court by George W. Bush and one by Bill Clinton — while the appeals court considers whether to overturn Lamberth’s order. A preview of the appeal, in the Justice Department’s bid for a stay, said the searches were justified because the military has this year found “dangerous materials and other contraband” in cells at the prison.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/17/3504824/obama-administration-appeals-ban.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/17/3504824/obama-administration-appeals-ban.html#storylink=cp

I am dying of curiosity: How is a groin search less dangerous to a "detainee" (odd word for life imprisonment) than simply shaking the waisband of his trousers? Exactly how were the guards shaking waistbands that made that procedure so dangerous? And, if they did find a way to make shaking waistbands dangerous to the detainee, just imagine how dangerous to the detainee they can make a groin search!

America, America,

God shed His grace on thee

And crowned thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

Pop quiz:

1. In which ways is Holder's D of J superior to Gonzo's?

2. When did the federal judiciary decide to rubber stamp the USG?

Seems as though Obadmin will go through a lot of changes to protect its image.

Remember when Obama ran on closing Gitmo and we thought that would be good news for the "detainees?"

Good times.

BTW, Obama issued an executive order prohibiting release of "detainees" to Yemen. Odd, since most of those "detained indefinitely" despite having been cleared of any and all crimes, are from Yemen.

On the bright side for the Obamadmin, the number of indefinite detainees who are on hunger strike decreased sharply during Ramadan, even though the word was that force feeding during Ramadan would be totally consistent with religious fasting requirements (that would be nothing, even water, by mouth or vein until after sundown, when Muslims literally breakfast during Ramadan--qauite a feat in desert nations).


*Radio interview of Attorny Crider on the subject of forced feedings: http://scotthorton.org/2013/07/16/71513-cori-crider/

[Enthusiast]

1. Are they doing this

in an effort to humiliate the prisoners? They are forcing them to stay alive so they can subject them to torture.

Again, is this nation ever right any more? It's like we are operating under a system controlled by a bunch of WWII style right wing lunatics. WTF?

[No Elephants]

2. Hunger strikes with the goal of either dying or getting released

because either of those is preferable to indefinite detention at Gitmo.

Draws attention to Gitmo. Apparently, that reflects badly on the administration.

So, in addition to having lost everything else in life simply because someone lied on them, probably to collect a reward we offered, they also lose the ability to control the one thing they can control. And the ability to protest.

If you let yourself think about them and their families, your heart would break.

So, you can't let yourself. So....

Damn these people, always trying to draw attention to themselves. Why can't they simply stay there unobstrusively until they all begin to die old age?

[Enthusiast]

3. As I understand it

quite a number of the detainees didn't do anything against the US. And we even admit it. But we will not release them now. Maybe because it will make us lose face, or something. It's not good.