Reply #10: From Kessler:

[Jefferson23]

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."