US Defends Force Feeding TORTURE of GITMO Hunger Strikers

[leftchick]

Here we go again. First the US denies force feeding the hunger striking inmates then when it is proven they defend this torture. I am so ashamed of this fucking country....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4569626.stm

<snip>

There are credible allegations that Guantanamo hunger strikers are being force-fed in a cruel manner, the UN special rapporteur on torture has said.
Manfred Nowak's comments came after it emerged that the number of detainees refusing food at the prison camp had more than doubled since 25 December.

Some 84 inmates are now refusing food, according to the US military.

But a Pentagon official said there was no evidence that they had been treated in an inappropriate way.

'Bleeding'

Mr Nowak has not been to Guantanamo, and turned down an invitation to the camp because the US refused to give him unrestricted access to the detainees.

He told the BBC that he had received reports that some hunger strikers had had thick pipes inserted through the nose and forced down into the stomach.

This was allegedly done roughly, sometimes by prison guards rather than doctors. As a result, some prisoners had reported bleeding and vomiting he said.

"If these allegations are true then this definitely amounts to an additional cruel treatment," Mr Nowak said.

<snip>

US defends Guantanamo force-feeding By Will Dunham
Fri Mar 10, 5:26 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon will not stop force-feeding Guantanamo detainee hunger strikers despite criticism from some doctors that has mounted even as the number of strikers has fallen, officials said on Friday.

A group of 263 doctors from seven countries called on the United States to end the force-feeding and use of restraint chairs for detainees fed through nasal tubes into their stomachs at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Their letter, in the British medical journal The Lancet, also questioned how seriously the U.S. medical profession takes allegations of torture by its own members.

"The policy of the department is unchanged, and it is to support the preservation of life by appropriate clinical means and to do that in a humane manner," said Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060310/ts_nm/security_guantanamo_hunger_dc_2



Force-feeding
Force-feeding is a torture method that labour camp staff often use on Falun Gong practitioners, particularly on those who have staged hunger strikes to protest their unlawful detention. However, it is certainly not an attempt to nourish or feed; rather, it is a brutal procedure that has resulted in at least 100 deaths. The force-feeding is most often carried out by labour camp staff with no medical training, or by criminal inmates who are coerced to assist. Firm, unsanitized tubes are forced into a practitioner’s nose and into the stomach, often rupturing or damaging tissues; sometimes the tube enters the lungs instead. The tubes are sometimes left in a practitioner’s stomach for days or weeks, causing severe infections, or pulled out and reinserted repeatedly. The practitioners are often “fed” irritants such as highly concentrated salt water, hot pepper oil, boiling water, or detergent.

http://www.faluninfo.net/torturemethods2/force-feeding/

[tocqueville]

1. force-feeding has been abandoned by decent countries

even when done by doctors, it's tantamounts to torture and causes internal damage...

there is no reason to do that, some negotiation does the trick usually

[leftchick]

2. the only reason for doing it

is so the US does not have a body count from Gitmo.

[NNN0LHI]

3. The USA is defending using torture now? Wow! n/t

[katinmn]

4. Denounced by doctors in seven countries

The AMA should condemn the practice.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x623505

[leftchick]

8. they seem to be dancing around the issue

The Lancet letter's authors called it a challenge to the American Medical Association.

AMA Chairman Dr. Duane Cady said his group, the largest professional organisation of physicians in the United States, has told the military of its opposition to force-feeding hunger strikers, but noted "we are not a regulatory or licensing agency."

... coward!

[Hubert Flottz]

5. This is what American soldiers will face someday thanks to...

Bush and friends!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Are they force feeding them BigMacs? Traditional American Values?

Whatever happened to that canard about "disobeying illegal orders"?

[leftchick]

7. it makes you wonder

what sort of person could actually commit this torture on another human being. Sick

[Hubert Flottz]

9. A Typical Republican Asshole!

Most would jump at the chance to have such power over someone who could not fight back! They use things like that when they are too cheap to buy Viagra from Bob Dole!

[leftchick]

10. a * very graphic* image of force feeding

Isn't it wonderful the US is now like other torture states?