Talking points
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- The situation at the prison in Guantamamo
is at a crisis point, with desperate prisoners
refusing to eat. Over 100 of the 166 prisoners
left in Guantanamo are on a hunger strike. Many
are being brutally force-fed. The United Nations
Human Rights Commission considers the practice
of force-feeding—in which detainees are
strapped to a restraining chair, have tubes
pushed up their nostrils and liquids pumped
down their throats—a clear form of torture.
One detainee said the process felt like a "razor
blade [going] down through your nose and into
your throat." Prisoner Samir Naji al Hasan
Moqbel said, “I had never experienced such
pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment
upon anyone.”
- President of the American Medical Association,
Dr. Jeremy Lazarus, has called force feeding
unethical and inhumane. “The administration
cannot force feed its way out of this growing
medical emergency,” he said.
- Of the 166 prisoners, 86 have been cleared
for release and must be released. The last time
a prisoner left Guantanamo was September 2012.
Fifty-seven of the cleared detainees are from
Yemen and the present government—a US ally—wants
these men returned home. One cleared detainee
is a British citizen, Shaker Aamer. He has been
cleared for release twice, but is still behind
bars after 11 years. Kuwaiti prisoner Fouzi
Al Awda, has been held for 11 years while the
Kuwaiti government, another US ally, has repeatedly
called for his repatriation.
- What can President Obama do? Congress has
imposed unprecedented restrictions on detainee
transfers, but President Obama still has the
power to transfer men right now. He should use
the certification/waiver process created by
Congress to transfer detainees.
- According to the ACLU, there are two essential
first steps the president must take. One is
to appoint a senior point person so that the
administration's Guantánamo closure policy
is directed by the White House and not by Pentagon
bureaucrats. The president can also order the
secretary of defense to start certifying for
transfer detainees who have been cleared, which
is more than half the Guantánamo population.
- The President must demonstrate immediate,
tangible progress toward the closure of Guantanamo
or the men who are on hunger strike will die,
and he will be ultimately responsible for their
deaths.
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