The Guantanamo prisoners' hunger strike began more than one
year ago, grew very large, waned, and continues, although the military won't
report how many prisoners are refusing food, and how many they are
force-feeding.
Sometimes, we think we know all there is to be known on
this story, and sometimes, we admit to knowing very little. Here is the work of
three writers:
Andy Worthington writes about Emad Hassan, one of the
Yemeni prisoners who has been "cleared" to leave for years:
In 2005, when the doctors were still human beings, the hunger strikers didn’t
worry about their health because there was level of trust with the medical team.
One of the doctors refused to go along with force feeding, because he believed
that his medical ethics were more important than the order of a military
colonel. But then things changed. The military only recruited doctors who
agreed, before they arrived here, that a military order was more important than
morality. The new wave of doctors allowed the military officers to instruct them
on how to conduct the medical procedure of force feeding.
Hassan wrote a letter to the Middle East Monitor last month. He
explains that in 2005, there was a level of trust the prisoners had for the
medical personnel. One of the doctors then refused to go along with
force-feeding prisoners because "he believed that his medical ethics were more
important than the order of a military colonel." But he explains that now, all
that has changed, because medical personnel are hand-picked to go along with
orders.
Hassan describes the "truly ugly faces of the doctors, nurses,
and other medical staffers" in recent days as they subjected him to a "novel
regime" of force-feeding.
Read more...
We who already know have to keep learning
more, and spreading the knowledge with a call to Close Guantanamo NOW. Last
month Andy and Dennis Loo spoke at the Cal Poly Pomona campus to several hundred
students about Guantanamo. Many wrote papers whicih show the degree to which
people can change their thoughts very quickly when challenged.
Guantanamo: What I Knew was Scant and False
By Leslie Becerra
(2/18/14)
(This is one of many student papers written in response to the
Close Guantanamo Now! National Tour’s Last Stop at Cal Poly Pomona on January
17, 2014. Reprinted by author’s permission.)
When 9/11 happened I was only eight years old and
unable to understand what exactly it meant. I don’t remember much about where I
was when I saw the news or whom I was with but I do remember when the war began.
There is an image that has always stuck with me about the war. I was watching
the news in my mother’s room one night when the broadcast was suddenly
interrupted by the news and behind the anchor in a big screen played live images
of the first bomb being dropped in Iraq. It’s been that image that I think of
when anyone mentions 9/11, until recently. As my education has progressed I have
learned more and more about what 9/11 did for this country. Those events brought
our entire nation together in solidarity for those who lost their lives and
their families but it also did something horrible. The events of 9/11 made our
nation hate and fear an entire group of people for no real reason. Due to the
government and the media’s manipulation of events we all began to think of
American lives as more valuable than the lives of these people. It is that very
belief that allowed our government to commit atrocities against other humans
without anyone putting into question their motives. The talk given at Cal Poly Pomona in regards to the closure of
Guantanamo Bay made three very important points. One, Obama has been lying to
the nation from the moment he took office by blaming Congress for the continued
use of Guantanamo. Two, the responsibility to make sure Guantanamo Bay is closed
does not only rely on Obama and our government but it also relies on us as a
people. Finally, the talk made me realize that the information that was given to
me about such facility was very scarce and the very little that I had was
false. I want to speak on the first point made by the talk, Obama and his
real intentions. From the beginning of his campaign Obama sold himself as a
president of the people and for the people. He stated that if made president he
would seek to close Guantanamo Bay and free those detained there but a year into
his second term Guantanamo Bay remains open. Why? Well, according to the
President of the United States, we are to blame Congress. Despite the many
requests for the complete closure of Guantanamo Bay Congress has decided to keep
it open. Although Congress may have an interest in keeping Guantanamo Bay open
we can easily place the blame on Obama. Again, why? As commander in chief
Obama, our president, has the power to order the closure of Guantanamo Bay with
or without the approval of Congress. So the real reason behind Guantanamo Bay
keeping its doors open over 10 years later is because Obama does not want to
shut it down. He has the power to free the detainees yet has chosen not to use
it and instead closed down the office responsible for transmitting the releases.
This is one of the most important points made during the talk, if not the most
important, because it is an example of how our government no longer has the
people’s interest in mind but rather its own personal gain. We live in a
country whose people are taught that the government governs with our best
interest at hand but how often is that true? In whose interests is it to
maintain Guantanamo Bay open? Because it is not in any human’s interests to
allow any government to do what our government has been doing to these people.
We are all human beings therefore our lives are all equally valuable. If we
continue to allow our government to act as they please and ignore our requests
we will have no guarantee that they won’t do the same to us. Obama’s failure to
close Guantanamo Bay shows how the people who run our government are no longer
the common day civilian but rather those few with power and money. Capitalism
has allowed for money and corporations to have a say in what our government does
thus the people’s best interest gets ignored. It is because of such reason that
we must take responsibility to get Guantanamo Bay closed.
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