Salon.com > guantanamo hunger strike

Gitmo lawyer found dead in apparent suicide

Thu, 02 May 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Andy P. Hart, 38, a federal public defender representing a number of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, was found dead last week, reportedly owing to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Although Hart left a suicide note, its contents are unknown. The Ohio lawyer also left a thumb drive with his current case files. Jason Leopold, Truth-Out's investigative reporter, noted:

Hart’s death comes amid escalating chaos that has engulfed Guantanamo over the past three months—from a mass hunger strike to military commissions and renewed pressure on the White House to shut down the prison facility. Hart was one of three-dozen Guantanamo attorneys who signed a letter in March urging Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to take immediate action and bring about an end to the hunger strike.

Because Hart was a federal employee working on sensitive legal issues the FBI was contacted about his death. It is unknown if the agency has been investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.

...Hart was assigned by the government to defend Mohammed Rahim al-Afghani, who was detained by the CIA and allegedly subjected to torture methods until his transfer to Guantanamo in March 2008. The government maintained that al-Afghani was Osama bin Laden's translator and a top al-Qaida official.

Hart also represented Saudi Khalid Saad Mohammed, who was transferred back to Saudi Arabia from Guantanamo in 2009. He was also the attorney for Adel Hakeemy, a Tunisian who has been detained at Guantanamo for 11 years.

Navy sends extra medics to deal with Gitmo hunger strikers

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:11:00 +0000

Of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, philosopher Giorgio Agamben wrote in 2004 that they are "subject now only to raw power; they have no legal existence." Almost a decade later, Agamben's conception of the prison camp as inhabited by "bare life" -- inmates outside and at the limits of law, 11 years without charge or trial -- has been played out to its logical extension. According to a military spokesman at Guantanamo Monday, 100 of the 166 inmates are hunger striking and 21 are receiving feeding through nasal tubes -- they are truly subjects of raw, sovereign power over life and death.

According to reports, the Navy last weekend sent in some 40 extra medical personnel to deal with the strike and, as Al Jazeera noted, of the five hospitalized detainees it is not clear whether they are in life-threatening conditions. Via Al Jazeera:

Gitmo hunger strike growing by the day

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:40:00 +0000

As noted here, on Monday military officials put the official number of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay detention camp at 77 -- an increase of 25 inmates since last week. As of Wednesday, the number of strikers officially stands at 92 (over half of Gitmo's detainees) -- and these numbers are considered very conservative by lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights representing a number of starving inmates.

HuffPo's Ryan J Reilly, who toured the prison camp last week, reported Wednesday:

Nearly half inmates at Gitmo officially on hunger strike

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:35:00 +0000

According to even the conservative figures from Guantanamo Bay military prison officials, nearly half of all inmates have now joined the hunger strike which began in February -- protesting long-term incarceration without trial. A U.S. military spokesman put the strike number at 77 on Monday (an increase of 25 in recent days.) Via Al Jazeera:

Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House said in a statement that of the detainees refusing food, 17 are receiving "enteral feedings," a process involving being force-fed via tubes.

Five of the inmates have been admitted to hospital, although none faces "life-threatening conditions," House said.

Lawyers representing detainees have for some weeks put the hunger strike numbers significantly higher than official figures -- well above 100 inmates -- and have challenged claims that the striking detainees are not at risk of death in some cases.