Recently, Olga Khazan, the Atlantic’s global editor, wrote a piece doubting the effectiveness of the hunger strike being led by Guantánamo detainees since Feb. 7. The strike, begun in protest against the prisoners’ Qurans being rifled, has taken on a much larger significance: It is a protest against the continual incarceration and brutalization of the prisoners, some of whom have been there, without being charged, since the opening of the prison 11 years ago. The actual number of strikers varies, depending upon who is reporting. Last Monday, there were officially 39 strikers, with 11 being force-fed nutritional supplements through their noses. As of Thursday, the U.S. military has upped the official number to 41. The lawyer for Shaker Amer, one of the detainees participating in the hunger strike since it began, reports that there are 130 strikers.
Khazan’s main argument is that hunger strikes are most effective when conducted by a sympathetic group. It is, in several ways, a bizarre conclusion to draw. What does it mean to say that the GTMO detainees are an unsympathetic group? Unsympathetic to whom? To that crowd for whom unilateral executive declarations of guilt — without public charges, evidence, or trial – are to be received uncritically, much like religious faith? Or perhaps to reporters like Robert Johnson who, as Glenn Greenwald reports, apparently believes Guantánamo is a vacation paradise with first-class food. Clearly, that’s not the group to whom the detainees are appealing. After all, if that were true, they wouldn’t be atrophying in frigid cells, suffering kidney and urinary tract infections from nonpotable water, worrying about whether the next beating they received from a 300-pound guard was going to paralyze them for life, or whether they would ever be released.
On the other hand, a group of people who has been detained for 11 years without being charged – with anything – is a remarkably sympathetic group for those of us who are committed to the rule of law, who object to violations of procedure, and the imperious expansion of state authority. Judging from the length of this strike, as Amy Davidson states, something has gone very wrong at Guantánamo. But something went wrong 11 years ago, and has yet to be rectified — namely that any populace anywhere would tolerate men being imprisoned without trials, evidence, charges for any sustained period time. Full article...
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Khazan’s main argument is that hunger strikes are most effective when conducted by a sympathetic group. It is, in several ways, a bizarre conclusion to draw. What does it mean to say that the GTMO detainees are an unsympathetic group? Unsympathetic to whom? To that crowd for whom unilateral executive declarations of guilt — without public charges, evidence, or trial – are to be received uncritically, much like religious faith? Or perhaps to reporters like Robert Johnson who, as Glenn Greenwald reports, apparently believes Guantánamo is a vacation paradise with first-class food. Clearly, that’s not the group to whom the detainees are appealing. After all, if that were true, they wouldn’t be atrophying in frigid cells, suffering kidney and urinary tract infections from nonpotable water, worrying about whether the next beating they received from a 300-pound guard was going to paralyze them for life, or whether they would ever be released.
On the other hand, a group of people who has been detained for 11 years without being charged – with anything – is a remarkably sympathetic group for those of us who are committed to the rule of law, who object to violations of procedure, and the imperious expansion of state authority. Judging from the length of this strike, as Amy Davidson states, something has gone very wrong at Guantánamo. But something went wrong 11 years ago, and has yet to be rectified — namely that any populace anywhere would tolerate men being imprisoned without trials, evidence, charges for any sustained period time. Full article...
Related posts:
- Deprived of justice, the Guantánamo detainees' last resort is to hunger strike...
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- Lawyers alarmed as Guantanamo hunger strike grows...
- Kucinich: Guantanamo black mark on US, absurd & lawless...
- Little reaction from human rights watchdogs as Gitmo hunger strike continues...
- Guantanamo hunger strike hits fifth week...
- Over 100 Guantanamo inmates ‘on hunger strike,’ possibly...
- Guantanamo atrocities continue...
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