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Voice of Russia, AFP, RT
Pentagon reveals Guantanamo Bay's indefinite detainees list
The Pentagon released Monday the names of Guantanamo Bay's 46 "indefinite detainees," terror suspects considered too dangerous to transfer from the prison and who cannot be tried in court.
The 15-page list, unveiling details about the prisoners for the first time, was released to The New York Times and The Miami Herald in response to freedom of information requests. It also included the names of all 166 detainees who remain at the US military jail in southeastern Cuba. The men designated for indefinite detention include 26 Yemenis, 12 Afghans, three Saudis, two Kuwaitis, two Libyans, a Kenyan, a Moroccan and a Somali. Two of those men, both Afghans, have died. One committed suicide and the other died of a heart attack. The captives' status is one of the most controversial aspects of the notorious prison camp. US official say that because the men were subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, such as the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, denounced as torture, they cannot be prosecuted because the evidence against them is tainted cannot be admitted in court. US doctors urge end to force feeding in Gitmo Doctors George Annas, Sondra Crosby and Leonard Glantz have pointed out in an article in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine that the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp doctors should refuse participation in the force feeding of hunger strikers, since this kind of activity is a political statement, rather than a medical condition. The three doctors insist that the military uses the Guantanamo Bay-stationed doctors, as well as their skills for political purposes. The three doctors then level scathing criticism in their article at the military doctors whom the military coerces into monitoring the torture of detainees. “Military physicians are no more entitled to betray medical ethics than military lawyers are to betray the Constitution or military chaplains are to betray their religion,” they add. Of the 166 detainees in Guantanamo, at least 104 are participating in a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention without the benefit of a fair trial. Of the hunger strikers, 43 have lost enough weight that military doctors are feeding them through tubes inserted in their noses and down into their stomachs, a military spokesman said. The procedure has been described as very painful. Prisoners who refuse are strapped into restraining chairs to immobilize them during the process. The professors from Boston University said “individual physicians and professional groups should use their political power to stop the force-feeding, primarily for the prisoners' sake, but also for that of their colleagues.” The journal contributors reminded that the American Medical Association and the World Medical Association, which represents the medical affiliations of about 100 countries, are of the position that force-feeding mentally competent adults is a violation of medical ethics. On May 23, President Barack Obama pledged to restart the repatriation process for about 86 detainees at Guantanamo Bay who were cleared of the charges brought against them. The process has bogged down, however, as Congress continues to debate whether releasing a portion of the detainees will present a security risk for the United States. Meanwhile, the ongoing hunger strike only serves to remind the world of President Obama’s failed promise, made on the campaign trail in 2008, to shutter the Guantanamo detention center, which has been described by Human Rights Watch as “the Gulag of our times.”
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