{"id":185589,"date":"2014-10-05T19:45:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T00:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/10\/05\/judge-rules-for-gitmo-detainees-on-force-feedings\/"},"modified":"2014-10-05T19:45:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T00:45:00","slug":"judge-rules-for-gitmo-detainees-on-force-feedings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/10\/05\/judge-rules-for-gitmo-detainees-on-force-feedings\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Rules for Gitmo Detainees on Force-Feedings"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Obama administration has used every possible effort to avoid a public hearing on the Guantanamo hunger strikers, but Judge Gladys Kessler is having none of it<\/a>:<\/div>\n

Videos showing force-feedings of a hunger-striking Guantanamo detainee must be publicly aired, a federal judge ordered this afternoon. <\/p>\n

Lawyers for Syrian Abu Wa\u2019el Dhiab, who has been held at Guantanamo since 2002 and has been refusing food for the last 18 months, have characterized the footage as \u201cextremely disturbing<\/a>.\u201d Dhiab is asking the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. to stop the military\u2019s practice of forcibly removing him from his cell and restraining him for feedings. <\/p>\n

The government argues that the 28 tapes at issue are classified, and will likely appeal today\u2019s ruling. Releasing the videos, the Justice Department has said, might give a glimpse of the the prison infrastructure, or let Guantanamo inmates or others learn how to resist \u201cforced cell extractions\u201d or locate equipment that could be used as a weapon. The government also warned that the videos might \u201cinflame Muslim sensitivities overseas.\u201d <\/p>\n

But the judge, Gladys Kessler, found that those justifications were \u201cunacceptably vague, speculative,\u201d or \u201cjust plain implausible.\u201d So much information about the force-feedings was already public, Kessler wrote, and certainly detainees \u201care already familiar with the tactics used to extract them from their cells and enterally feed them.\u201d The videos may be altered to protect the identities of prison guards, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis may well be the most significant court decision on Guantanamo Bay in years,\u201d Alka Pradhan, one of Dhiab\u2019s attorneys, said in a statement. \u201cNo longer does the American public have to rely on propaganda and misinformation, but can finally watch the videotapes and judge for themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n

The government tried to have an upcoming hearing in Dhiab\u2019s case \u2014 set for Monday \u2014 largely closed to the public, but Kessler decided yesterday<\/a> that it would stay open. It\u2019s not clear whether an appeal or the redaction of the videotapes will delay next week\u2019s proceedings. In a statement, the Justice Department said it was considering its options.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 They will appeal, of course. <\/p>\n

The Obama administration has bought into the whole “State Secrets” mentality that would give Dick Cheney a stiffie.<\/p>\n

Still if these tapes do come out, it will be a good thing, because is is long overdue for Americans to know what is being done in their<\/b> name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Obama administration has used every possible effort to avoid a public hearing on the Guantanamo hunger strikers, but Judge Gladys Kessler is having none of it: Videos showing force-feedings of a hunger-striking Guantanamo detainee must be publicly aired, a federal judge ordered this afternoon. Lawyers for Syrian Abu Wa\u2019el Dhiab, who has been held …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1032,969,972,1103,1168],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crimes-against-humanity","category-evil","category-justice","category-secrecy","category-torture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}