US defends Guantanamo force-feeding

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060310/ts_nm/security_guantanamo_hunger_dc_2


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon will not stop force-feeding Guantanamo detainee hunger strikers despite criticism from some doctors that has mounted even as the number of strikers has fallen, officials said on Friday.

A group of 263 doctors from seven countries called on the United States to end the force-feeding and use of restraint chairs for detainees fed through nasal tubes into their stomachs at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Their letter, in the British medical journal The Lancet, also questioned how seriously the U.S. medical profession takes allegations of torture by its own members.

"The policy of the department is unchanged, and it is to support the preservation of life by appropriate clinical means and to do that in a humane manner," said Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman.

strapped to a chair or gurney, intubated, and left like that until the next feeding.

"a humane manner", my ass.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4569626.stm

<snip>

He told the BBC that he had received reports that some hunger strikers had had thick pipes inserted through the nose and forced down into the stomach.

This was allegedly done roughly, sometimes by prison guards rather than doctors. As a result, some prisoners had reported bleeding and vomiting he said.

"If these allegations are true then this definitely amounts to an additional cruel treatment," Mr Nowak said.

The allegations were rejected by Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Brian Maker.

Did Bush get this from Thatcher and a whole line of PMs who routinely force fed Irish freedom fighters. That is when they didn't just let them die for their mundane prisoner demands.

ALL OF THEM!

FROM THE "I WAS JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS ASSHOLE" to the "WE NEVER TOURTURE ASSHATS" THEY ARE ALL CRIMINALS!!!!!!!