This Article is From Jul 31, 2009

Dark side of America's war on terror

Dark side of America's war on terror
Guantanamo:

On his second day in office, US President Barack Obama ordered the closure of the Guantanamo detention centre and the end of the use of torture in US military camps.

However, civil rights groups say torture is still continuing in Guantanamo where detainees on hunger strike are being force-fed.

Detainees at Guantanamo have access to state-of-the-art medical facilities 24 hours a day. However, after over seven years of imprisonment, their most serious wounds are not physical.

"There are people at GTMO who are literally losing their mind by being imprisoned this way," said Christopher Anders, American Civil Liberties Union.

Detainees have repeatedly tried to kill themselves in Guantanamo, with four having succeeded, but the hospital psychiatrist surprisingly insists that the psychological problems in the camp are normal.

"These are the same problems I see in my patients in America. Anger and frustration are universal. It happens everywhere," said Lt Commander Gallant, head psychiatrist, Guantanamo Behavioural Health Unit.

Twenty six detainees are currently on hunger strike at Guantanamo in protest of their arbitrary and indefinite detention. These men are strapped to a restraint chair and force-fed, through the nose, with a four-foot long tube.

Administrators who refused to be filmed on camera proudly informed us that detainees even have a choice of flavors - from strawberry, to butter pecan and chocolate.

"Some even ask for this over their regular food. Our former admiral tried this for a week. He was biking to work and even gained four pounds," said Lt Commander Audi, nurse, Guantanamo Detention Hospital.

Both the United Nations Human Rights Council and the World Medical Association have declared the practice of force-feeding unethical.

But camp administrators dismiss suicides and hunger strikes as simply manipulative tactics to draw negative publicity to the Guantanamo.

"These detainees are on a mission to give the camp a bad name. One way to do that is to try and commit suicide," said Rear Admiral Copeman, commander, Joint Task Force, Guantanamo Bay.

Guantanamo has become a symbol of the brutality and excesses of America's war on terror, and its willingness to put itself above the law. And civil rights groups say force-feeding of detainees is yet another example of that.

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