Guantanamo - is force feeding an assault?

Yes. Force feeding is horrible. It was inflicted on some suffragettes.

Yes, of course it is an assault. I am afraid Obama needs to do a lot more about the USA's abuse of people's rights before I can give him my whole-hearted approval. Not that he cares about my opinion, of course.

What, exactly, is meant by the phrase "force feeding"? This is a request for exact information only, not a judgmental question.

You have to get a tube down into someone's stomach while they are resisting your efforts bags. And stop them removing it. So it is going to involve a fair amount of physical restraint I would guess.

Lot of manpower too.

So, yes, assault if they don't want it.

Obama is talking right now about shutting Guantanamo Bay, isn't he? He probably hasn't had the power to close it, but the pressure of the hunger strikes is having an effect.

Sad that it had to come to that.

They are apparently being fed through a naso- gastric tube and since they are unwilling, it requires them to be restrained. One person interviewed claimed that the staff administering the food were not taking proper care over deciding the size of tube. Yes, do remember the suffragettes. I also remember the fuss certain sections of the USA made about the hunger strikers in the Maze.

Were tubes used to force feed suffragettes?

There is no other way of force feeding is there? During the procedure there is, I believe, a risk of putting the tube into the windpipe instead of the oesophagus.

I wouldn't have thought so. I was wondering if they had the right kind of tubing back then.

It will be done as a medical procedure but restraint will be used if it is not wanted, so yes! It is an assault if the prisoner is not too mentally ill or frail to make their wishes known.

Try en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_feeding for information about force feeding. It is a monstrous proceeding with an unwilling person. There was such an outcry about it in the case of the suffragettes that the authorities gave up on it and temporarily discharged the women who were too weak then re-arrested them when they were better (Cat and Mouse). Hard to see how the US can get out of this. I believe there are problems with repatriating the prisoners who remain at Guantanomo.

This is a link to an interview with Clive Stafford Smith, who says that the force feeding is being carried out in such a way as to be especially punitive.

www.dw.de/guantanamo-lawyer-obama-still-gives-us-hope/a-16785031

Although he seems hopeful that Obama will find a solution, my fear is that the Republicans will block any moves to have the prisoners released.

People will be outraged at this, but surely force feeding is worse than letting the prisoners complete their hunger strike and die? Sorry to be so blunt, but the prisoners would no longer be a problem if they died! Yes, I know it would be a stain on America's reputation, but no worse than they've got already because of Guantanamo.

That kind of torture is worse than death in my view.

I read Cat and Mouse by Tim Vicary just a few weeks ago. It contains graphic descriptions of the fear, terror and extreme physical reaction of one of the suffragettes when she was force-fed in prison. The details were horrific, and taken from real-life accounts of suffragettes. She endured it for just a few days, then a prison officer helped her escape from Holloway.

To be force-fed day after day, even when there is a nasal-gastric tube in place, must be mental torture. Anticipating the arrival of an officer or medic with the liquid feed, being geared up to make a protest, and your wishes being ignored, sounds horrible. Obama needs to act quickly before this escalates.

if this sort of thing was happening to Americans in a country that was not an "ally" of the west, there would be a good deal more disgust expressed in the media and calls for action being urged.

When Obama was first elected I was pleased to hear him say he was going to close Guantanamo - I believe he would genuinely like to close the camp but is being blocked.

There is no doubt that the Americans are using torture there, quite apart from force feeding, and should be condemned by the rest of the world. To hold people, without trial or charge, for years has to be condemned.

Does anyone know if there is a petition anywhere? Do you think the USA would be concerned if there was widespread public condemnation? We can't rely on governments because they're all too scared to confront the might of the USA.

There is a petition here: www.change.org/petitions/president-obama-close-detention-facility-at-guantanamo-bay

I have signed the petition, it is shocking that people are being force fed. I heard about it on the radio . I am wondering however if petitions always work in such cases.

Thanks grannyactivist. Have signed petition.

I don't know much about this, but would be interested to know more. looking at the petition info. It says Obama... Did'nt Obama inherit guantanamo from Bush? He did say he was gonna close this facility, I remember. Has the terrorist threat undermined his promise? Are the people imprisoned there forgotten in the legal process?

Signed petition

Yes laid back, Obama did inherit Guantanamo from Bush, along with quite a few other disasters...

Obama inherited Guantanamo, along with two wars, a catastrophic financial meltdown and several other, lesser messes from predecessor George W. Bush. In his first term, there were several attempts to deal with Guantanamo, all of which were blocked by the Republicans, whose all consuming remit seems to be to do whatever it takes to block anything coming from the Obama administration. That said, Obama has nothing to lose now that he is into a second term, so let's hope he throws everything he has at the closure of this insupportable stain on America.

As to the question of whether force feeding (like water boarding), is torture, I invite anyone who thinks it is not torture to undergo the procedure and then decide.