166 Men Starving to Death at Gitmo Week 5

Most of the 166 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba have entered Week 5 of a non-violent hunger strike due to the United States military’s torturous treatment of them there, according to every attorney with whom staff members at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) have spoken.

U.S. military Honor Bound to Defend Freedom driving innocent men to insanity

At Camp 6, a large U.S. military sign hanging on the high barbed wire fence reads, “Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.”

“Unfortunately, not everyone in the world values life as much as we do,” an American staunch Christian justifying torture recently told this reporter Deborah Dupré.

Those on the other side of that fence where the sign hangs are now willing to starve to death to end the torturous treatment they have endured there under the guise of a war on terror and American style freedom and value of life.

“I look alive, but actually I’m dead,” a Camp 6 prisoner said.”I am in my tomb.” 
said Abdelli Feghoul, a Guantanamo Bay Camp 6 prisoner cleared for release since at least 2006.

“Tell [my wife] to remarry. She should consider me dead,”
Chinese Uighur imprisoned at Guantánamo said soon after being transferred into Camp 6.

“[My client] smeared feces on his cell walls. When I asked him why…, he told me he had no idea,”
 attorney Clive Stafford Smith stated.

“Bisher al-Rawi is, slowly but surely, slipping into madness… Bisher is allowed no contact with fellow prisoners. Bright lights are kept on 24 hours a day. Bisher is given 15 sheets of toilet paper per day, but because he used his sheets to cover his eyes to help him to sleep, his toilet paper – considered another comfort item… – has been removed for ‘misuse,’”stated attorney Brent Mickum on Bisher al-Rawi’s confinement in Camp 5.

Those are only a few examples of people that the U.S. military has driven to starve to death at Guantanamo due to their torturous treatment there.

“We have here conditions where 166 people are imprisoned, more of half of them cleared, they should be out to the streets, free today,” anthropologist Mark Mason recently told Russia Today. “I frankly cannot describe some of the horrific conditions and treatment and humiliation that many detainees have reported.

“They have been stripped and required to stand around in cold rooms for hours naked. This is itself a physical stressor, but it is almost unspeakable psychological torture.”

Dying for human rights

After three weeks of this latest hunger strike, lawyers for the prisoners said in a letter to the prison commander, that “all but a few men” are on hunger strike and that their condition “appears to be rapidly deteriorating and reaching a potentially critical level.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has sent a letter to military officials stating that “since approximately February 6, 2013, camp authorities have been confiscating detainees’ personal items, including blankets, sheets, towels, mats, razors, toothbrushes, books, family photos, religious CDs, and letters, including legal mail; and restricting their exercise, seemingly without provocation or cause.”

CCR had also written that “Arabic interpreters employed by the prison have been searching the men’s Qur’ans in ways that constitute desecration according to their religious beliefs, and that guards have been disrespectful during prayer times.”

Robert Durand with the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo says allegations by the prisoners and their attorneys that conditions there have deteriorated are “patently false.”

(Watch ‘Gitmo hunger strike hits fifth week and counting’ Russia Today Report below.)

Over half of the 166 Guantanamo prisoners have been cleared unanimously for release, to leave the prison, but remain, treated cruelly and inhumanely, according to law. (See CCR Fact Sheet details below.)

“Virtually none have ever been charged, and most will never be charged or tried. Yet, they remain in ‘super-maximum security confinement’ conditions – held by a federal judge to ‘press the outer bounds of what most humans can psychologically tolerate,” CCR reports.

CCR’s allegations are “specifically what they have heard from every attorney that has visited the base or communicated with their client in some fashion since February that there is a large scale hunger strike going on at Guantanamo Bay that affects most of the men there,” Kabreaei said.

“If the political will was there by Obama, if he is serious about keeping his commitments to close Guantanamo, it is not impossible to start transferring them home,” CCR spokesperson in New York, Pardiss Kabreaei told Russia Today (RT).

“The government has illegally detained thousands of people, the most notorious example being the men at Guantánamo,” the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) states on its website.

The latest abuse to trigger the strike was in response to searches, confiscating personal belongings including the Muslim holy book, the Koran, according to Kabreaei.

“There are specific allegations that have been corroborated by every single person who has communicated with their clients in some form,” she said.

The hunger strike is in Day 41 that medical experts say is entering the point of serious physical effects.

“Some of those attorneys have been down there and seen the physical impact for themselves in terms of loss of weight of 20 to 30 pounds.”

After 41 to 45 days, a loss of hearing, loss of vision and ultimately death, according to Kabriaei.

“Denials by authorities at this point are frankly not surprising,” she said.

Officials have downplayed or denied other hunger strikes at Gunatanamo, according to Kabreaei, who adds about the officials’ actions, “But it is extremely dangerous and irresponsible.”

The bottom line, Kabreaei says, is to close the prison where people have been held eleven years without charge.

CCR has “fought for the right to due process, filing countless cases on behalf of these men and others swept up in the so-called War on Terror,” it says.

The Center has challenged immigration sweeps, ghost detentions, extraordinary rendition, and every other illegal program the government has devised to lock people up and throw away the key.

“We all become less safe and less free when we trample on the rights of others,” CCR states.

Over 100,000 people are confined to the same type of human rights abuses in prisons the United States.

Facts vs Propaganda

The Center for Constitutional Rights has developed a list of facts regarding Solitary Confinement at Guantanamo Bay, countering media bias impacting Americans’ perception of the prison, those held there, and the so-called war on terror:

Approximately 70% of the men imprisoned in Guantánamo are in solitary confinement or isolation. (2)

Virtually none have ever been charged, and most will never be charged or tried. Yet, they remain in “super-maximum security confinement” conditions – held by a federal judge to “press the outer bounds of what most humans can psychologically tolerate.” (3)

There are three camps at Guantánamo where conditions qualify as solitary confinement or isolation: Camps 5, 6 and Echo. The military maintains that Camps 5 and 6 are intended for “non-compliant” prisoners, but the facts prove otherwise. Indeed, a number of men slated for release are held in these conditions, including some who languish because they are unable to be safely transferred.



The military refuses to acknowledge that there is solitary confinement in Guantánamo at all. Instead, they speak in euphemisms of greater “privacy” (4) and “single-occupancy cells.” (5)

The conditions, however, speak for themselves:

• In Camp 6, each detainee is confined to a small, windowless steel cell with no access to natural light or air. In Camp 5, a frosted window provides minimal access to natural light, but no view outside. Fluorescent lights are on 24 hours a day, limiting sleep.

“Bisher al-Rawi is, slowly but surely, slipping into madness. . . . Bisher is allowed no contact with fellow prisoners. Bright lights are kept on 24 hours a day. Bisher is given 15 sheets of toilet paper per day, but because he used his sheets to cover his eyes to help him to sleep, his toilet paper – considered another comfort item… – has been removed for ‘misuse.’”
- Attorney Brent Mickum on Bisher al-Rawi’s confinement in Camp 5. (6)

• Detainees are allowed no more than two hours of “recreation” a day. In Camp 6, recreation takes place alone in a pen surrounded by high concrete walls with a mesh covering blocking out most sun. The only equipment is an occasional ball. Sometimes detainees are only allowed recreation at night, preventing them from seeing any sun for days. Alone in their pen, all physical contact with others is forbidden. Saber Lahmar, a detainee who had been held in solitary confinement in Camp Echo, was only allowed to exercise approximately every 10 days, despite severe leg pain and a camp doctor’s admission that he needed exercise for nerve and muscle damage in his legs. (7)

• Detainees have virtually no human contact. Food is delivered through a slot in the door. Detainees may try to shout to one another through the slot with great difficulty, and at risk of disciplinary sanction. (8)

They are almost entirely cut off from the outside world and their families. There are no activities or stimulation, save one book a week from a poorly stocked library cart, and a Koran.

Psychological and Physical Effects



Solitary confinement, especially in combination with severely restricted stimuli and activity, is known to cause psychological and physical damage. (9

)

“[My client] smeared feces on his cell walls. When I asked him why . . . , he told me he had no idea.”
- Attorney Clive Stafford Smith (10)



”[Y]ou try talking to a man who only wants to see the sun. You will never forget the experience. . . . In [his] cell, [Huzaifa Parhat] can crouch at the door, and yell through the crack at the bottom. The fellow in the next cell may respond, or he might be curled in the fetal position, staring at the wall. Another Uighur told us of the voices in his head. The voices were getting the better of him. His foot was tapping on the floor. I don’t know what’s happened to him: he doesn’t come out of the cell to see us anymore.”
- Attorney Sabin Willett, describing the condition of the Uighur detainees in Camp 6. (11)



“Tell [my wife] to remarry. She should consider me dead.”
- Chinese Uighur imprisoned at Guantánamo, soon after being transferred into Camp 6. (12

)

“I’ve started talking to the ceiling. I know it’s crazy, but I can’t stand it otherwise.”
- Camp 6 prisoner (13)



“I’m fighting for my sanity.”
 The same man, a year later: “The walls are really beginning to close in on me now.”
- Camp 5 prisoner (14

)

Conditions at Guantánamo Violate United States Obligations under Law

Conditions in Camps 5, 6 and Echo constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment that violates internationally accepted standards of humane treatment, as well as U.S. law.

• Such treatment is prohibited under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, and under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which held that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applies to Guantánamo detainees.
• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture (CAT) prohibit torture and other ill-treatment.(15) The ICCPR monitoring body has stated that “prolonged solitary confinement of the detained or imprisoned person may amount to acts prohibited by article 7.
• Depriving detainees of fresh air and natural light violates both the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and American Correctional Association standards. (16)
• Denial of social interaction, recreation and family visits is inconsistent with UN standards and U.S. federal rules. (17)

For Fact Sheet References, See Center for Constitutional Rights Guantanamo Bay Fact Sheet.