Stumble it!Add to the growing list… This is not my country
posted in Politics, Society, War by themaiden |The following hardly needs comment, really.
Not one doctor asked about the consequences of not acquiescing to the tube; none openly worried that acquiescence might not be the same thing as consent; none voiced the concern that pulling out a nose tube funneled down the back of one’s throat to the top of one’s stomach might, in some circumstances, be painful, and that failure to do that might at best be a weak form of consent.The scene is disturbing in light of confirmed reports, just four months after my visit, that striking detainees had been strapped into restraint chairs during and immediately after force-feeding in order to prevent, according to officials, purging and asphyxiation that might result from being fed in a prostrate position. Some detainees alleged that while in the chair they were force-fed not only nutrients but also diuretics and laxatives. The result was that they urinated and defecated on themselves.
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The blocks in Camp 5 have solid walls, with the only access to the outside world being a food-tray slot on a door that opens to a hall where large industrial fans drown out any attempt at conversation. Not surprisingly, al-Dossari suffered from the psychological stress of isolation. During their consultations, al-Dossari said that in interrogation sessions he was wrapped in an Israeli flag, chained to a floor while a female interrogator put on his face what he believed to be menstrual blood, and beaten unconscious by guards. The attorney was initially skeptical of some of the statements until he later read FBI memos and a book by a military officer that detailed exactly the same interrogation techniques his client had described, including the menstrual blood tactic.
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Al-Dossari survived this suicide attempt, but during his time at Guantánamo he has tried to commit suicide eleven other times. (There were three successful suicides at Guantánamo by other detainees in June of 2006.) After al-Dossari’s October 15 attempt, his attorney asked for transfer to a less isolating camp, some meaningful social interaction, a few books, and one telephone call with his family. All four requests were denied. Al-Dossari then filed a motion with the court that was also denied. The Court argued that he was not isolated because he had been interrogated twenty-nine times over the past two years—“a novel legal position,” his attorney commented (though perhaps in line with the notion that rapport building is, as I was told by Hood, the preferred method of interrogation at Guantánamo). Because of the Graham-Levin Amendment stripping detainee cases of habeas corpus (upheld recently in the Military Commissions Act), al-Dossari’s team has not been able to obtain legal relief.
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