Judge Slams Pentagon, But Allows Force-Feedings to Resume

Detainee Seeks Tube Feedings in Hospital Setting

Judge Gladys Kessler, who last week ordered a temporary halt to the force-feedings of Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohammed Abu Wa’el Dhaib, issued a statement today criticizing the Pentagon, but saying she had “no choice” but to allow the brutal feedings to resume.

Kessler blasted the Pentagon’s intransigence on the issue, saying they were forcing Dhaib to suffer “unnecessary pain” with their force-feeding policies, along with the forcible cell extraction by troops in riot gear.

Dhaib’s attorneys say he is willing to receive tube feedings, but wants them done in a hospital setting, with standard-sized tubes that are left in place. The Pentagon has ruled out such changes, insisting on their own policy of having several troops rough the detainee up while the force a large tube down their throat, speed feed them, then remove it.

The Pentagon’s style of force-feeding has often left detainees screaming in pain, and in at least one case caused a serious infection that led to a detainee vomiting blood and losing consciousness. The Pentagon maintains this style is more efficient, and “safer.”

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.