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The Guantanamo Bay Hunger Strikes were a series of prisoner protests at the U.S. detention camp Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The first hunger strikes began in 2002 when the camp first opened, but the secrecy of the camp's operations prevented news of those strikes from reaching the public. [2] [3] The first widely reported hunger strikes occurred in 2005. [4]
After a hunger strike in July — the second that year — military officials permitted the existence of a prisoners' grievance committee for a few days. Then in August and September, lawyers reported that at least 200 prisoners went on hunger strike. Camp authorities acknowledged that 20 of them were being fed through nasal tubes at the camp's hospital and force-fed where necessary. Detainees were protesting the camp's conditions and their prolonged imprisonment without trial. [3] [5]
On December 25, 46 prisoners joined the 38 who were striking at the time, bringing the total number of people on hunger strike to 84. [6]
In the April 14, 2008 edition of the New Yorker magazine, Jeffrey Toobin reported that there were about ten hunger strikers at Guantanamo. The overall population had declined markedly, as many detainees had been repatriated or transferred to detention in other countries.[ citation needed ]
As a result of the hunger strikes, the weight of at least eighty captives dropped to below 100 pounds (45 kg) each, as reported by Andy Worthington, the author of The Guantanamo Files . [4] Human rights workers and physicians' professional associations have criticized the use of force-feeding on mentally competent patients at Guantanamo. [4] [7]
A new wave of the hunger strike arose in early 2013. At its peak in July, 106 out of the 166 detainees were considered to be on hunger strike, with 45 of them being force-fed by the prison administration. [8]
On December 4, 2013, the US military announced that it would no longer disclose information about the hunger strikes, explaining that, "The release of this information serves no operational purpose." [9]
The last disclosed figures in December showed the number of hunger strikers had risen to 15, all of whom were force-fed. [10]
In 2013, hunger striker Jihad Ahmed Mustafa Dhiab sought an injunction in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to stop the government from force-feeding him. [11] In October 2014, District Judge Gladys Kessler determined that she had no jurisdiction over confinement conditions at Guantanamo. [12] After the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected that theory, Dhiab again sought an injunction to stop the force feedings. [11] In November 2014, District Judge Kessler again denied Dhiab relief. [13]
However, in the course of discovery, the government disclosed that it had recorded its force-feedings of Dhabi and classified the videotapes as "SECRET." [11] Sixteen news organizations intervened, seeking access to the tapes. [11] In October 2014, District Judge Kessler ordered to unseal the 28 tapes. [14]
The D.C. Circuit, in an unsigned opinion joined by Chief Circuit Judge Merrick Garland, determined it did not yet have jurisdiction over the interlocutory order but encouraged the district court to consider additional declarations made by the government. [15] In December 2015, District Judge Kessler again ordered the tapes to be redacted and unsealed. [16]
In March 2017, the D.C. Circuit ordered that the tapes remain secret, with the panel unanimously voting to reverse but with each of the three judges providing different reasons in separate opinions. [17] Senior Judge A. Raymond Randolph argued that the press has no right to access classified court filings made by prisoners petitioning for habeas corpus and that the lower court clearly erred by not deferring to declarations by Rear Admirals Kyle Cozad and Richard W. Butler asserting a national security threat. [11] Judge Judith W. Rogers argued that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides the public a qualified right to access prisoners' court filings but agreed that the government had identified a national security interest justifying secrecy. [11] Senior Judge Stephen F. Williams also agreed that national security justified secrecy but questioned if the government could logically keep all Guantanamo filings secret. [11]
Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that foreign nationals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could petition federal courts for writs of habeas corpus to review the legality of their detention. The Court's 6–3 judgment on June 28, 2004, reversed a D.C. Circuit decision which had held that the judiciary has no jurisdiction to hear any petitions from foreign nationals held in Guantanamo Bay.
Judith Ann Wilson Rogers is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Arthur Raymond Randolph is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was appointed to the Court in 1990 and assumed senior status on November 1, 2008.
Shaker Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Aamer is a Saudi citizen who was held by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba for more than thirteen years without charge.
Fouzi Khalid Abdullah Al Odah is a Kuwaiti citizen formerly held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. He had been detained without charge in Guantanamo Bay since 2002. He was a plaintiff in the ongoing case, Al Odah v. United States, which challenged his detention, along with that of fellow detainees. The case was widely acknowledged to be one of the most significant to be heard by the Supreme Court in the current term. The US Department of Defense reports that he was born in 1977, in Kuwait City, Kuwait.
Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, also known as Allal Ab Aljallil Abd al Rahman, was a Yemeni citizen imprisoned at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from January 2002 until his death in custody there, ruled a suicide.
Gladys Kessler was a United States district judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia.
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison within the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Gitmo, on the coast of Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. As of May 2024, of the 779 people detained there since January 2002 when the military prison first opened after the September 11 attacks, 740 had been transferred elsewhere, 30 remained there, and nine had died while in custody.
Obaidullah is a citizen of Afghanistan who was one of the last remaining Afghan detainees held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba. He was captured as an Enemy combatant on July 20, 2002, transferred to Guantanamo on October 28, 2002, and transferred to the United Arab Emirates on August 15, 2016. Obaidullah's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 762. American intelligence analysts estimate that Obaidullah was born in 1980 in Khowst, Afghanistan.
Muhammad Ali Abdallah Muhammad Bwazir is a citizen of Yemen, once held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Bwazir's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 440. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1980, in Hawra', Yemen.
Ali Abdullah Ahmed, also known as Salah Ahmed al-Salami, was a citizen of Yemen who died whilst being held as an enemy combatant in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 693. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terror analysts estimated he was born in 1977, in Ibb, Yemen.
Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His detainee ID number is 28. Guantanamo analysts estimated he was born in 1977, in Al Hudaydah, Yemen.
Tarek Ali Abdullah Ahmed Baada is a citizen of Yemen, who was formerly held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His detainee ID number is 178. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimated that Baada was born in 1978 in Shebwa, Yemen.
Zahar Omar Hamis Bin Hamdoun is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 576. The Department of Defense reports that he was born on November 13, 1979, in Ash-Shihr, Yemen.
Abdul Rahman Shalabi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 42.
Ricardo Manuel Urbina is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Ahmed Zaid Salim Zuhair is a citizen of Saudi Arabia formerly held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
Detainees held in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps have initiated both individual and widespread hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay, and camp medical authorities have initiated force-feeding programs.
Jihad Ahmed Mustafa Dhiab also known as Abu Wa'el Dhiab was born in Lebanon on July 10, 1971. He was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba until he was released to Uruguay. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 722. Dhiab was one of the Guantanamo hunger strikers.
As many as 200 prisoners - more than a third of the camp - have refused food in recent weeks to protest conditions and prolonged confinement without trial, according to the accounts of lawyers who represent them. While military officials put the number of those participating at 105, they acknowledge that 20 of them, whose health and survival are being threatened, are being kept at the camp's hospital and fed through nasal tubes and sometimes given fluids intravenously.
The US military said yesterday that a long-running hunger strike among detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison underwent a very significant increase" starting on Christmas Day, more than doubling the number of prisoners who are protesting their indefinite detention without trial by refusing to eat.
When the United States began force-feeding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, two hundred-fifty prominent physicians signed an open letter to a leading British journal, 'The Lancet,' called for sanctions against the medical professionals involved in these nonconsensual interventions.
