Obama Administration Would Rather Subject Gravely Ill Guantanamo Prisoner to More Torture than Release Him

August 25, 2015
ShadowProof

President Barack Obama’s administration would rather subject a gravely ill Guantanamo Bay prisoner to continuous abusive force-feedings, which amount to torture, than support his release from the military prison because he is sick.

Tariq Ba Odah, a Yemeni prisoner and resident of Saudi Arabia, has been on hunger strike for more than eight years at the military prison. He has been confined in “solitary conditions” for 13 years, despite the fact that Obama’s own review task force—comprised of officials from the top US security agencies—cleared Odah for release in 2009. His body can no longer endure the effects of nasal tube feedings, and he weighs about 74 pounds.

In June, his lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) launched a legal push for Odah’s release because the US has an “obligation to release seriously wounded and sick prisoners” under the “laws of war,” particularly the Third Geneva Convention. ...

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Last modified 

August 27, 2015