US OFFICIALS DETERMINED TO SHUT DOWN GUANTANAMO PRISON
Washington, 29 Rajab 1434/8 June 2013 (MINA) – US President Barack Obama’s chief of staff and two other senators claim to be determined to shut down the country’s Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
The White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, as well as Senator John McCain said in a joint statement at Washington on Friday, that they would take required measures to close the military prison, Press TV reported as monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
The First Post quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) told that Feinstein and McCain have long argued that the prison should be closed.
“We intend to work, with a plan by Congress and the administration together, to take the steps necessary to make that happen,” they said after a tour of the notorious jail.
But other U.S. lawmakers have blocked the move, arguing that the administration has not offered satisfactory alternatives on what to do with the detainees.
Closing the prison was one of Obama’s campaign promises in the 2008 elections. In a speech on May 23, he renewed the commitment to shut the facility.
Prisoners have complained of abuse and torture, and rights activists and international observers have censured the US government’s use of the detention center, Press TV reported.
Over 100 out of 166 detainees have been on a hunger strike for more than 100 days in protest against their long confinement without charge or trial, as well as the horrible and degrading conditions at the jail.
The strike started in early February when the guard force at the prison decided to search the detainees’ Qurans, the Muslims’ holy book. The prisoners said the searches amounted to desecration.
Reports say some of the prisoners on hunger strike are being force-fed via tubes snaked up their nose and into their stomach.
The strike action is widening with more prisoners refusing to be force-fed, according to a recent report by The Guardian.
“The hunger strike grows for two reasons: the military’s refusal to negotiate with the men in a productive way and because the president has taken no action in spite of his words,” said Carlos Warner, a lawyer who represents several of the detainees on strike.
Detainees who are force-fed are strapped to a chair twice a day and fed a liquid nutritional supplement through a tube that runs through the nose and into the stomach. (T/P09/P03)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
