Guantanamo: Hunger Strikes, Human Rights & National Security

The hunger strike in Guantanamo has grown to more than half of the detainees there in the detention camp on the U.S. Army base in Cuba. At least 84 of the facility’s 166 detainees are now participating, protesting the conditions and their indefinite captivity.

 

Detainees are refusing food, some of them since Feb. 10 following a search and confiscation of some of their belongings. The government has responded, force-feeding many of the detainees through tubes and 40 more medical personnel have been sent to assist with the effort.

 

We will talk to:

 

Carlos Warner, attorney with the Federal Public Defender of the Northern District of Ohio who is representing 11 Guantánamo detainees.

 

David Schanzer professor at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy and director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill.

 

Laura Pitter, counterterrorism advisor for Human Rights Watch's US Program.