US must allow access to Gitmo hunger strikers' medical records

[US District Court Judge Gladys Kessler] ordered the government to provide notice to the prisoners' lawyers within 24 hours of the beginning of force-feeding. Kessler also ordered the government to provide lawyers medical records for their clients spanning the week before a forced feeding, and provide these records at least weekly until force-feeding ends.

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Also in her ruling, the judge denied a request by detainee lawyers for immediate and frequent access to their clients. The lawyers, concerned about their clients' well-being during the hunger strikes, called the ruling a "partial victory."

[Kessler] acted after lawyers representing about a dozen men held at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, expressed urgent concern over their deteriorating health amid a hunger strike launched in early August.

Kessler stated in her opinion that the detainees' lawyers had presented "deeply troubling" allegations of forced feedings ... without anesthesia or sedatives.

"If the allegations are true ��� and they are all explicitly, specifically and vigorously denied by the government ��� they describe conduct of which the United States can hardly be proud," the judge wrote.

The detainees have been on hunger strike to protest their detention without trial at the US military base in Cuba. Their lawyers believe there are more than 200 striking inmates, and call the force-feedings " a new form of medical abuse," reports Newsday. The Pentagon, however, says there are only 26 hunger strikers, 23 of whom are being hospitalized, and that they are all being treated humanely.

During a hearing before Kessler last week, Pentagon lawyer Terry Henry dismissed the allegations as "outrageous" and said sending medical files to lawyers would waste doctors' time and encourage prisoners to fast by granting them special privileges.

In an affidavit, Dr. John Edmondson, the Navy captain who runs Guantanamo's hospitals, said only qualified medical personnel insert the feeding tubes and "offer" inmates anesthetics. Treatment "equals or exceeds the standard of care" at U.S. hospitals, he said.

The government also pointed out that none of the force-fed detainees had died, though the New York Times (registration required) reports Kessler was not swayed by the argument,.

Judge Kessler said she did not need to wait until someone died before ordering the government to disclose information to the detainees' lawyers. "It can hardly serve either the national security interests of this country or enhance its image throughout the world to contribute in any way to the death of a detainee in its custody," she said.

For at least one detainee, however, death, not protest, may be the goal of the hunger strike, reports the BBC. Among those refusing to eat is Fawzi al-Odah of Kuwait, who has told his lawyer that he wishes to die "'out of desperation' at his detention without charge".

Mr al-Odah, a 28-year-old who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002, has asked his lawyers to file papers seeking a judicial order that his tube be removed, [his lawyer Tom] Wilner told AP news agency.

"He is willing to take a stand if it will bring justice," Mr Wilner said.

Al-Odah's parents, however, are not allowing Wilner to file such a request, reports the Washington Post.

[Wilner] wants the man to get his family's approval and consult with medical specialists not affiliated with the U.S. government.

"We utterly refuse," Fawzi al-Odah's father, Khaled, said Wednesday in Kuwait City. "Fawzi would not have taken such a decision unless he has lost all hope and some of his ability to reason."

The 28-year-old detainee's mother, Souad al-Abdul-Jalil, also complained about the difficulty of not hearing her son's voice or seeing him in several years.

The ICRC backs a 1975 Tokyo declaration by the World Medical Association [WMA] stating that doctors should not participate in force-feeding but keep prisoners informed of the sometimes irreversible consequences of their hunger strike, [ICRC chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari] added.

While there is no international law against force-feeding, the WMA declaration "sets guidelines for doctors involved in hunger strikes and says they should not participate in force-feeding." The American Medical Association endorsed the declaration.

Also...
• 'Harassed' BBC shuts Uzbek office ( BBC)
• Loyalist terror group ready to disband by end of year ( Irish Independent)
• Israel Moves Against Militants After Blast ( AP

• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Arthur Bright.