The hunger Strike at Guantanamo

In case anyone is interested, the following information is provided by one of the Guantanamo habeas lawyers. 

 

The mass hunger strike at GTMO has drawn a lot of media attention. At first, the detainees first demanded that the authorities stop searching their Qurans. As the strike has dragged on, however, many of the men, entering their twelfth year of detention without charge and no end it sight, are now demanding an end to their illegal, AKA "law of war" detention.

The military is currently applying brutal tactics to break the hunger strike, e.g., withholding water, reducing temperatures to freezing levels, and moving the detainees from communal living to isolation cells. A detainee’s motion to end these practices is pending. Judge Thomas F. Hogan has scheduled an evidentiary hearing for April 15.
Below is a narrative describing the events leading up to the hunger strike. The detainees are desperate, the camps were a tinderbox, and a new tough-guy commander of detention operations lit the fuse. If this commander is acting on orders from higher ups, consider the narrative an indictment of them. 

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The Joint Task Force-Guantanamo (JTF) is one of three task forces with specific missions in the region which report to U.S. Southern Command. JTF’s mission, obviously, is to carry out the mission of GTMO—detention and interrogation of Muslim men apprehended worldwide in war on terror operations. The Joint Detention Group (JDG), a component of JTF, effectively runs the camps. Each camp has an Officer in Charge (OIC), who I gather reports directly to the JDG head and oversees the guard force.

When President Obama took office in 2009, he sent Admiral Walsh to GTMO to determine whether the prison met the standards of common article 3. Predictably, Walsh reported that, yes, the camp complied with common article 3, but they could do even better! Thereafter, conditions in the camps markedly improved, the only creditable aspect of President Obama’s GTMO policy. JDG ruled with a light touch and the maintained peace - an Era of Good Feelings - until the summer of 2012.

In June 2012, JTF command passed to Rear Admiral John W. Smith. JDG command passed to Colonel John V. Bogdan, one-time commander of an MP brigade that operated in East Bagdad. Unlike his Obama-era predecessors, Bogdan brought a tough-guy approach to detention operations and has ruled ​the camps ​with an iron fist. ​Marked by ​displays of power for power’s sake, ​his​ ​approach has led to mayhem in the camps. ​It’s certainly possible that Bogdan is just implementing directives from above, though that seems improbable given General Kelley​ ​’s recent testimony before HASC.​

In September, Bogdan, without provocation, had his men storm Camp 6. ​Also, Adnan Latif died in ​suspicious ​circumstances. During the fall, conditions in the camps deteriorated; for example, temperatures in the cells were lowered to 62˚. In January, a tower guard in the rec area fired into a group of detainees, wounding one, and in early February, the mass hunger strike broke out.

Bogd​an ​​lit the fuse when ​he ​or one of his OICs had the guards conduct​ed​ ​a ​sweeping search of the men’s cells in camp 6, where about 130 of the 166 detainees were held. Guards arbitrarily confiscated personal items including family letters and photographs, legal papers, and extra blankets. ​(Civilians ​confiscated the papers.) Bogdan or his OICs also ​attempted ​to search the men’s Qurans, using interpreters to do the dirty work.

That fateful decision ignited the hunger strike. ​What upset the men was not how the Qurans were to be searched but the fact that they were to be searched at all. JDG had stopped searching Qurans in 2006. According to our clients, JDG has admitted that it had no ​ concrete​ reason to reinstitute Quran searches. Bogdan, however, decided to revert to the rules of 2006. The rules provided for Quran searches, a ​most ​provocative display ​of power​.

The men have offered to surrender their Qurans to the military ​ permanently​ to avoid searches. Surrender​ing Qurans​ was a common solution ​to threatened circumstances ​in Bush days, when men feared ​their Qurans would be ​searched​ when they met with their lawyers. (​Putting the men to that choice was one of the clever disincentive​ for such meetings.) Bogdan, however, will not agree to stop searches or take the Qurans.

Bogdan won’t even discuss the men’s grievances​ ​until they​ end their hunger strike. He’ll be damned if he blinks first. Meanwhile, he is using brutal tactics to break the strike. As the strike enters its eighth week, many men now view the strike as a means of protesting the very fact that they continue to be held. These men, including many of my clients, say they ​are determined to ​leave Guantanamo one way or the other—alive or, like Latif, in a box.