Assalamu aleikum.

Fresh medical atrocities have been perpetrated by hospital commandant
John Edmondson against POWs tortured in the US concentration camp at
Guantanamo. The criminal assaults mentioned in the article are only
those known to have been publicly admitted by commandant Edmonson
himself. What other horrors remain to be revealed will only be learned
in the course of time, if ever.

>From the second article below:

"Dr David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist at Queen Elizabeth's
hospital in Birmingham, is co-ordinating opposition to the Guantánamo
doctors' actions from the international medical community. 'If I were
to do what Edmondson describes in his statement, I would be referred
to the General Medical Council and charged with assault,' he said."

Please note that 2 articles follow:

*U.S. crimes in Guantanamo grow more horrific
*Scandal of force-fed prisoners


---


(1)

U.S. crimes in Guantanamo grow more horrific
Al Jazeera
1/8/2006
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=472

Gitmo detainees participating in the current hunger strike routinely
experience bleeding and nausea

In an interview with the weekly magazine Der Spiegel published days
before her first visit to the United States, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel said that Guantanamo detention camp should be closed and that
Washington should find other ways of dealing with what it calls
"terror suspects".

"An institution like Guantanamo can and should not exist in the longer
term," Merkel said in an interview published on Saturday.

"Different ways and means must be found for dealing with these prisoners."

Merkel plans to visit Washington next week, her first since becoming
chancellor in November.

A Guantánamo Bay doctor has recently admitted that hunger strikers at
the U.S. detention facility in Cuba are tied down and fed through
nasal tubes.

Contrary to what the U.S. military claimed on Friday; that the number
of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in an ongoing hunger strike
has fallen by more than half, new details have emerged, according The
Observer, revealing the growing number of hunger strikers at
Guantánamo Bay, and detailing how prisoners are being tied down and
force-fed through tubes pushed down their nasal passages into their
stomachs to keep them alive.

Gitmo detainees participating in the current hunger strike routinely
experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn statement by the
camp's chief doctor, seen by The Observer.

And according to Bill Goodman, legal director for the New York-based
Centre for Constitutional Rights, which represents many detainees,
restrictions on information from the base made it impossible to know
just how many detainees were participating.

"You can't believe them because they have an interest in trying to
purvey this perspective that everything at Guantanamo is fine and
everybody is wonderful. In order to do that, they have to say there
aren't that many hunger strikers," he said.

Detainees' lawyers have repetitively accused the U.S. military of
violently shoving tubes through the men's noses and into their
stomachs without anesthesia or sedatives as part of the force-feeding
process.

Captain John S Edmondson, commander of Guantanamo's hospital admitted
that 'experience teaches us' that such symptom must be expected
'whenever nasogastric tubes are used'.

It is painful, Edmonson admits.

But Edmondson argued that the thick, 4.8mm diameter tubes tried
previously to allow quicker feeding are not being used anymore and
that a new 3mm tubes are 'soft and flexible', so they're not that painful.

The London solicitors Allen and Overy, representing some of the hunger
strikers, lodged a court action to be heard next week in California,
where Edmondson is registered to practise.

They call on the state medical ethics board investigate him for
'unprofessional conduct' for allowing force-feeding.

The Observer obtained Edmonson's affirmation last week, as a
Guantánamo spokesman confirmed that the number of hunger strikers has
almost doubled since Christmas. Now 81 put of the 550 detainees held
at Guantanamo jail are taking part in the hunger strike.

Last week, the U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH signed a law denying the
detainees their right to file habeas corpus petitions in the U.S.
federal courts. And on Friday, the administration asked the Supreme
Court to make this retroactive, "nullifying about 220 cases in which
prisoners have contested the basis of their detention and the legality
of pending trials by military commission," The Observer stated.

According to Article 5 of the 1975 World Medical Association Tokyo
Declaration, which U.S. doctors are legally bound to observe, doctors
are prohibited from using force-feeding under any circumstances.

"If I were to do what Edmondson describes in his statement, I would be
referred to the General Medical Council and charged with assault,"
said Dr David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist at Queen Elizabeth's
hospital in Birmingham. 

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=472


---


(2)

Scandal of force-fed prisoners
Hunger strikers are tied down and fed through nasal tubes, admits
Guantánamo Bay doctor
David Rose
The Observer
Sunday January 8, 2006
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,16937,1681736,00.html

New details have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on
hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed
through tubes pushed down their nasal passages into their stomachs to
keep them alive.

They routinely experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn
statement by the camp's chief doctor, seen by The Observer.

'Experience teaches us' that such symptoms must be expected 'whenever
nasogastric tubes are used,' says the affidavit of Captain John S
Edmondson, commander of Guantánamo's hospital. The procedure - now
standard practice at Guantánamo - 'requires that a foreign body be
inserted into the body and, ideally, remain in it.' But staff always
use a lubricant, and 'a nasogastric tube is never inserted and moved
up and down. It is inserted down into the stomach slowly and directly,
and it would be impossible to insert the wrong end of the tube.'
Medical personnel do not insert nasogastric tubes in a manner
'intentionally designed to inflict pain.'

It is painful, Edmonson admits. Although 'non-narcotic pain relievers
such as ibuprofen are usually sufficient, sometimes stronger drugs,'
including opiates such as morphine, have had to be administered.

Thick, 4.8mm diameter tubes tried previously to allow quicker feeding,
so permitting guards to keep prisoners in their cells for more hours
each day, have been abandoned, the affidavit says. The new 3mm tubes
are 'soft and flexible'.

The London solicitors Allen and Overy, who represent some of the
hunger strikers, have lodged a court action to be heard next week in
California, where Edmondson is registered to practise. They are asking
for an order that the state medical ethics board investigate him for
'unprofessional conduct' for agreeing to the force-feeding.

Edmonson's affidavit, in response to a lawsuit on behalf of detainees
on hunger strike since last August, was obtained last week by The
Observer, as a Guantánamo spokesman confirmed that the number of
hunger strikers has almost doubled since Christmas, to 81 of the 550
detainees. Many have been held since the camp opened four years ago
this month, although they not been charged with any crime, nor been
allowed to see any evidence justifying their detention.

This and other Guantánamo lawsuits now face extinction. Last week,
President Bush signed into law a measure removing detainees' right to
file habeas corpus petitions in the US federal courts. On Friday, the
administration asked the Supreme Court to make this retroactive, so
nullifying about 220 cases in which prisoners have contested the basis
of their detention and the legality of pending trials by military
commission.

Although some prisoners have had to be tied down while being
force-fed, 'only one patient' has had to be immobilised with a
six-point restraint, and 'only one' passed out. 'In less than 10 cases
have trained medical personnel had to use four-point restraint in
order to achieve insertion.' Edmondson claims the actual feeding is
voluntary. During Ramadan, tube-feeding takes place before dawn.

Article 5 of the 1975 World Medical Association Tokyo Declaration,
which US doctors are legally bound to observe through their membership
of the American Medical Association, states that doctors must not
undertake force-feeding under any circumstances. Dr David Nicholl, a
consultant neurologist at Queen Elizabeth's hospital in Birmingham, is
co-ordinating opposition to the Guantánamo doctors' actions from the
international medical community. 'If I were to do what Edmondson
describes in his statement, I would be referred to the General Medical
Council and charged with assault,' he said.

· Yesterday the new German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the latest
leader to condemn the United States for practices at the prison. In a
magazine interview days before her first visit as premier to the US,
Merkel said Washington should close Guantánamo and find other ways of
dealing with terror suspects.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,16937,1681736,00.html









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