So which is it?

In case you wanted further proof of how lots of people consider the Bush administration to be a bigger enemy than Al Qeada you need only look at the newspaper today. Remember the big fuss over the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay being mistreated and "tortured"? Remeber how everyone was upset that the prisoners were being held without legal representation and were being denied miranda rights etc? Remeber that? Well guess what. The latest "atrocity" coming from that(to quote a certain Senator on the Senate floor) gulag is. Prisoners are not being allowed to starve themselves to death. I kid you not! Those evil guards at gitmo are force feeding some of the prisoners to keep them alive.

The Guantánamo prison, which is holding some 500 detainees, has been beset by periodic hunger strikes almost since it was established in January 2002 to hold foreign terror suspects. At least one detainee who went on a prolonged hunger strike was involuntarily fed through a nasal tube in 2002, military officials said.

Since last year, the protests have intensified, a sign of what defense lawyers say is the growing desperation of the detainees. In a study released yesterday, two of those lawyers said Pentagon documents indicated that the military had determined that only 45 percent of the detainees had committed some hostile act against the United States or its allies and that only 8 percent were fighters for Al Qaeda.

After dozens of detainees began joining a hunger strike last June, military doctors at Guantánamo asked Pentagon officials to review their policy for such feeding. Around that time, officials said, the Defense Department also began working out procedures to deal with the eventual suicide of one or more detainees, including how and where to bury them if their native countries refused to accept their remains.

"This is just a reality of long-term detention," a Pentagon official said. "It doesn't matter whether you're at Leavenworth or some other military prison. You are going to have to deal with this kind of thing."

Military officials and detainees' lawyers said the primary rationale for the hunger strikes had evolved since last summer. In June and July, they said, the detainees were mostly complaining about their conditions at Guantánamo.

I love how the New York Times and the detainees lawyers play right in to the detainees hands by making it seem as if they are doing this to protest mistreatment. Imagine that you are a guard at Gitmo. You have to bend over backwards not to offend or "abuse" these terrorists, and at the same time you take flack in the papers for keeping them alive.

And at first glance the terrorists(and yes I am calling them that since we have gained intelligence from these guys taht has led to capture or death of other terrorists) aren't that bright either. If you are in jail how is refusing some of the amenities that are offered going to get you higher quality amenities? That would just be stupid. Unless you have lawyers, a huge press corps, and a big part of a major US political party wanting nothing more than to show you as a victim and to fight for your civil rights. Genius.

Heh I want just one hippy protestor to try and tell me that these prisoners have the right to protest and express themselves. Just one, I really want them to try it!

Stop The ACLU has more. Link to Don Surber and Rightwingnation.com and Basil's Blog and Joe's Cafe.