For Ramadan, Gitmo to Force-Feed at Night

The latest legal challenge bought by Gitmo detainees trying to end their force-feedings brings to light a strange detail as spotted by Atlantic Wire: Later this week, the government plans to start force-feeding the prisoners at night so the detainees comply with the daytime fasting required of them during the holy month of Ramadan. That's assuming a federal court allows the feedings to continue at all: Detainees' lawyers on Sunday asked the court to stop them entirely, and a ruling is pending, reports Stars and Stripes.

"Being strapped to a chair and having a tube forcibly inserted through one's nostrils and into one's stomach is dishonorable and degrading," says the legal filing, reports AP. "It falls within the ambit of torture." In previous years, the government has force-fed prisoners at night during Ramadan, but this year is trickier because so many are taking part in the hunger strike. Of the 166 total prisoners, 106 are on hunger strike, and 44 of them are being force-fed twice a day, reports Reuters. That makes the logistics of nighttime-only feeding a lot more difficult. (More Guantanamo Bay stories.)