"Prominent senators, the American Medical Assn., human rights activists and a federal judge agree: The force-feeding of more than 40 hunger strikers at the prison at Guantanamo Bay is a disgrace. What's more, it also appears to be a violation of prohibitions in international law against cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.
Food is forced through a 2-foot-long nasal tube down the throat and into the stomach while the prisoner is immobilized. It requires an enormous commitment of medical personnel: 140 Navy doctors, nurses and corpsmen, including 37 reinforcements dispatched in April to accommodate the spreading hunger strike. Like Guantanamo itself, the force-feeding of the strikers has fueled anti-American opinion abroad. (And that's unlikely to be undone by the Pentagon's surreal decision to confine force-feeding to nighttime so that inmates won't be violating the Ramadan fast.)"
--From: A force-feeding disgrace at Guantanamo: President Obama should put an end to the abusive practice and make good on his promise to close the facility - Editorial, Los Angeles Times. Image from article, with caption: A feeding tube used to force-feed detainees on hunger strike is seen at the detainee hospital in Camp Delta, which is part of the U.S. military prison for 'enemy combatants' in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
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