Rumsfeld: Gitmo hunger strikers on "diet"

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld describes the hunger strikes at Guantanamo:

The military said Tuesday 27 detainees currently were engaging in the hunger strike, including 24 receiving forced-feedings. Detainees' lawyers estimated that about 200 are taking part.

Asked about the motivation of the hunger strikers, Rumsfeld said, "Well, I suppose that what they're trying to do is to capture press attention, obviously, and they've succeeded."

He added, "There are a number of people who go on a diet where they don't eat for a period and then go off of it at some point. And then they rotate and other people do that."

U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler last week ordered the government to provide medical records on Guantánamo prisoners who are being force-fed and to notify their lawyers about forced feedings. [AP]

[Via The Raw Story]

Comments

[blogenfreude]

There are a number of people who go on a diet where they don't eat for a period and then go off of it at some point. And then they rotate and other people do that.

WTF? Tag team hunger strikes? Has his Tamiflu profiteering gone to his head?

[Mnemosyne]

So Gandhi wasn't making a social protest when he went on hunger strikes, he was just watching his figure?

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

Hunger strikers "going on a diet." Rumsfeld: the American compared with whom, of all his captives, only Saddam Hussein seems less credible.

I don't know if this is perfectly on-topic, since Rumsfeld is only using a euphemism, not an out-and-out lie of a cover story, but: I'm reading a book by Hans Bernd Gisevius, who was a Gestapo official during the days before Himmler took it over. He tells so many stories of unbelievable cover stories for beatings or other crimes. People "fell down the stairs" while in custody, things like that.

The world-beater is the story of finding of a body, buried by stormtroopers in a shallow grave. The cover story called him a "suicide," leaving open the obvious question of how on earth the man managed to cover himself over after killing himself.

[norbizness]

Congratulations to the senile ghoul whom the Vice President called "the best Secretary of Defense ever." He's actually re-awakened the tiny, atrophied portion of my brain that produces outrage.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

"And Rummie, you're doing a heck of a job!"

[The Phantom]

Ah, these terrorist pigs are compared with Gandhi. Most excellent.