By Debra Sweet

This is day #162, with 80 or more prisoners on strike, 45 of them being force-fed. There was a temporary federal court order against the new genital searches, but that has been overturned, and the searches have not stopped. Some prisoners report to their attorneys having their rectums searched ten times a day as punishment and pressure to drop the hunger strike.

This is 60 days after President Obama said the "wants" to close Guantanamo and begin releasing some prisoners. They're all still there.

From Guantánamo, Hunger Striker Abdelhadi Faraj Describes the Agony of Force-Feeding

“Despite the long years we the prisoners have spent in this place from 2002 to 2013, the American government does not seem interested in solving the problem. The past few months have been among the harshest lived by the prisoners here. During the Bush years, solutions seemed possible. Under Obama, it seems like there is no will to solve the problem.

“...The military here has used brute force against the hunger strikers. They have beaten us and used rubber-coated bullets and tear gas against us. They have confiscated everything from our cells, from toothbrushes to blankets and books. They have confined us to cold, windowless cells, beyond the reach of the sun’s rays or a fresh breeze. Sometimes, we don’t even know if it’s day or night out.”

Welcome to new signers of the Close Guantanamo NOW statement published in The New York Times in May, and The Progressive in June. The message is as relevant as ever!