U.S. can keep Guantanamo hunger strikers alive by force: court

By David Ingram WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court declined on Tuesday to halt the forced feeding of hunger strikers in Guantanamo Bay but ruled that the prisoners have the right to sue over the procedure and other aspects of how the U.S. military treats them. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed two decisions by lower court judges. Designed to keep hunger strikers alive, the procedure involves feeding them liquid meals via tubes inserted into their noses and down into their stomachs. President Barack Obama has defended the practice at Guantanamo, telling a news conference last year, “I don’t want these individuals to die.” Last year, during a Guantanamo hunger strike in which as many as 46 of 166 inmates were force-fed at least some of their meals, several of them sued.