A federal judge on Monday condemned the military's practice of force-feeding detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as "painful, humiliating, and degrading" and said President Barack Obama has the authority to stop it.
In a forceful four-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler dismissed a Syrian detainee's request to end the force-feeding, saying she lacks jurisdiction to rule on conditions of confinement at the prison. But, Kessler wrote, "There is an individual who does have the authority to address the issue."
The opinion came in response to a detainee's request for a preliminary injunction to halt the force-feeding, one of four such requests filed in federal court in Washington by prisoners who have been on a hunger strike since February.