Hunger strike fever sweeps Gitmo

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — According to the US Pentagon, 128 detainees at Camp Delta are on a hunger strike, and that number is expected to increase as news of the impromptu protest spreads through the prison.

Since the detainee center opened in January, 2002, there have been eighteen hunger strikes, according to Pentagon officials. A spokesman at Gitmo told The Rockall Times: "Regulations at Gitmo are the same as at any US prison. Detainees are not permitted to kill themselves by starving to death. Any detainee that does is severely punished."

The Washington Post reported that detainees are refusing to eat to protest their detention, to bring to public attention that they are beaten, and because the food sucks. The Pentagon flatly denies that prisoners are beaten, "even though those fuc*king towelheads deserve it", and claims that detainees are fed the same food as the guards. The official would not confirm that in the last three months alone, 13 guards had gone AWOL and had to be later dragged kicking and screaming from a Burger King in Havana.

More than 30 countries are represented at Camp Delta, with the majority holding citizenship from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen. The Red Cross and the Taliban, a human rights organization in Afghanistan, have strongly criticized the treatment of prisoners at Gitmo. Bush administration officials have strongly criticized the Red Cross and the Taliban, saying: "The US policy at Guantanamo is the correct one, because we're always right." Vice President Dick Cheney also defended the US's position recently, commenting that detainees are "treated with as much dignity and respect as they deserve".

The White House also vehemently denied that the hunger strike was related to the release of Mullah Adbul Salaam Zaeef, the al-Qaeda Ambassador to Pakistan, who was released on Monday after a deal brokered by the Halliburton Corporation.

Previously

• Camp X-Ray Britons to get minimum income guarantee
• Newsweek tightens editorial procedure as US flags burn
• Bush struggles to satisfy UN elocution inspectors