"My understanding is that it's just because of their continued detention," Weir said. "They're trying to call attention to that."
The majority of detainees at Guantanamo Bay have long insisted that they were captured by mistake by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001. In some prisoners' cases, records show, the military has little but circumstantial evidence that the men engaged in or supported terrorist acts. The military's review of 558 cases resulted in 38 detainees being declared non-enemy combatants.
The appellate court for the District of Columbia heard arguments last week on the legality of the military holding the detainees indefinitely without giving them the chance to challenge their detentions in a U.S. court -- a follow-up to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2004. But that dispute is expected to drag on until next year, and is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court again.
Hunger strikes are not new to the prison. Detainees launched one in 2002 after allegations that guards and interrogators mistreated copies of the Koran. Military officials then issued new guidelines for proper treatment of the Islamic holy book, and the strike ended.
Detainees began a new strike in late June to protest their treatment and the quality of their food and water. They complained about solitary confinement, alleged beatings by IRF teams, and the use of uniform colors to signify how detainees should be treated. Detainees given white uniforms are considered cooperative while those assigned orange uniforms are considered uncooperative and treated more harshly, detainees said.
The prisoners halted the previous strike in the first days of August after military camp leaders met with a small "council" of detainees and promised improvements in their living conditions. But the strike resumed a few days later, some detainees told their lawyers, when news spread through the camp of a Tunisian detainee beaten by an interrogator and IRF teams hitting two others, according to detainees' reports to their lawyers.
Weir declined to discuss individual detainees' cases or allegations.
An Algerian detainee told his lawyer in a newly declassified report provided by his attorney that a new interrogator beat the Tunisian with an empty beverage cooler and a metal chair after the detainee refused to talk to him. The Algerian said he saw the Tunisian's bloodied, swollen eye after the session.
Weir declined to comment on those details. Other detainees' accounts of the strike have not yet been declassified by the military, their lawyers said.
Researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
