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National interfaith group asks Hagel to explain Administration’s position on Guantanamo closure
NRCAT writes to Secretary of Defense in response to comments by U.S. SOUTHCOM chief

Washington, D.C. – After Gen. John Kelly, chief of the U.S. Southern Command, recently said that the military is powerless to end the hunger strike at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director, and Linda Gustitus, president, of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, sent a letter today to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. The letter asks him to clarify the Obama administration’s plan for shuttering Guantanamo, as President Obama has promised to do, and suggests that Kelly’s comments do not line up with those by the president, nor will they lead to resolution of the crisis at Guantanamo.

The letter reads, in part:

… When asked by the press about the President’s remarks, General Kelly denied the government was force-feeding detainees, responding, “We don’t force-feed right now at Gitmo.” Instead, he referred to the government’s treatment of the hunger strikers with the euphemism of “enterally feeding.” He added that the detainee hunger strike would continue “until they get tired of doing what they’re doing,” and that the protest was a “hunger strike lite.”

These comments were out of line with the President’s stated position and damaging to a positive resolution of the dire human tragedy at Guantanamo.

The letter concludes by asking Hagel to explain the Obama Administration’s position toward closing the detention center:

Mr. Secretary, we call on you to clarify the Administration’s position on the closure of Guantanamo and to ensure that the leadership of Guantanamo assists in alleviating the situation, not making it worse.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January 2006, more than 320 religious organizations have joined NRCAT, including representatives from the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Sikh communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and local congregations.
www.nrcat.org

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