THE HUNGER GAMES
AT GUANTANAMO
“We had no urgent need to get
in there,” Bogdan told reporters
in April. “We had no evidence of
any threat or harm or risk to the
detainees. It was a little bit of a
waiting game.”
As the protest dragged on, however, U.S. officials feared they were
losing control. The head of Camp
Six acknowledged in late March
that the pantries inside the communal blocks were getting low on
food, which was “beginning to be a
problem.” Medical personnel gradually raised the official number of
recognized hunger strikers — up to
43 by mid-April.
Negotiations had gotten nowhere. The detainees wanted
changes to the way the guards
handled their copies of the Quran,
but Bogdan would not consider
their demands until the cameras
were uncovered. “I don’t reinforce
bad behavior,” he said. “The deal
was uncover the cameras, comply
with rules, follow the rules, and
then we would address anything
that might be legitimate.”
HUFFINGTON
06.09.13
Bogdan decided he had had
enough.
At 5:10 a.m. on April 13, a contingent of guards in riot gear
stormed Camp Six and forced the
detainees into their individual cells.
The guards had trained for the mission for weeks. They fired rubber
pellets at the detainees. Two guards
wearing helmets were knocked
in the head — one with a squeegee handle, the other with a heavy
metal bar from exercise equipment
— but resistance from the detainees, who were spread out in several
of Camp Six’s cellblocks, wasn’t
widespread. The raid was over in a
matter of minutes, leaving five detainees injured.
“We were trying to be patient
and work with them and give them
the opportunity to comply,” Bogdan
told reporters from The Huffing ۂ