This Thursday--Film Screening and Discussion: "Hunger: Guantanamo Detainees and Their Resistance"
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Bob Palmer
Feb 25, 2014, 6:06:15 AM2/25/14
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Is it ever morally justified to risk one's life for justice? Or to prevent someone from doing that? One year ago this month, courageous and desperate men imprisoned at Guantanamo began a hunger strike. Their action has again focused world attention on their plight and revealed the intransigence of the Obama administration on Guantanamo. On February 27, the Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo* hosts an evening to examine how the detainees have put their bodies on the line to defeat their unjust imprisonment without charges or trial, and how forced feeding is used to block their last form of protest - denying themselves nourishment.
"Hunger: Guantanamo Detainees and Their Resistance"
What: Film screening and discussion (free, donations accepted)
When: 7 pm, Thursday, Feb. 27
Where: Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn, Chicago (near Red and Blue El lines)
We will screen the award-winning film, Doctors of the Dark Side, that explores the critical role of physicians and psychologists in designing and implementing programs of detainee torture at Guantanamo.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion of the serious legal and ethical questions posed by both hunger striking and forced feeding. The Guantanamo prisoners have said this is their last means of protest, and they would rather die than continue in conditions of extreme isolation and torture. Obama has defended forced feeding as a means to prevent death, even though it is condemned as torture by the law and most medical associations. These issues are not confined to Guantanamo. During last summer's hunger strike by prisoners in California to end solitary confinement, a court held that the State could force feed them. And just this month, some prisoners at Menard Prison here in Illinois engaged in a hunger strike to end their solitary confinement. As prisoners stand up for humane treatment, where will we stand?
Our panel will feature Dr. Frank Summers, a clincal psychologist who has played a leading role in the fight within the American Psychological Association to bar members who participate in torture; Abu Noor Abdil Malik, Muslim chaplain at DePaul University who will shed light on Islamic perspective on risking one's life through a hunger strike to attain justice; and Dr. Irene Martinez, physician, author, and co-founder of Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture, who will share insights from her many years of medical practice with survivors of these barbaric practices. Please join us for this important film and indepth discussion of these and other questions. If you are on Facebook, please 'join' the event there and invite friends.
"Hunger: Guantanamo Detainees and Their Resistance"
What: Film screening and discussion (free, donations accepted)
When: 7 pm, Thursday, Feb. 27
Where: Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn, Chicago (near Red and Blue El lines)
We will screen the award-winning film, Doctors of the Dark Side, that explores the critical role of physicians and psychologists in designing and implementing programs of detainee torture at Guantanamo.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion of the serious legal and ethical questions posed by both hunger striking and forced feeding. The Guantanamo prisoners have said this is their last means of protest, and they would rather die than continue in conditions of extreme isolation and torture. Obama has defended forced feeding as a means to prevent death, even though it is condemned as torture by the law and most medical associations. These issues are not confined to Guantanamo. During last summer's hunger strike by prisoners in California to end solitary confinement, a court held that the State could force feed them. And just this month, some prisoners at Menard Prison here in Illinois engaged in a hunger strike to end their solitary confinement. As prisoners stand up for humane treatment, where will we stand?
Our panel will feature Dr. Frank Summers, a clincal psychologist who has played a leading role in the fight within the American Psychological Association to bar members who participate in torture; Abu Noor Abdil Malik, Muslim chaplain at DePaul University who will shed light on Islamic perspective on risking one's life through a hunger strike to attain justice; and Dr. Irene Martinez, physician, author, and co-founder of Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture, who will share insights from her many years of medical practice with survivors of these barbaric practices. Please join us for this important film and indepth discussion of these and other questions. If you are on Facebook, please 'join' the event there and invite friends.
*The Chicago Coalition to Shut Down Guantanamo includes World Can't Wait Chicago, Illinois Coalition Against Torture, Witness Against Torture, White Rose Catholic Worker, Chicago Committee to Free the Cuban Five.
This event is also endorsed by Radical Public Health, National Lawyers Guild Chicago, Chicago Chapter of Vets for Peace, Stop Mass Incarceration Network, and Amnesty International.
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