Image: Alan Ireland
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How does the United States government's assessment of the hunger strike differ from the prisoners' own claims? The authorities began by refusing to acknowledge it at all, claiming that there were just five or six long-term hunger strikers. As the word got out via lawyers and it became clear that blanket denials would not work, the authorities gradually began to accept that there was a hunger strike. Their estimates of the numbers involved have gradually crept up over the weeks to reach a total of 100 of the 166 men still held, although the prisoners have always claimed that the true total is around 130. The consistent liberal defense of Obama's inability to follow through on his promise to close the prison is that the Congress refuses to play ball. What do you make of this analysis? Is there any reason we should feel optimistic based on his recent remarks? In a word, no. Congress is to blame, of course, for initially preventing the president from bringing the prisoners to a facility on the US mainland, either for continued detention or for trials, and then for imposing restrictions on the release of prisoners that, I believe, cannot be met.The president provided such an eloquent explanation of why Guantanamo is so abhorrent an institution that I don't believe it will be possible for him to drop it again …
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