Page 9 - Force Fed News Today

That moratorium for so long. it was remarkable to see how quickly it was lifted. but it has been matched. some men are being force fed. they need to leave the prison immediately. >> lets -- i thought it was very -- it was interesting how the president addressed specifically the topic of the hunger strike. i want to play that and i want to talk about why it has taken him this long to get to it and well get to that after this. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were...

President obama giving the kind of intricate sweeping speech he is known for, addressing a whole host of issues touching on everything from our drone policy to closing guantanamo. lets bring in howard fineman, nbc news political analyst and editorial director of "the huffington post" media group. spencer ackerman, senior writer for "wire" and writer for "the guardian." joining us again, congressman keith ellison. the why now of this speech? this is a speech people have wanted for a while. subord...

Framework for his second term. i think this is -- dont forget, were still fairly new into his second term and i think this is a thing that he had thad had on table. i think theres been increasing controversy about the drone program and especially about gitmo. and especially about those detainees who are now being force fed and i thing there are more than 100 of them. i think its a combination of his feeling of what he needed to lay out by way of a grand strategy in a second term as well as more ...

Holder says only al awlaki, anwar al-awlaki was targeted directly, shepard. >> you know, its my understanding, jennifer, that the president is expected to make some very big news on guantanamo bay his speech tomorrow. >> thats right. in fact, the president during his speech tomorrow plans to announce, we know according to sources, plans to announce that he is lifting restrictions on the transfer of detainees from guantanamo bay to yemen. that process had been frozen. the transfer of those detai ...

Obviously, if suspects do die from hunger strikes all of the time, although theyre force fed when they dont eat, so coming on a hunger strike does cost. so the moral case hes made has not been about the national security. the prisoners that leave there have it go somewhere, and thoot been even t -- if you shut down the facility what to dou do? you transfer some and meef moving some intelligently to u.s. prips and the argument of the reality hits you personally. having represented there, are you ...

What were going to try to do is close guantanamo. the president has indicated its too expensive, its a recruitment tool for terrorists, it has a negative impact on our relationship with our allies, so were going to make a renewed effort. >> that was eric holder renewing the administrations vow to close the prison, where a six-man hunger strike is now in the 30 straps to restraint chairs and force-fed. yesterday there was a code yellow medical emergency at gitmo, a regular occurrence at the priso...

Would continue supplying him with bags full of cash. he was getting ghost money totaling millions of dollars. on saturday, karzai, whose government has been accused of corruption, said the money has helped with problems. because of all these rumors in the media, ploes do not cut all this money because we really need it. we want to continue this sort of assistance and the cia station chief in kabul promised that they are not going to cut this money. the situation at guantanamo bay remains unres...

Current and former detainees being held at gitmo. do you represent any of the folks who are participating in the hunger strike? >> we do we represent men who are currently on hunger strike who have been on strike now for nearly three months. most of the men actually at get mow now have been on strike since early february. >> any of the folks that you represent are they being force fed as well? >> a couple of them r some of them are longer term hunger strikers, to be clear what force feeding mean...

I continue to believe that we have got to close guantanamo. >> why? >> well, i think -- you know, i think it is critical for us to understand that guantanamo is not necessary to keep america safe. >> that was president obama tuesday answering questions about the hunger strike at guantanamo bay. for the two weeks, noorn 100 of the remaining 166 detainees held there by the united states have been refusing to eat. 23 of them are now being force fed, at last check, we should note. the strike brought...

Its stunning. >> groups of militias controlling different territories, cooperating, and not cooperating depending on the situation. people in fatigues without any official status directing traffic. when you go to the airport, you leave your handgun before you -- take your clip, its sort of like a coat check so you can pick your gun up when you leave. i was more charmed and hopeful than dismayed by this. i see people trying to make -- seriously trying to make a go of really post apocalypse-type s...