Senior US officials claim to close Gitmo

US President Barack Obama’s chief of staff and two other senators claim to be determined to shut down the countryâ„¢s Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

The White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, as well as Senator John McCain said in a joint statement on Friday that they would take required measures to close the military prison.

Å“We intend to work, with a plan by Congress and the administration together, to take the steps necessary to make that happen,” they said after a tour of the notorious jail.

Closing the prison was one of Obamaâ„¢s campaign promises in the 2008 elections. In a speech on May 23, he renewed the commitment to shut the facility.

Prisoners have complained of abuse and torture, and rights activists and international observers have censured the US government’s use of the detention center.

Over 100 out of 166 detainees have been on a hunger strike for more than 100 days in protest against their long confinement without charge or trial, as well as the horrible and degrading conditions at the jail.

The strike started in early February when the guard force at the prison decided to search the detaineesâ„¢ Qurans, the Muslimsâ„¢ holy book. The prisoners said the searches amounted to desecration.

Reports say some of the prisoners on hunger strike are being force-fed via tubes snaked up their nose and into their stomach.

The strike action is widening with more prisoners refusing to be force-fed, according to a recent report by The Guardian.

Å“The hunger strike grows for two reasons: the military’s refusal to negotiate with the men in a productive way and because the president has taken no action in spite of his words,” said Carlos Warner, a lawyer who represents several of the detainees on strike.

Detainees who are force-fed are strapped to a chair twice a day and fed a liquid nutritional supplement through a tube that runs through the nose and into the stomach.

MR/NN