From today's New York Times:

A new, long-term hunger strike has broken out at the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, with more than a dozen detainees subjecting themselves to daily force-feeding to protest their treatment, military officials and lawyers for the detainees said.

Lawyers for several hunger strikers said their clients’ action were driven by harsh conditions in a new maximum security complex to which about 160 prisoners have been moved since December.

To get an idea of what force-feeding has been like in the past, check out this editorial in the Washington Post which describes the author's experience of being "force-fed" in Stalinist Russia to illustrate what it might be like to receive a "force-feeding" in Guantanamo (from the way the New York Times describes it, it sounds more humane, but still very painful):

In 1971, while in Lefortovo prison in Moscow (the central KGB interrogation jail), I went on a hunger strike demanding a defense lawyer of my choice (the KGB wanted its trusted lawyer to be assigned instead). The moment was most inconvenient for my captors because my case was due in court, and they had no time to spare. So, to break me down, they started force-feeding me in a very unusual manner -- through my nostrils. About a dozen guards led me from my cell to the medical unit. There they straitjacketed me, tied me to a bed, and sat on my legs so that I would not jerk. The others held my shoulders and my head while a doctor was pushing the feeding tube into my nostril.

The feeding pipe was thick, thicker than my nostril, and would not go in. Blood came gushing out of my nose and tears down my cheeks, but they kept pushing until the cartilages cracked. I guess I would have screamed if I could, but I could not with the pipe in my throat. I could breathe neither in nor out at first; I wheezed like a drowning man -- my lungs felt ready to burst. The doctor also seemed ready to burst into tears, but she kept shoving the pipe farther and farther down. Only when it reached my stomach could I resume breathing, carefully. Then she poured some slop through a funnel into the pipe that would choke me if it came back up. They held me down for another half-hour so that the liquid was absorbed by my stomach and could not be vomited back, and then began to pull the pipe out bit by bit. . . . Grrrr. There had just been time for everything to start healing during the night when they came back in the morning and did it all over again, for 10 days, when the guards could stand it no longer. As it happened, it was a Sunday and no bosses were around. They surrounded the doctor: "Hey, listen, let him drink it straight from the bowl, let him sip it. It'll be quicker for you, too, you silly old fool." The doctor was in tears: "Do you think I want to go to jail because of you lot? No, I can't do that. . . . " And so they stood over my body, cursing each other, with bloody bubbles coming out of my nose. On the 12th day, the authorities surrendered; they had run out of time. I had gotten my lawyer, but neither the doctor nor those guards could ever look me in the eye again.

Screening is Wednesday April 18th at 8pm in Cubberley Auditorium

This Wednesday will be the premiere of Stanford's biggest and most provocative student film of the year! The Strange Case of Salman abd al Haqq is a fictional short film based on the testimony of victims of Extraordinary Rendition, the U.S. government policy that has been dubbed 'the outsourcing of torture.' It tells the story of its fictional protagonist Salman, who finds himself jailed and interrogated by the brutal Egyptian secret service in Cairo because of his alleged involvement with three suspected terrorists. In a nuanced and intriguing way, the film touches on issues such as the morality of torture, the effectiveness of the War on Terror, the role of Arabs in American society and the struggle between traditionalism and progressiveness in the Muslim world.

The presentation is hosted by four student groups, including Stanford Amnesty. The Strange Case of Salman abd al Haqq is directed by Tim Gregory and Jeff Orlowski and stars Stanford junior Amin El Gamal and David Fine, who recently appeared in Will Smith's The Pursuit of Happyness. Though based on true stories, The Strange Case is a fictional film.

Following the 45-minute screening, a panel discussion will be held with the producer and director and experts on America's use of torture.

Watch the trailer: