- The Washington Times - Thursday, July 11, 2013

Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Dick Durbin petitioned President Obama in a letter to stop the force-feedings of inmates at Guantanamo Bay prison.

“We write to urge you to use your presidential authority to end the unnecessary force-feedings of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” the Wednesday letter stated, Politico reported. And this isn’t the first call of its kind from Ms. Feinstein.

She also requested the same in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel a month ago.

In the letter to Mr. Obama, the senators raised the ghost of his May speech to a National Defense University crowd, when he spoke of forced-feedings and said, “Is this who we are? Is that something our founders foresaw? Is that the America we want to leave to our children?”

The pair asked that Mr. Obama direct the Department of Defense to put a stop to all force-feedings, except those that are deemed life-saving — but in those cases, to abide U.S. Bureau of Prisons policies.

The Pentagon reported most recently that 106 of the 166 inmates at Gitmo were participating in hunger strikes. Forty-five were being forced-fed, Politico reported.

• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.

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