US President Barack Obama (AFP Photo / Saul Loeb) President Barack Obama announced drastic changes to the United States’ counterterrorism operations Thursday, reforming the rules that guide America’s drone program while also expediting the release of Guantanamo Bay detainees. Editor’s note: despite Obama’s announcement, David Remes, an attorney for 17 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, said , “the speech was a deep disappointment

By Timothy Murphy Last Friday marked the 100th day of the detainees’ hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. I am not a Guantanamo detainee, but I too began a water-only hunger fast. Related Entries May 22, 2013 A Call to Support Guantanamo Detainees May 22, 2013 A Call to Action

By E.J. Dionne, Jr

Interrogation rooms with wooden boards used to immobilize detainees, are among the evidence of torture Human Rights Watch says it has uncovered in Syria. Proof of torture — that’s what Human Rights Watch says they’ve uncovered in Syria. Researcher Lama Fakih says they’ve found everything from written accounts of abuse to actual torture devices, in the rebel held city of Raqqa.

Standard items issued to a detainee in the “Camp Five” detention facility of the Joint Detention Group at the US Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (AFP Photo / Jim Watson) Maintenance of Guantanamo has been revealed to cost over $150 million each year, with immediate estimates citing it one of the most expensive prisons in the world. This comes as the hunger strike at the detention facility is far from over. Editor’s note: be sure to read our latest articles on Guantanamo Bay and follow RT’s day-by-day timeline of the Gitmo hunger strike

For more than two weeks, 100 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba have been on hunger strike to protest conditions at the prison and their indefinite confinement. First denied and downplayed by the military, the strike has now become a full-blown emergency , as the Huffington Post ‘s Ryan J

Reuters / Bob Strong The UN human rights office has condemned force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay, calling it ‘torture’ and a breach of international law.

A hunger strike is now in its third month [at Guantnamo prison], with 93 prisoners considered to be participating ‘ more than half the inmates. Both military officials and lawyers for the detainees agree about the underlying cause of the turmoil: a growing sense among many prisoners, some of whom have been held without trial for more than 11 years, that they will never go home. While President Obama made closing the prison a top priority when he entered the White House, he put that effort on the back burner in the face of Congressional opposition to his plan to move the detainees to a Supermax facility inside the United States

AFP Photo / Virginie Montet The official number of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay reached 100 on Saturday – three more than the day before. Twenty of the detainees are receiving enteral feeds, five of whom are being observed in a detainee hospital.

4/25, Breanna Edwards, Politico , Marco Rubio: Student visas ‘not a right’ 4/24, George F. Will, Washington Post , Korematsu and the dangers of waiving constitutional rights 4/24, Charlie Savage, New York Times , Despair Drives Guantánamo Detainees to Revolt 4/24, Natasha Lennard, Salon , Government giving AT&T, others secret immunity from wiretap laws 4/24, Ryan J.