The closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre was a top priority for Barack Obama during his first term as the US president, but since he began his second term, Obama has barely spoken of Guantanamo.<br /><br />The prison in Cuba was also left largely out of the public discourse in the United States. But a now three-month-long hunger strike by more than 100 detainees has changed that.<br /><br />As the strike by detainees protesting their indefinite detention continues, the Pentagon has cleared the force feeding of 20 detainees, a move supported by Obama.<br /><br />But the American Medical Association, the largest association of US physicians, has sent a letter to Chuck Hagel, US secretary of defense, protesting against the force feedings, saying they violate medical ethics. <br /><br />"We urge you to ensure that this matter receives prompt and thorough attention to address any situation in which a physician may be asked to violate the ethical standards of his or her profession," read the AMA letter.<br /><br />But one Pentagon spokesman told Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald reporter, that it is "un-American" to let a detainee starve and that it "violates the very code of civilised peoples everywhere".<br /><br />So, has the strike finally tipped the scales so that it is finally time for justice to be done?<br /><br />Inside Story Americas, with presenter Shihab Rattansi, discusses with guests Vincent Iacopino, senior medical advisor for Physicians for Human Rights; John Knefel, independent journalist and Vincent Warren, Center for Constitutional Rights executive director.
