Prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay have alleged US troops punished them by repeatedly inserting and removing dirty feeding tubes until the detainees vomited blood. Declassified notes released by defence lawyers for three men being held at the prison camp on Cuba said the prisoners came to view the large feeding tubes – described as the thickness of a finger – as objects of torture. “They were forcibly shoved up the detainees’ noses and down into their stomachs,” the lawyers reported to a federal judge in August. “No anaesthesia or sedative was provided.”

Guardian, 21 October 2005