The military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is an affront to the rule of law and a national scandal. The inmate’s hunger strike highlights Guantanamo’s seeming permanence and the Obama administration’s failure to make good on its promise to close the facility. The strikers reopen a debate about whether it is ethical for medical personnel to participate in enhanced interrogation and, now, to force-feed some of the protesters.
The secretary of defense can act by certifying that a particular transfer is in the national security interests of the United States. The administration should move quickly to exercise that choice before new Congressional restrictions prohibit the option.