Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Posted on Wednesday, 10.28.09
Pentagon to offer swine flu vaccine to terror suspects
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com
<!-- end /production/story/credit_line_format.comp -->Even as some Americans await the arrival of their swine flu vaccines, the Pentagon has decided to vaccinate both soldiers and terror suspects at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba.
There was no word Wednesday on when the the first vaccines would reach the remote base in southeast Cuba.
But U.S. military there were notified late last week that service members would get their H1N1 virus vaccinations first. Private contractors and sailors' wives and children could get theirs afterward ``as the supply permits.''
And that means the 221 war on terror captives would also be vaccinated first, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt, a Guant?namo spokesman.
``They get all the same quality medical care and treatment options that are provided to service members,'' he said by telephone. ``But they don't have to wait for appointments.''
Each detainee would be given the vaccine on a voluntary basis, just like ``with our seasonal flu vaccination program,'' said Army Maj. Diana R.
Haynie, a prison camps public affairs officer.
Guant?namo senior staff also had no plans to address the overarching question of whether a vaccine named colloquially for a pig would present particular challenges.
Instead, Haynie said, a detainee could raise any concerns when he is offered it in person.
Haynie added that the detention center's Muslim American ``cultural affairs advisor'' said ``there is no religious reason for detainees not to receive the H1N1 vaccine.''
But a former U.S. Army Muslim chaplain predicted there might be some objections among a captive population long characterized by the Pentagon as devotees of a radical fringe of Islam.
``There was huge resistance back in 2003 when just the regular flu shots were administered,'' said James ``Yusef'' Yee, who left the Army as a captain after being cleared of wrongdoing during his Guant?namo duty.
``Many prisoners feared they were being experimented on with some sort of truth serum or other drugs,'' and refused, he said.
Instead, they were tackled and shackled so prison camp staff could ``forcefully'' administer the shots -- something DeWalt said could not happen today.
``Immunizations and all that kind of stuff are always voluntary for them,'' added DeWalt. ``I'm sure there'll be a percentage who will be accept, and I'm sure there'll be another percentage that declines.''
Similar plans are underway to give the vaccine to federal inmates at the
Bureau of Prisons, where some Guant?namo detainees may be headed as part of President Barack Obama's Guant?namo closure order.
A spokeswoman said Wednesday that the BOP had ordered enough H1N1 vaccines for all of its prisoners but ``we just don't know when we're going to receive it.''
U.S. military at Guant?namo have long engaged in an uneasy balancing act between the captives' rights to practice mainstream Islam and security concerns.
During the 2003 showdown over run-of-the-mill flu shots, Yee recalled, the detention center command staff waited until after dark to administer ``the shots during Ramadan -- as some prisoners believed the injections would break their fasts.''
Either way, Yee predicted: ``I would anticipate prisoners objecting to the vaccinations'' among a captive population that includes 17 men whom federal courts have ordered set free.
http://www.miamiherald.com/1460/story/1305022.html
Pentagon to offer swine flu vaccine to terror suspects
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com
<!-- end /production/story/credit_line_format.comp -->Even as some Americans await the arrival of their swine flu vaccines, the Pentagon has decided to vaccinate both soldiers and terror suspects at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba.
There was no word Wednesday on when the the first vaccines would reach the remote base in southeast Cuba.
But U.S. military there were notified late last week that service members would get their H1N1 virus vaccinations first. Private contractors and sailors' wives and children could get theirs afterward ``as the supply permits.''
And that means the 221 war on terror captives would also be vaccinated first, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt, a Guant?namo spokesman.
``They get all the same quality medical care and treatment options that are provided to service members,'' he said by telephone. ``But they don't have to wait for appointments.''
Each detainee would be given the vaccine on a voluntary basis, just like ``with our seasonal flu vaccination program,'' said Army Maj. Diana R.
Haynie, a prison camps public affairs officer.
Guant?namo senior staff also had no plans to address the overarching question of whether a vaccine named colloquially for a pig would present particular challenges.
Instead, Haynie said, a detainee could raise any concerns when he is offered it in person.
Haynie added that the detention center's Muslim American ``cultural affairs advisor'' said ``there is no religious reason for detainees not to receive the H1N1 vaccine.''
But a former U.S. Army Muslim chaplain predicted there might be some objections among a captive population long characterized by the Pentagon as devotees of a radical fringe of Islam.
``There was huge resistance back in 2003 when just the regular flu shots were administered,'' said James ``Yusef'' Yee, who left the Army as a captain after being cleared of wrongdoing during his Guant?namo duty.
``Many prisoners feared they were being experimented on with some sort of truth serum or other drugs,'' and refused, he said.
Instead, they were tackled and shackled so prison camp staff could ``forcefully'' administer the shots -- something DeWalt said could not happen today.
``Immunizations and all that kind of stuff are always voluntary for them,'' added DeWalt. ``I'm sure there'll be a percentage who will be accept, and I'm sure there'll be another percentage that declines.''
Similar plans are underway to give the vaccine to federal inmates at the
Bureau of Prisons, where some Guant?namo detainees may be headed as part of President Barack Obama's Guant?namo closure order.
A spokeswoman said Wednesday that the BOP had ordered enough H1N1 vaccines for all of its prisoners but ``we just don't know when we're going to receive it.''
U.S. military at Guant?namo have long engaged in an uneasy balancing act between the captives' rights to practice mainstream Islam and security concerns.
During the 2003 showdown over run-of-the-mill flu shots, Yee recalled, the detention center command staff waited until after dark to administer ``the shots during Ramadan -- as some prisoners believed the injections would break their fasts.''
Either way, Yee predicted: ``I would anticipate prisoners objecting to the vaccinations'' among a captive population that includes 17 men whom federal courts have ordered set free.
http://www.miamiherald.com/1460/story/1305022.html