[JURIST] The Joint Task Force [official website] at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder] said Monday that they would no longer issue daily updates on detainee hunger strikes. This announcement effectively declared the end [AP report] of the unprecedentedly broad, six-month long, prisoner protest. There are now 164 prisoners in Guantanamo, and as many as 106 were on strike at the peak of the protest in July. Only 19 detainees are still classified as on hunger strike. For those 19 prisoners, force-feeding continues. The hunger strike has brought attention to the prison, and caused US President Barack Obama to renew his pledge to close the facility [JURIST report].

This is the most recent development surrounding Guantanamo Bay. Last week a federal judge ruled [JURIST report] that the US government does not have to release photographs and videotapes taken during the investigation of detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani’s connection to the 9/11 attacks. Last month the US transferred [JURIST report] two Guantanamo detainees to Algeria. In July a US court ruled [JURIST report] that Guantanamo guards were allowed to continue detainee genital searches. In June a federal judge called on members of Congress and Obama to give serious consideration to formulating a different approach [JURIST report] for the handling of Guantanamo detainee cases. Just days prior Obama appointed [JURIST report] Clifford Sloan to be the new envoy in charge of closing Guantanamo. In April JURIST guest columnist David Frakt urged the Obama administration [JURIST op-ed] to release those detainees held at Guantanamo Bay who have already been declared to not be a danger to the US.