GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AFP) - The US military is force-feeding 32 of 43 "war on terror" detainees who are on a hunger strike at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a spokesman said.

More than 40 detainees stopped their hunger strike last week. The recurring protest started in August and reached a peak of 131 hunger strikers in September.

Some detainees have refused to eat for several months, Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin, the director of public affairs, told reporters visiting the Guantanamo Bay base.

"There is a core group that is very commited," Martin said. "We counsel them on the hazards of a long term hunger strike."

Military authorities count a detainee as a hunger striker when he skips nine straight meals and removes him from the list when he has eaten three times after ending his fast.

If they become took weak or malnourished, detainees are force-fed with intravenously or through a tube inserted through the nose to reach the stomach.

Journalists were invited to Guantanamo to attend a preliminary hearing Wednesday for the military trials of two detainees, a Canadian and a Yemeni.

Guantanamo holds about 500 detainees, most of whom were captured in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001 following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Commentary:
Have you ever wondered why our "free press" isn't showing us the atrocities at Guantanamo? After all Bush challenged the media to check it out. Well CNN went to check it out and they had their cameras confiscated. The free press was another of our cherished rights. But, like so many others, it too is gone.

CNN video censored at Guantanamo prison
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, July 7 (UPI) -- Taking up U.S. President George Bush's challenge for reporters to visit the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, CNN did, but its video was censored.

In response to allegations of prisoner abuse at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba, Bush made the challenge in June, and again Wednesday while in Denmark.