The U.S. practice of force-feeding hunger-striking prisoners at Guantánamo Bay is receiving an unprecedented public hearing in civilian court. The case involves a Syrian hunger striker imprisoned for over a decade. Abu Wa’el Dhiab remains at Guantánamo despite being cleared for release in 2009. He has been on hunger strike periodically for seven years to protest his indefinite detention. Dhiab’s attorneys are challenging force-feeding practices including “forced cell extractions,” where prisoners are hauled from their cells for force-feedings by a team of soldiers in riot gear, as well as the use of what prisoners call the “torture chair,” where their heads and all four limbs are restrained as a feeding tube is inserted in their nose. The Justice Department tried to keep this week’s hearing secret on national security grounds, but U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler rejected that request. She also ordered videotapes of Dhiab’s force-feedings to be publicly released after they are redacted.