The Obama administration has blocked a legal request to free a Guantánamo Bay prisoner who has been on hunger strike for eight years. In a rare move, the Justice Department opposed the release of Tariq Ba Odah in secret through a filing which was kept under seal. Ba Odah has dropped to 74 pounds after years of refusing food and being force-fed through a nasal tube. He was cleared for release in 2009. In a statement, Ba Odah’s attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights called the Justice Department’s secret filing to prevent his client’s release “a transparent attempt to hide the fact that the Obama administration’s interagency process for closing Guantánamo is an incoherent mess.”