13 kept hunger strike since protest began

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- Scores of captives from the Afghan war refused meals Sunday in a protest that has lasted five days, but the U.S. military said only 13 of them had kept to the hunger strike since its start.

The military revealed the new tally after officials finished a cell-by-cell count of those who had refused food since the start of the protest on Wednesday.

The announcement coincided with a visit on Sunday by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who arrived in the afternoon and was whisked away for a tour of the detention compound known as Camp X-ray.

"He wanted to visit our people on the ground there and to touch base with other agency representatives," said FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman.

Mueller didn't comment to reporters on his agency's role, but Weierman said FBI officials have been among investigators interviewing detainees.

Meanwhile, 91 of the 300 detainees at Guantanamo Bay refused breakfast and 81 declined lunch on Sunday, military officials said.

"We have 13 individuals who have not eaten at all since this hunger strike started," said Marine Capt. Joe Kloppel, a spokesman for the detention mission at this U.S. outpost in southeastern Cuba. "Others have had at least one meal since this whole thing started."

Military spokesmen had previously said at least half of those participating appeared to have been refusing food since Wednesday.

So far, at least nine detainees have been given liquids with an intravenous drip, one against his wishes.

A large group among the 300 detainees stopped eating Wednesday, some telling their captors they were upset that a guard stripped a detainee of his turban on Tuesday.