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The hunger strike in Guantánamo continues to grow, even by the U.S. military's questionable count. The military states that . Lawyers for the prisoners put the number of hunger strikers at . So many prisoners are in need of medical care that the military has now brought some to add to the 100 already on duty.

The prime motivator for the strike, as reported in a in The New York Times last week, is the prisoners' growing despair that they will never go home. General John F. Kelly, who as head of U.S. Southern Command ultimately oversees the prison, recently that the prisoners "had great optimism that Guantánamo would be closed. They were devastated apparently … when the president backed off — at least their perception — of closing the facility." The Director-General of the Red Cross this weekend that the "level of desperation amongst detainees is unprecedented."

The ÀÏ°ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û and a coalition of leading NGOs have called upon President Obama to 1) immediately direct Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to take the steps necessary to effect transfers from Guantánamo, and 2) to assign a senior official to lead the effort to close the prison. Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has now . The need for Obama administration action becomes ever more urgent; so far this year, there have only been steps backward.

First, in January, President Obama signed into law renewed restrictions on transfers from Guantánamo, for the second year in a row. A few weeks later, . Responsibility was shifted to the State Department's Office of the Legal Advisor. However, the State Department's spokesman last week stated that the staff now assigned to the portfolio is taking , because the administration has yet to authorize any actual transfers. The staff primarily spend their time answering letters.

In last week's New York Times story, Buck McKeon, Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee summed up the situation: "The administration hasn't taken any steps toward meeting the requirements of having anybody released." Indeed, Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Lietzau stated in the same article that "even if the legislative restrictions were removed, I don't believe the numbers would change radically."

It is past time for the Obama White House to take charge and order immediate action that will help end the desperation of the men imprisoned in Guantánamo for more than 11 years without being charged or tried, men who are losing hope of ever being transferred out.

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