While the military says they were prepared for suicide attempts by detainees at Guantanamo Bay, psychologists say conditions at the prison are partially to blame:

In the course of one week in mid-February, three detainees tried to kill themselves, raising the number of suicide attempts to 19 since detainees were brought to the island in January 2002. Nine of those attempts have been recorded since mid-January.

The suicide attempts -- most by hanging using clothes or bedsheets -- involve 16 detainees. Three have made multiple attempts. None of the suicide attempts has been successful, though at least one detainee is in serious but stable condition at the base hospital.

... experts in correctional psychology say the problem is likely heightened by the hopelessness and stress some of the detainees may experience because of a long confinement with no foreseeable end, and by prison rules that forbid contact with families and lawyers.

What did the military expect when they made plans to lock people up indefinitely, thousands of miles from their home countries, without giving them the protection of prisoner of war statutes, access to lawyers, telephone contact with family members, or even charging them with a crime?

"As far as they know, they're going to be there forever," said Michael Ratner, president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. "It must give people a sense of desperation. . . . This is like a Devil's Island."

Particularly when you add in the stress resulting from the military's "aggressive interrogation techniques." How does this bode for U.S. servicemen and women who will be undoubtedly be captured in hostile countries once the war officially begins? Typical of the way this country operates, those who cooperate with their captors will receive favorable treatment. What about the non-terrorist captive who has no information with which to barter? He's apparently out of luck.

The detainees are held in one-person cells inside three maximum-security blocks -- known as Camps I, II and III -- which replaced the open-air holding pens, known as Camp X-Ray, that were used when detainees arrived on the island. An undetermined number of detainees who have cooperated with interrogators will be transferred sometime this month to a fourth prison building, a new minimum-security facility capable of holding as many as 200 inmates. It has large, communal housing bays and common rooms where detainees can gather to play games or socialize, according to Army Lt. Col. Bill Costello, a spokesman for the joint military task force that runs the prison.

Once again we are being kept in the dark. Officials won't disclose the nature of the suicide attempts or the identities of those detainees who attempt it. They won't discuss the size of their medical staff. Or whether they are going to change their interrogation methods. But they want us to believe they have a handle on it. We're not buying it--any more than we buy their explanation that many of the suicide attempts are fake and manipulative. We hope the human rights organizations keep pressing for details. "No comment" is simply not an acceptable response.