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Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicides

Observer reporter David Rose was en route to Guantanamo when the suicides occurred and the Pentagon cancelled his pass. He has a very powerful article on what happened and what might have happened.

Here are some snippets from Rose's report:

According to Guantanamo's rules, a six-person team of military police should have been patrolling constantly, and as usual the bright neon lights stayed on. A guard should have passed each detainee's cell every 30 seconds. 'From the landing, you can see right into every cell,' said Rasul. 'They don't have doors, just gates made from wide-spaced mesh. There's no privacy. If you hang up a towel because you want to go to the toilet, they make you take it down.'

The high degree of surveillance has foiled dozens of previous attempts by prisoners to take their own lives. 'It happened in front of me several times. The soldiers would see what was happening and they were in the cell in seconds,' Rasul said. But somehow, in circumstances that the Pentagon has succeeded in keeping totally obscure, late on Friday, 9 June, three detainees, all weak and emaciated after months on hunger strike and being force-fed, managed to tease bedsheets through their cells' mesh walls, tie them into nooses and hang themselves. With the cells little taller than the height of a man, they stood no chance of breaking their necks: the only way they could die was slowly, by hypoxia.

'That would take at least four or five minutes, probably longer,' said Dr David Nicholl, consultant neurologist at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, who has been co-ordinating international opposition to Guantanamo by physicians. 'It's very difficult to see how, if the landing was being properly patrolled, they could have managed to accomplish it.'

What we are doing at Guantanamo is bad enough. The secrecy the Pentagon is imposing makes it all the more intolerable.

Closing Guantanamo to the media meant there were no reporters there as the Naval Criminal Investigative Service team went about its work; none when pathologists conducted post mortem examinations; and none last Friday when, after a Muslim ceremony conducted by a military chaplain, the first body - Ahmed's - was prepared to be flown home. It was also impossible to gauge the impact of the deaths on the 460 inmates.

Rose has more details on the depression among the detainees:

According to newly declassified testimony by another prisoner shortly before the suicides, a guard recently told him: 'They have lost hope in life. They have no hope in their eyes. They are ghosts and they want to die. No food will keep them alive right now.' This prisoner, the former British resident Shaker Aamer, told his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, that the three dead men and other hunger strikers were so ill whenever their feeds contained protein that it went 'right through them' causing severe diarrhoea.

One of the detainees (one of the few who had been allowed to meet with counsel) tried to commit suicide in front of his lawyer:

Many lawyers who have visited clients at Guantanamo have spoken eloquently of their despair: this year a prisoner tried to kill himself in front of his US attorney, somehow managing to open his veins, covering himself in blood, as the lawyer watched in horror, unable - because of the screen that separated them - to intervene.

Other released prisoners have reported some of the guards didn't perform their assigned patrols:

Dergoul also suggested how the three may have been able to kill themselves undetected. Sometimes, he said, instead of patrolling the guards 'used to sit in their room at the end. It's a long walk from end to end of the block and some nights they didn't feel like it: they'd sit in their room, smoking and playing cards. You'd need toilet paper or something and you'd yell "MP, MP!" But they wouldn't come - it could be as long as an hour.'

Then there is this description of one of the suicided detainees:

Tarek Dergoul, another freed British former detainee, knew two of the dead men well. 'I was next to or opposite Manei [Habadi] for weeks, maybe months,' he said, 'and like me his morale was high. He was always up for a protest: a hunger strike or a non-co-operation strike. He used to recite poetry, not just Arabic, but English - he knew chunks of Macbeth and he taught me how to read the Koran correctly. When you go through that sort of experience with someone, you really get to know them. I just can't believe he would take his own life. He would have had to be really desperate.' Likewise, Dergoul said, Zahrani was 'a person everyone loved. It's offensive to me to say he could have killed himself.' Apart from anything else, all three men would have been deeply aware of Islam's prohibition of suicide.

Four years these men have been held in these conditions:

Since early 2003, when the Red Cross issued the first of many reports stating that inmates were experiencing high levels of depression, there has been mounting evidence that detention there has wrought havoc on some prisoners' mental health. It is not so surprising: most prisoners get just two 30-minute periods out of their cells - the size of a double bed - each week, except when being interrogated. Some have endured this since 2002, and have no idea when, if ever, they may leave.

If Guantanamo goes down in history as the modern equivalent of a concentration camp, the U.S. has only itself -- and its secrecy -- to blame. As LA Times reporter Carol Williams writes today:

Court appearances by the 10 men charged with war crimes have offered us our first meaningful independent view of detainees in the prison's 4 1/2 years. Some seem to be committed holy warriors whose detention has only fueled their hatred of Americans. Others contend that they are innocent of any attack on U.S. forces, just unfortunates swept up in the post-9/11 fervor.

Meanwhile, 450 others have been held for years without charges or legal recourse. Their indefinite detention to keep them off the global terrorism battlefields feels like a Muslim version of the World War II Japanese American internment.

It is the opportunity to shed light into the dark corners of the antiterrorism campaign that inspires us to surmount the obstacles and obfuscations. And it is the thwarting of that mission with moves like our expulsion that make us all the more determined to question, probe and illuminate the actions of our government being waged in the country's name.

[hat tip Patriot Daily.]

Update: The Boston Globe reports:

The US government routinely failed to give detainees at Guantanamo Bay access to witnesses who might have helped them prove their assertions of innocence, saying it could not locate the vast majority of the witnesses the terror suspects requested at special military hearings.

But within a three-day span, a Globe reporter was able to locate three of those witnesses in the case of one detainee. The Globe found two of them in Afghanistan, and located a third in Washington, D.C., where he is teaching at the National Defense University

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  • Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#1)
    by Andreas on Sun Jun 18, 2006 at 12:15:08 PM EST
    David Rose wrote: "Their mouths were stuffed with cloth, apparently to muffle any cries." And these were suicides? I think that it is as least as likely that they were killed by other people.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#2)
    by soccerdad on Sun Jun 18, 2006 at 12:28:18 PM EST
    Instead of being a model of human rights and demanding that others rise to our standards, we have decided to close the gap by going down to the level of those supposedly "worse" than us. The moral relativists will be out in force soon. Sit back and despair at their logic and self-rightousness.

    Why are they now refusing to allow reporters into Guantanamo? Amazing. This is what the media int the rest of the world talks about while we talk about Brad and Angelina.

    Where are the ethical teachers. Those that can guide the morals of US society, the ministers, the pastors and priests? Why are they hiding? What is wrong with them?

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#5)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Jun 18, 2006 at 06:35:49 PM EST
    From the post:
    Meanwhile, 450 others have been held for years without charges or legal recourse.
    Wrong. They have been determined to be enemy/unlawful combatants. As such if they were released, we could expect them to do this Ms Williams claim:
    Their indefinite detention to keep them off the global terrorism battlefields feels like a Muslim version of the World War II Japanese American internment.
    Is totally wrong.
    Citing a memo prepared for him by his staff, Hunter proceeded to discuss some of the at least 10 detainees who have been released from Guantanamo Bay, or Gitmo, only to re-join the fight against the U.S. coalition bringing democracy to Afghanis


    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#7)
    by soccerdad on Sun Jun 18, 2006 at 08:27:13 PM EST
    They have been determined to be enemy/unlawful combatants.
    By whom, how, whats the documentation. The fact that a couple went back and fought the US, especially after our exquisite hospitality and treatment at Gitmo in no way make the rest guilty. But you knew that anyway. In fact they're only backward islamofascists right?

    living in such cells for a long time is intolarable and scary.narrow room will make everyone feel mad.it's natural for them to choose to commit suicides.maybe it's the best way for them to go.Amen!

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#9)
    by jondee on Sun Jun 18, 2006 at 08:53:18 PM EST
    Sky-ho - They're counting up their faith-based organization funds. When they cant make all the crackers sh*t themslves with fear, the reptiles try to buy off the rest. One of their floozies is working this thread right now.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#10)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 05:22:58 AM EST
    SD - Here you go.
    Again, for explanation/clarification, CSRTs, Combatant Status Review Tribunals, that is the determination if someone is or is not an enemy combatant.....So as of this morning, we have conducted 507 CSRT tribunals. So we've had hearings for 507 tribunals or for 507 detainees as of this morning.
    Pretty easy, eh? You write:
    In fact they're only backward islamofascists right?
    SD, shame on you for making such a statement. I, and everyone I know, think they are intelligent, tough and capable fighters. You see SD, if you disagree with someone you shouldn't disrespect their personal abilities and religion. Now I know that conflicts with your basic way of doing business, as demonstrated on this blog time and again, but you should really try and reform. BTW - Want to tell us again about the religious fundamentalists turning their lives over to their religion? I mean first you insult the Christians, then the Moslems. Who's next?

    Jim, You should read your own link. Aside from the fact that the numbers do not add up, only 230 or so "tribunals" had occurred that determined such status. Among those determined not EC, it took some three years to "release them". Nowhere on that link is "enemy combatant" defined, leading one to believe that, like much of this administration, such definition is up to the judging authority of the moment, just like the enforcement of King George the third pronouncements in the colonies. (Oh, the parallels are delicious....) As one with some experience in these affairs, military tribunals are mostly a formal checkbox on the way of pursuing a previously defined path, a political sop for those ignorant to such matters. As many of the players are the same, I would expect little difference to the GITMO scandal.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#12)
    by soccerdad on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 07:29:23 AM EST
    PPJ you should really KMA. You are the known racist here.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#13)
    by Che's Lounge on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 07:53:20 AM EST
    Where are the ethical teachers. Those that can guide the morals of US society, the ministers, the pastors and priests? May I recommend a few hail Mary's and a quick verse of "Onward Christian Soldiers"? Besides, they're fighting gay marriage here just like the Sharia are fighting it over there. Or something like that. With organized religion now effectively talking out of both sides of their mouths, the only way to know where they stand is to read up on the Crusades or the trials of the Inquisition. Either way and either religion, they are leading their followers over the cliff of the Apocalypose. Funny, I never viewed the concept of Heaven as a threat. Until now.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#14)
    by Che's Lounge on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 07:54:21 AM EST
    Sorry, Apocalypse.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#15)
    by Sailor on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 08:12:44 AM EST
    Meanwhile, 450 others have been held for years without charges or legal recourse.
    Wrong.
    Nope, that is exactly accurate, and I don't know why this commenter always denies the fact that only 10 have been charged. according to the DoD:
    The Combatant Status Review Tribunal deals with enemy combatant designation. It does not deal with threat assessment.
    CSRB doesn't not charge them or try them. Their judgement means nothing. And here is what that big lefty Arlen Specter says about it:
    ``Where we have evidence, they ought to be tried, and if convicted, they ought to be sentenced,''


    A guard should have passed each detainee's cell every 30 seconds. 'From the landing, you can see right into every cell,' said Rasul. 'They don't have doors, just gates made from wide-spaced mesh. There's no privacy. If you hang up a towel because you want to go to the toilet, they make you take it down.' The ACLU (Amerika Communists Liberties Union) made sure these poor mistreated guys had privacy. They were allowed to put things (towels, sheets, whatever..) over their windows.. hence blocking the guards view. These suicides should be put squarly on the ACLU! But God forbid (opps... did I say God?) the left will ever cop to that! It's all GW's fault.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#17)
    by Sailor on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 10:56:47 AM EST
    The ACLU (Amerika Communists Liberties Union) made sure these poor mistreated guys had privacy. They were allowed to put things (towels, sheets, whatever..) over their windows
    supply links or drop the bogus claims.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#19)
    by kdog on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 12:44:00 PM EST
    There is a still a long way to go before cutting off heads from live people
    Frankly...I don't see much difference between cutting them off and blowing them off, besides the proximity to the victim.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#20)
    by soccerdad on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 12:52:59 PM EST
    Claiming the moral high ground by standing on a pile of dead, tortured, brutalized Iraqis is probably not going to be effective. Since the US, by its actions, was never on the moral high ground its hypocritical to now suggest that we have to be more brutal. But I'm sure Rumsfeld will comwe up with soemthing BTW hows the attack on Ramadi going? I'm sure the mSM wil be busy regurgitating the releases from Central Command. There is no morality in war. Pretending that it is a higher calling or noble is delusional at best.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#22)
    by Andreas on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 01:34:17 PM EST
    I suggest to stop debating with fascists here.

    who cares, i dont they wanted to be suicide bombers anyway

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#24)
    by squeaky on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 01:52:20 PM EST
    zabmom-When you get swept off the streets, sold to either tailban or al-Qaida and are put in a hole for three years, we will put this on your tombstone, that is after you put yourself out of your misery: who cares, s/he wanted to be a suicide bomber anyway. You seem the type. Hostile and vile.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#25)
    by jondee on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 02:02:49 PM EST
    So far I've seen today a bald-faced fabricated quote (lie) about Murtha from Aubrey, B.B's usual puke pile about "commie liberals"; this kind of thing is allowed to fly here why? Just dont say schmendrick or putz.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#26)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 03:39:29 PM EST
    Sky-Ho - No, you should read the link. It was 12/04, almost 2 years ago. I posit that they have done a couple hundred more since then. Sailor - Nope. Not true. I haven't denied how many have been charged, although I asked you for details. What I have pointed out is that we have three groups. Group A is a designated EC and will remain in custody, although their status is subject to review and may be moved into Group B1. Group B are those who have been released without being designated as EC's. Group B1 are those who have had their status revised and released. Group C are those who have been charged with a larger crime. These are the "10" you like to pretend represents the total universe. So while you may seek to confuse the unwary, the facts are that these three groups are not the same, and your claim is inaacurate. SD - You wrote what you wrote.
    In fact they're only backward islamofascists right?
    And I have disagreed with your racist assessment of them. Twist and turn, but your words stand. Now, if you would like to prove to us that you are not a racist, please proceed.

    PPJ why do you waste so much good space here?

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#29)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 05:08:16 PM EST
    Cymro - To demonstrate to all that you can't debate, just attack.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#30)
    by soccerdad on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 05:18:45 PM EST
    PPJ we all know the truth here, at least all but 1. You have been very clear in your statements about Muslims. Thanks for the bait, but not interested in getting down in the gutter with you. Been there, it just stinks.

    Re: Observer: U.S. Hid Truth on Guantanamo Suicide (none / 0) (#31)
    by Sailor on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 05:45:13 PM EST
    Cymro - To demonstrate to all that you can't debate, just attack.
    once again a wrongwinger projecting his methods on others. want links, ehh, don't bother, here are quotes:
    by PPJ aka Jim
    June 7, 2005 01:33 PM
    SD - Are you daft?

    Posted by JimakaPPJ
    February 4, 2006 09:12 PM
    Squeaky - In the event you can't grasp the reference ...
    Posted by JimakaPPJ
    August 27, 2005 08:30 AM
    DA - That's quite a lisp you have developed there. Have you sought medical attention, or are you just trying to avoid being called on spelling, grammar and typing errors?
    Posted by JimakaPPJ
    August 27, 2005 11:09 AM
    DA [...] Could it be a brain tumor? Or just lack of a brain?
    Posted by PPJ (aka Jim)
    February 17, 2005 02:46 PM
    hardleft - You are obtuse.
    Posted by JimakaPPJ
    August 25, 2005 11:36 AM
    Well, first you must be smart enough connect the dots[...]
    Posted by PPJ aka Jim
    July 4, 2005 02:47 PM
    kth - Your lack of knowing, or understanding, history is amazing.
    Posted by PPJ aka Jim
    July 4, 2005 02:51 PM
    fat albert - [...] I do hope you are smart enough to understand what I wrote.

    Posted by PPJ aka Jim
    July 4, 2005 10:24 PM
    Hey, makes as much sense as your usual comments. Psychobabble becomes you.
    Posted by JimakaPPJ
    February 9, 2006 06:57 AM
    Gee Johnny
    If u cant figur it out you'll just hav to mis it.

    Posted by PPJ (aka Jim)
    March 15, 2005 06:05 PM
    [...] Your potty mouth demonstrates again your ignorance and reading inability.

    Posted by PPJ (aka Jim)
    April 27, 2005 03:59 PM

    walter - If you have to ask then you are incapable of understanding.
    Posted by JimakaPPJ March 13, 2006 04:07 PM
    ... Uh, speaking of nut cases.