Posted June 11, 200618 yr Three Detainees Commit Suicide at Guantanamo By Josh White Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 11, 2006; Page A01 Three detainees at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, hanged themselves in their cells yesterday morning, the first inmates to die at the remote island prison since it opened in early 2002, according to military officials. Guards found the three men unresponsive and not breathing in their separate cells in Camp 1 shortly after midnight yesterday, according to Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, who heads the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, and Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., who commands the Guantanamo Bay prison. The detainees had apparently used their clothing and sheets to fashion makeshift nooses in what military officials believe was a coordinated suicide pact. All left suicide notes written in Arabic, the officers said. Military officials were not releasing the names of the detainees yesterday, but said two were Saudi Arabian nationals and one was a Yemeni national. Harris described them as having close ties to terrorist organizations in the Middle East and said their suicides were "not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetric warfare against us." State Department officials were in discussions with the two nations' governments yesterday, and the military announced that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service had opened a routine investigation to determine the causes and manners of death. The deaths come amid ongoing criticism from around the world about the military's highest-profile detention center, where the United States keeps more than 450 detainees who were captured during hostilities in Afghanistan and surrounding areas and who allegedly are or have been enemy combatants. The United Nations anti-torture panel called last month for the United States to close the facility, while human rights groups have railed against the treatment of detainees there and argue there is no appropriate judicial process in which they could challenge their detention. The incident yesterday morning occurred just weeks after two detainees tried to kill themselves by overdosing on antidepressant drugs they had hoarded in their cells. Shortly after those suicide attempts on May 18, detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison rioted, attacking guards with makeshift weapons. Harris and Craddock told reporters during an afternoon teleconference that no riot or uprising accompanied yesterday's suicides. Harris said detainees have been spreading rumors around the prison's camps that it would take three suicides to garner international attention. The three men had been involved in hunger strikes over the past year, and Harris said the Yemeni detainee had been a long-term hunger striker. All three have been force-fed in the past to break their strikes, Harris said. Defense Department officials have long expressed their pride in not having lost a single life among the approximately 759 detainees who have at one time been incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay. There have been 41 suicide attempts by about 25 individual detainees -- many by hanging -- but in each previous case, medical personnel were able to save them. "This is a determined, intelligent, committed element," Craddock said. "They continue to do everything they can . . . to become martyrs." Christie Parell, a White House spokeswoman, said President Bush expressed "serious concern" about the incident. "He stressed it was important that the bodies be treated humanely and with cultural sensitivity." William H. Goodman, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents nearly all the Guantanamo Bay detainees in suits filed in U.S. courts, said that he and other lawyers are working to learn the identities of the detainees who died so they can prepare to help their families. Goodman said the deaths are evidence of a failed system. "These are the latest victims and the most serious so far in the ongoing effort of this administration to impose a lawless system that denies justice, fairness and due process to people throughout the world," Goodman said. "This is an act of desperation because they have no way to prove their innocence. A system without justice is a system without hope." full article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6061000507.html
June 11, 200618 yr The prisoners there are supposed to be on 24/7 guard watch. Someone wasn't doing their job.
June 11, 200618 yr who cares!! most of these people are innocent, have committed no wrong, been not charged at all. yet they are held in camps like this. the american people should care
June 11, 200618 yr an act of asymmetric warfare against us." WTF? :blink: "We can't extract ourselves from this mess we've got into, so we'll keep finding new BS terminology to describe it..." This is almost as laughable as Chemical Ali...
June 11, 200618 yr who cares!! most of these people are innocent, have committed no wrong, been not charged at all. yet they are held in camps like this. the american people should care :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf
June 12, 200618 yr who cares!! most of these people are innocent, have committed no wrong, been not charged at all. yet they are held in camps like this. the american people should care :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :plain :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf :barf Only 14 people in the camp have been charged with anything. Alot of those people have families, wives and children. Alot of them are american citizens. It is crap what is being done there to many of them and very wrong. :mad
June 12, 200618 yr The prisoners there are supposed to be on 24/7 guard watch. Someone wasn't doing their job. Someone is down there who was a reservist and then one day got a order they had to go to Cuba for a year. You except them to be on constant alert and never slack off so crazy people don't kill themselves. And if you honestly the majority of the prisoners in Gitmo are innocent, you're view of reality is distorted beyond repair.
June 12, 200618 yr Author Only 14 people in the camp have been charged with anything. Alot of those people have families, wives and children. Alot of them are american citizens. It is crap what is being done there to many of them and very wrong. :mad :blink:
June 12, 200618 yr Either way, whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? You guys think its ok for the US to round up people from around the world and lock them up alot of times only based on vague circumstantial evidence? When two US pilots severed a cable car by playing games and flying low level in Italy, killing over 20 people (or 30, i dont recall) that were inside....those pilots deserved to be brought to justice for that in an italian tribunal, instead they went back to the US where they probably just got dishonorably discharged, serving no jail time at all...yet when its time to 'do justice' americans are always there to cast the first stone. I say innocent til proven guilty, in the States, In Europe, in Iraq, everywhere. Why the double standards?
June 12, 200618 yr I say innocent til proven guilty, in the States, In Europe, in Iraq, everywhere. Why the double standards? It's the American way. Why? You support terrorists? :usaflag
June 12, 200618 yr The prisoners there are supposed to be on 24/7 guard watch. Someone wasn't doing their job. It seems like you're the resident MB.com insider on every issue.
June 12, 200618 yr I say innocent til proven guilty, in the States, In Europe, in Iraq, everywhere. Why the double standards? It's the American way. Why? You support terrorists? :usaflag Gitmo is somewhere in that grey area... While I have no doubt the sons of bitches locked up there deserve to be there, I put due process and the Constitution first.
June 12, 200618 yr The whole Gitmo deal has been a violation of the Constitution. By labeling these people as enemy combatants, we can effectively hold them there forever without charging them (which is what we have been doing for the most part). In Afghanistan, the U.S. was openly offering money for the capture of Taliban or Al-Qaeda people. The problem with this is that the desperate tribesmen in Afghanistan would frequently turn over random people to us, claiming that they were working for one of the two groups. Unfortunately we believed them for the most part. I'm sure if any of you were living in a country as bad as Afghanistan, you would probably do some things to get money that you wouldn't be proud of (like this instance, or selling poppies to make heroin).
June 15, 200618 yr The whole Gitmo deal has been a violation of the Constitution. By labeling these people as enemy combatants, we can effectively hold them there forever without charging them (which is what we have been doing for the most part). No it isn't. It's a violation of international law. Constitution applies to the United States while international treaties tell us that we must treat POWs a certain way. Whether or not we're in a state of war is the question at hand. They should just be put on trial in American courts for crimes against humanity already. Where in the world would Muslim terrorists be treated worse than in American prisons? Just hand them over to the savages who are in jail for life anyways (well, the people being held that are guilty anyways) and then wash your hands of the matter.
June 15, 200618 yr Clearly the Gitmo camp is a violation of international law. However, to this administration, 'international law' applies to everyone but the U.S. Put the guys on trial, or release them already.
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