# Three Guantanamo Bay inmates commit suicide



## tamouh (10 Jun 2006)

Source: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060610/gitmo_suicides_060610/20060610?hub=TopStories

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Three Guantanamo Bay prisoners hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes, the commander of the U.S. detention centre said Saturday.

They were the first reported deaths among the hundreds of men held at the base in Cuba -- some of them for up to 4½ years without charge.

Two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen were found "unresponsive and not breathing in their cells'' early Saturday, said a statement from the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which has jurisdiction over the prison. Attempts were made to revive the prisoners but they failed.

"They hung themselves with fabricated nooses made out of clothes and bed sheets,'' U.S. navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris said in a conference call from the U.S. base in southeastern Cuba.

Pentagon officials said the three men were in Camp 1, the highest maximum-security prison at Guantanamo and none of them had tried to commit suicide before.

That camp was also the location where two detainees tried to commit suicide in mid-May, when a riot broke out at the facility. The two men, who took overdoses of an anti-anxiety medication they hoarded, were found and received medical treatment and were recovering.

The United States is holding about 460 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban at Guantanamo Bay, which has become a sore subject between President George W. Bush and U.S. allies who otherwise are supporters of his policies.

The Pentagon also postponed the military tribunal of Binyam Muhammad, an Ethiopian detainee, originally scheduled for next week. Muhammad is charged with conspiring with accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders to attack civilians and commit other crimes.

Bush, who was spending the weekend at Camp David, Md., was notified of the incident. The U.S. State Department was consulting with the governments of the home countries of the three prisoners, whose names were not released.

The military said in its statement "all lifesaving measures had been exhausted'' in the attempt to revive the detainees.

The remains were being treated "with the utmost respect,'' an issue important to Muslims. A cultural adviser was assisting the military.

Though the military termed the deaths suicides, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was investigating to establish the official cause and manner of death.

A UN panel said May 19 holding detainees indefinitely at Guantanamo violates the ban on torture. The panel said the United States should close the detention centre.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are among those who also recently have urged the United States to close the prison.

On Friday, after the prison came up during a meeting with Fogh Rasmussen at Camp David, Bush said his goal is to do that. A total of 759 detainees have been held there, with about 300 released or transferred.

"We would like to end Guantanamo -- we'd like it to be empty,'' Bush said.

But he added: "There are some that, if put out on the streets, would create grave harm to American citizens and other citizens of the world. And, therefore, I believe they ought to be tried in courts here in the United States.''

Bush said his administration is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule whether he overstepped his authority in ordering the prisoners to be tried by U.S. military tribunals.

Josh Colangelo-Bryan of the Center for Constitutional Rights discovered one of his clients attempting to hang himself last year when he visited Guantanamo and said he feared there would be more suicides.

Colangelo-Bryan said one detainee recently told him: "I would simply rather die than live here forever without rights.''

The military's statement defended the prison, saying detainees pose a danger to the United States and its allies.

"They have expressed a commitment to kill Americans and our friends if released,'' the statement said.

"These are not common criminals. They are enemy combatants being detained because they have waged war against our nation and they continue to pose a threat.''

Moazzam Begg, 37, a British Muslim who spent three years in U.S. detention, including two years at Guantanamo before being released in 2005, said: "We all expected something like this but were not prepared. It's just awful.''

"I hope the Bush administration will finally see this is wrong.''

There have been increasing displays of defiance from Guantanamo Bay prisoners, with many claiming their innocence.

Until now, Guantanamo officials have said there have been 41 suicide attempts by 25 detainees and no deaths since the United States began taking prisoners to the base in January 2002. Defence lawyers contend the number of suicide attempts is higher.

Those held at Guantanamo "have this incredible level of despair that they will never get justice,'' Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a telephone interview from New York City.

"And now they're gone. And they died without ever having seen a court.''

Olshansky's group represents about 300 Guantanamo prisoners.

She appealed to the Bush administration "for immediate action to do the right thing. They should be taken to court or released.''

"I don't think this country wants the stain of injustice on it for many years to come.''

James Yee, a former U.S. army chaplain at Guantanamo Bay who was arrested in 2003 an espionage investigation and later cleared, said he had developed the detention centre's policy for dealing with a Muslim death because authorities had long feared a prisoner might die from suicide or some other cause.

Yee attributed the suicides to detainee desperation over their long confinement with no end in sight.

"It was only a matter of time,'' Yee said in a phone interview from Olympia, Wash.

On May 18, in one of the prison's most violent incidents, a detainee staged a suicide attempt to lure guards into a cellblock where they were attacked by prisoners armed with makeshift weapons, the military said. Earlier that day, two detainees overdosed on antidepressants they collected from other detainees and hoarded in their cells.

There also has been a hunger strike among detainees since August. The number of prisoners refusing food dropped to 18 by last weekend from a high of 131. The military has at times used aggressive force-feeding methods, including a restraint chair.


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## paracowboy (10 Jun 2006)

oh, well. They've probably given up all important information anyway.


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## Inspir (11 Jun 2006)

Now watch the media twist this around and say it wasn't a suicide and the deaths were "suspicious in nature"  :


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## tamouh (11 Jun 2006)

> Now does that mean they forfeit their ticket to heaven and virgins?



The topic was truncated just to avoid sarcastic remarks like these. As paracowboy said earlier, lets hope they give them a respectful funeral and that is it.

I believe for most cases (though never been to Guanto land) that detainees are treated better than prisoners in Afghanistan or for matter of fact in many arabic and muslim countries. Yet, knowing that this group was in Cell 1 which is one of the more relaxed cells in Guanto raises an alarm of how desperate the prisoners have become.


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## paracowboy (11 Jun 2006)

tamouh said:
			
		

> Yet, knowing that this group was in Cell 1 which is one of the more relaxed cells in Guanto raises an alarm of how desperate the prisoners have become.


no, it doesn't. It just shortens the list by three.


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## Sub_Guy (11 Jun 2006)

Good, three less mouths to feed in the restraint chair!   I will not be losing any sleep over this, I am sure some people would like the yanks to turn these fellas loose, but they are there for a reason and it isn't like they are going to change their minds about anything.  Keep them locked up and maybe more of these guys will take the easy way out.  The odds of them returning to Afghan/Iraq after being released (my very limited knowledge) seem pretty good, and once there you can bet they won't be setting up an orphanage.


Hopefully they will be treated with respect and given the proper burial in keeping with their beliefs.


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## George Wallace (11 Jun 2006)

If they were not in solitary confinement, but in a larger cell with others, the question of whether or not it was suicide should come up.  It could just as easily have been an internal purge by the 'group', of dissidents, or perhaps collaborators, or even informants or just a form of prison justice for some other perceived crime.  The possibilities are endless.


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## 1feral1 (11 Jun 2006)

Thats three less arseholes who want to kill us that we have not to worry about anymore, who will now not be released, standing up anyways.

I am sure they were not alone in their planning (others were most likely were in on it, or knew about it), and I don't think it was done out of desperation, but more out of some type of anti-US 'internal' warfare, which would in their 'twisted' eyes, somehow cause more shame and disgrace against the Great Satan and the gaol overall.

I am sure the 'rightous left' will use this as some type of excuse to have the place shut down, and let it's peace loving inhabitants go. 

As far as I am concerned, each 'hero' should be issued with 2 metres of rope!

I DON'T care what goes on in there, period!


Wes


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## 1feral1 (11 Jun 2006)

tamouh said:
			
		

> The topic was truncated just to avoid sarcastic remarks like these. .



Truncated?  :


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## childs56 (11 Jun 2006)

Why don't they just implant these guys with micro chips with GPS tracking devices. 

Then let them go off to their lives. Most will return to a simple easy life. 
The rest will lead us to more information on the bad guys. 

One thing we must remember is that to most of these Extremists, Death is a well giving situation in the name of their believes, They and their family's will be rejoiced in the after life.


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## GAP (11 Jun 2006)

I think GitMo should be shut down. Move them all to a prison built especially for them cleverly disguised
 as a Canadian  Forward Operating Base with very poor security, right in the middle of Afghanistan.
 Let the word get out to the Taliban, that the security is so poor there it would be an easy target of ripe commanding officers....problem solved.   ;D

The second option is put all the prisoners into a troop transport ship and raze the jail at Gitmo (then pull the plug on the ships) :

oh well....it was a thought


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## GAP (11 Jun 2006)

Inspir said:
			
		

> Now watch the media twist this around and say it wasn't a suicide and the deaths were "suspicious in nature"  :



Well, that didn't take long...NBC is quoting some lawyer for the family's saying he is going to sue because it was a conspiracy :


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## zipperhead_cop (11 Jun 2006)

tamouh said:
			
		

> Yet, knowing that this group was in Cell 1 which is one of the more relaxed cells in Guanto raises an alarm of how desperate the prisoners have become.



Yes.  How terribly unfortunate.  My heart is heavy for the loss to humanity.   :crybaby:

This can never be allowed to happen again.  So I propose all of the prisoners be kept in large, smooth plastic bubbles like gerbil balls, eat only creamed food (dry chicken bones can poke an eye out), be dressed in rip proof dresses that are usually issued to mental health patients, and only be given their Koran in their room.  God forbid they use their sheets to wink out their precious lives, and for that matter pillows can be used to cram down your own throat and choke yourself, and mattresses have springs and all kinds of dangerous contents.  Better that they sleep on injection mold plastic, for their own safety.  It's good for your spine too!  Come to think of it, just to be on the safe side, they should have a tether from each hip that keeps their heads from actually touching the ground, in case they do a somersault in the air and land on their necks.  
Yup.  We oughta keep better care of our precious "guests".   :


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## vangemeren (12 Jun 2006)

*Guantanamo suicide detainee was due for release* 
Updated Mon. Jun. 12 2006 8:14 AM ET
Reproduced under the Fair Dealings Act

CTV.ca News Staff

One of the three Guantanamo Bay detainees who committed suicide on Saturday had been cleared for release, but didn't know it yet, the Pentagon has revealed.

Saudi Arabian Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi al-Utaybi, 30, was one of 141 prisoners due to be released, but had not been told because U.S. officials had not yet decided which country he would be sent to.

The U.S. military had accused al-Utaybi of being a member of a militant missionary group.

The Department of Defence had accused the second man -- Yassar Talal Al-Zahrani -- of being involved in a 2001 prison uprising in Afghanistan where a CIA agent died, and the third -- Ali Abdullah Ahmed -- of having ties to al Qaeda.

Al-Zahrani, 21, was born in Saudia Arabia, while Ahmed, 28, was from Yemen. 

All three men hanged themselves with nooses made from sheets and clothing early Saturday -- bringing renewed pressure on the United States to close the prison on a naval base in Cuba where about 460 men are held, almost all of them without charge. 

The Guantanamo detainees are being held on suspicion of links to al Qaeda and the Taliban. 

Many claim they are innocent or were low-level Taliban members who never intended to harm the United States. 

Only 10 detainees have been charged with crimes and face military tribunals ordered by U.S. President George Bush. 

There have been dozens of suicide attempts since the camp was set up four years ago -- but none have been successful until now. 

At the weekend, one top state department official called them a "good PR move to draw attention", while the camp commander said it was an "act of asymmetric warfare waged against us". 

Prisoners are 'desperate'

However, defence lawyer Mark Denbeaux said prisoners are desperate after years in captivity and view suicide as the only way out, even though Islam forbids it. 

"A stench of despair hangs over Guantanamo," Denbeaux, who visited a client at Guantanamo on June 2, told the Associated Press. "Everyone is shutting down and quitting." 

He said he was alarmed by the depression he saw in his client, Mohammed Abdul Rahman, who was "trying to kill himself" by hunger strike. 

Denbeaux said he had intended to cheer Rahman up by showing him a newspaper article quoting Bush as saying he wanted to close the jail. 

But he said guards confiscated the article because detainees are barred from seeing news of current events. 

That afternoon, Rahman was force-fed, Denbeaux said. 

Force feeding involves strapping a hunger striker into a "restraint chair" and feeding him through a tube inserted into the nose. 

In the wake of the suicides, international demands to close the prison mounted. 

Two senior U.S. senators also expressed concern that most of the prisoners have not been charged with any crimes. 

Meanwhile, a Saudi Arabian human rights group questioned whether torture drove the men to suicide and called for an outside investigation of the deaths. 

"There are no independent monitors at the detention camp so it is easy to pin the crime on the prisoners, considering it is possible they were tortured," Mufleh al-Qahtani, deputy director of the Human Rights Organization, told AP.

With files from the Associated Press
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060612/guantanamo_suicides_060612/20060612?hub=World


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## zipperhead_cop (12 Jun 2006)

*"Meanwhile, a Saudi Arabian human rights group  questioned whether torture drove the men to suicide and called for an outside investigation of the deaths. "*

If not an oxymoron, certainly the pot calling the kettle black.   :-\


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## paracowboy (12 Jun 2006)

zipperhead_cop said:
			
		

> Saudi Arabian


 cool





> human rights group


 right.



> Saudi Arabian human rights group


 uuuhhhh, 'scuse me?


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## vangemeren (12 Jun 2006)

zipperhead_cop said:
			
		

> *"Meanwhile, a Saudi Arabian human rights group  questioned whether torture drove the men to suicide and called for an outside investigation of the deaths. "*
> 
> If not an oxymoron, certainly the pot calling the kettle black.   :-\



I think it would depend on which group it is and their values. I would think there are reform groups in every country that do not necessarily follow the countries practices.


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## zipperhead_cop (12 Jun 2006)

van Gemeren said:
			
		

> I think it would depend on which group it is and their values. I would think there are reform groups in every country that do not necessarily follow the countries practices.



No doubt, but I would love to see their track record in speaking up against the human rights abuses in their own country.  Somehow I imagine there is a whole bunch of selective observation going on there.  And lets face it.  Saudi terrorist funding/Saudi "human rights group" condemnation.  I don't see a big disconnect there.


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## vangemeren (12 Jun 2006)

I guess you're right, I would like to know why the author didn't mention the name of the HR group and if there is any way to find out which one.


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## paracowboy (12 Jun 2006)

S_Baker said:
			
		

> I readily admit I haven't studied much of Islamic burial rituals, but , I am wondering if they would be similar to the following?
> 
> Head chopped off, placed in box and or placed on body dumped alongside road.


probably not, but are they the sort of action you want to emulate?


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## paracowboy (12 Jun 2006)

S_Baker said:
			
		

> Well I am not currently in Iraq, nor as an acquisition officer do I have much interaction with mortuary affairs.  I was pointing out the latest Islamic Insurgency burial techniques.  I always thought people were to be buried before sundown on the day they died facing Mecca?  It seems the insurgents aren't following those ideals....


I don't care what sort of ideals those animals follow. I am a better man than they, and will do my best to live up to my own ideals.


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## zipperhead_cop (13 Jun 2006)

I think we can afford to be gracious in death to these losers.  

That being said, how about we be very gracious to a great many of them?   :gunner: :cheers:


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