Detainee dies in US custody.

[logistik]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A detainee being held by U.S. troops in Afghanistan died Wednesday of natural causes, according to Pentagon officials.

The man, described as being about 30, had been held in detention facilities at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul for about a week, the officials said.

The man died at the base hospital after being transferred there from the detention facility, they said.

Pentagon and Central Command officials did not elaborate on the cause of death or why the man was being held by U.S. troops.

A Pentagon official said an autopsy will be performed to see if there is any indication of foul play on the part of U.S. soldiers handling the man.

The detention facility at Bagram is the main location in Afghanistan for U.S. interrogation of detainees suspected of being connected to the Taliban or al Qaeda.

Many of the detainees are then moved to the detention facilities at the U.S naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where almost 625 prisoners are now being held.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/central/12/04/afghan.detainee.death/index.html

________

Does this not sound eerily similar to the CAR in somalia?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Let‘s not get carried away. There‘s a big diff between one person captured and abused and the amount currently in detention. Also the length of time they‘ve been held. Could‘ve been a heart attack or any number of physical problems. Don‘t forget the area thet‘re in. Maybe something bit him or other allergic reaction? Don‘t go looking for skeletons where none may exist. Wait for it. The trouble today is too many people deal with conjecture and rumour without having the facts. The ICRC and Amnesty International will surely try to gather what happened. Let‘s see what they come up with first, if anything, before going off on a tangent. The US knows they‘re under a microscope in these affairs.

 

[Korus]

Good point, Recce.. People sometimes just die.

Though, you‘ve gotta admit consipracy theories are much more fun..

 

[logistik]

I‘m not saying it is either.
I am just saying it sounds similar.
At first they said he died of natural causes or something like that. And only later did the truth come out.

 

[SNoseworthy]

"Natural Causes?" Why do I find that hard to believe....

 

[SpinDoc]

Hmmmm... the detainee was around 30 yrs old? "Natural Causes" sounds a little fishy.

I can‘t really think of too many natural causes for a man of 30. Heart attack maybe, but I doubt they get to do anything strenous to get a heart attack (and I doubt the guy is a big obese man whose heart just couldn‘t take it anymore at age 30). Stroke maybe, if his genes make him prone to that or if he‘s had a very very salty diet and hence hardened his blood vessel walls... but that‘s still a longshot at 30. Maybe pneumonia?... maybe this is more likely.

Maybe that‘s euphemism for suicide... though the religion might forbid it (despite suicide bombers).

If I didn‘t know better, I would say "natural causes" means "the person giving the statement doesn‘t know the details yet, so here‘s a good harmless cause so no one gets into an uproar".

Conspiracy theories ARE so much more fun.

 

[Korus]

Keep in mind that in Afghanistan, they don‘t quite enjoy the same standards of life we do In Canada. Life expectancy follows suit.

 

[Zoomie]

Natural Causes... Perhaps he had a lethal exposure to lead!

 

[FredDaHead]

From the CIA‘s World Factbook:

Afghanistan
Life expectancy at birth: 46.6 years

Canada
Life expectancy at birth: 79.69 years

The guy was around 30, so he was about 15 years away from the average life expectancy. Keeping the same ratio, it‘d be like dying at around 50 here.

Natural causes are possible. Unlikely, I admit, but possible. I‘m not defending the captors, but isn‘t everyone innocent until proven guilty?

 

[muskrat89]

Makes perfect sense now. They randomly selected a guy out of the hundreds, if not thousands detained at Guantanamo and wherever else, and executed him.

 

[bossi]

Spindoc - march yourself straight to jail, unless you‘ve got the excuse that you are an untrained spin doctor.

Haven‘t you ever been taught not to speculate?

I like simple rules of thumb, such as "If you weren‘t there, then shut up."

Or, the ever popular "If you don‘t know what you‘re talking about, then shut up."

And, another favourite: "if you‘re flapping your gums just for the pleasure of hearing your own voice, then shut up."

People die. That‘s a fact. Bravo to the War Diary contributor who pointed that out eariler on.

Until the truth comes out, "weapons tight".

 

[SpinDoc]

I was just building the argument that chances are that the media relations people (spin doctors if I may) REALLY didn‘t know what the reason the cause of death was. It was a pot shot against those media types (on both sides of the press) and not at the coalition forces... no need to single me out to the forum.

The press likes to raise red flags in its audience... they don‘t usually care about lowering the red flags afterwards since that doesn‘t really sell papers.

 

[muskrat89]

Call Corrections Canada and see how many people died in custody last year. If someone dies of a ruptured appendix, cancer, heart disease , etc., I am sure they know the cause of death, but officially it is "natural causes". Sheesh

 

[SpinDoc]

And if they said Brezhnev was suffering from a cold, he was suffering from a cold...

A story is spun so that it doesn‘t make the releasing party look bad... it shouldn‘t be the other way around where it‘s spun so that they look opaque (as in this particular case). If the death (for the sake of argument) was caused by a burst appendix (which it very well could be for all we know), those press officers really did a poor job of making themselves look okay. The point is to deprive critics of ammunition. The point is not to make the average citizen wonder about the validity of the story. I doubt they‘re trying to protect the detainee‘s right to privacy.

Transparency dispels doubt. Our media uses the phrase "shrouded in secrecy" to describe unfriendly nations‘ installations and intentions and things like that, and our first thoughts are "Oooh, that‘s bad. Those evil-doers are trying to hide something.", but it‘s unpatriotic if we transfer the same logic to our own situation. Duplicity isn‘t something to be proud of. It‘s practical... but it‘s like using a cannon to swat a fly when it‘s applied to such a petty story as to a detainee dying of (fill in the blank of ailment)?

 

[Brad Sallows]

"Life expectancy" measures are dramatically skewed by childhood health. It is incorrect to assume that dying at 30 in one culture is like dying at 50 here. The real hurdle is surviving childhood; get past that, and people living almost anywhere have a good shot at threescore and ten.