SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Three Guantanamo Bay detainees hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes, the commander of the detention center said Saturday. They were the first reported deaths among the hundreds of men held at the base for years without charge.
The suicides, which military officials said were coordinated, triggered further condemnation of the isolated detention center, which holds some 460 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Only 10 have been charged with crimes and there has been growing international pressure on the U.S. to close the prison.
Two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen were found dead shortly after midnight Saturday in separate cells, said the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which has jurisdiction over the prison. Attempts were made to revive them, but they failed.
"They hung themselves with fabricated nooses made out of clothes and bed sheets," Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris told reporters in a conference call from the U.S. base in southeastern Cuba.
"They have no regard for human life," he said. "Neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetric warfare against us."
To help prevent more suicides, guards will now give bed sheets to detainees only when they go to bed and remove them after they wake up in the morning, Harris said.
Gen. John Craddock, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, said in the conference call that the three had left suicide notes, but refused to disclose the contents.
One of the detainees was a mid- or high-level al-Qaida operative, Harris said, while another had been captured in Afghanistan and participated in a riot at a prison there. The third belonged to a splinter group. Their names were not released.
Some of the evidence against detainees is classified, so they are not permitted to know of it, and are thus unable to challenge it.
"They're determined, intelligent, committed elements and they continue to do everything they can ... to become martyrs in the jihad," said Craddock.
He said all three had engaged in a hunger strike to protest their indefinite incarceration and had been force-fed before quitting the protest action. Military commanders said two were participating in the hunger strike as recently as last month, and described one of them as a long-term hunger striker who had begun the protest late last year and ended it in May.
Bush, who was spending the weekend at Camp David, expressed "serious concern" about the incident, White House press secretary Tony Snow said.
His immediate concerns were making sure that an investigation was being conducted and that the bodies were "treated humanely and with cultural sensitivity," Snow said.
In a sign of concern over the diplomatic fallout, the administration conducted an extraordinary round of global outreach within hours. Among those contacted were the United Nations, European Union member states, and Middle Eastern embassies, Snow said.
Amnesty International said the apparent suicides "are the tragic results of years of arbitrary and indefinite detention" and called the prison "an indictment" of the Bush administration's human rights record.
Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a telephone interview from New York that those held at Guantanamo "have this incredible level of despair that they will never get justice. And now they're gone. And they died without ever having seen a court."
Olshansky, whose group represents about 300 Guantanamo detainees, wept during the interview. 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."
Pentagon officials said the three men were in Camp 1, the highest security prison at Guantanamo, and none had tried to commit suicide before.
That camp was also where two detainees tried to commit suicide in mid-May, when a riot broke out. The two men, who took overdoses of an anti-anxiety medication they hoarded, were found and received medical treatment and were recovering.
The military said in a statement that "all lifesaving measures had been exhausted" in the attempt to revive the detainees. The remains were being treated "with the utmost respect." A cultural adviser was assisting the military.
Though the military termed the deaths apparent suicides, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was investigating to establish the official cause of death.
Guantanamo Bay has become a sore subject between Bush and U.S. allies who otherwise are staunch supporters of his policies.
A U.N. panel said May 19 that holding detainees indefinitely at Guantanamo violated the world's ban on torture and the United States should close the detention center.
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, the prison came up during a meeting with Fogh Rasmussen at Camp David.
"We would like to end the 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 was waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on whether he overstepped his authority in ordering the detainees to be tried by U.S. military tribunals.
A total of 759 detainees have been held in Guantanamo — about 300 of them have been released or transferred.
Many claim they are innocent and there have been increasing displays of defiance from the prisoners.
Until now, Guantanamo officials have said there have been 41 suicide attempts by 25 detainees and no deaths since the U.S. began taking prisoners to the base in January 2002. Defense lawyers contend the number of suicide attempts is higher.
Some detainees have been on a hunger strike since August. The number of inmates 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.
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.
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.
He said one detainee recently told him: "I would simply rather die than live here forever without rights."
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Guess they heard that heaven was out of virgins. Kidding!
**************
I married my wife for her looks...but not the
ones she's been giving me lately!
posted on June 11, 2006 05:55:36 AM new
Why kiara? Because you didn't say it?
You know for someone who talks about how someone looks because of their bitterness, it would be pretty easy to surmise your looks as 90% of you postings of late are just to come here and attempt to insult or belittle someone. You know the same things you say you dislike from Ann Coulter you do the same. So you must be "Do as I say and not as I do." person.
These are enemies of the US they want to kill themselves, good riddance.
posted on June 11, 2006 07:23:13 AM newmaybe we should provide MORE sheets for them
I'll donate a few... "“More Iraqis think things are going well in Iraq than Americans do. I guess they don’t get the New York Times over there.”—Jay Leno".
posted on June 11, 2006 08:09:58 AM newWhy kiara? Because you didn't say it?
I didn't belittle or insult anyone, I gave an opinion. But anyone that disagrees with the hatred spoken by some of you here seems to also be hated, washingtonebayer.
It hasn't been proven that all are guilty in Guantanamo so death before trial is wrong.
Seems like some here are living in fear and very anxious to kill all others, no matter what. You speak constant hatred and always wish death or genocide on much of the population that has different beliefs than you do. That is much different than speaking out AGAINST hatred like I do, washingtonebayer. But then I wouldn't expect you to know the difference.
So when you sit there with your assumptions about how others look, perhaps peek in your own mirror first as you ponder your next ID to hide under after you've spoken all the hatred and detestable things you can think of with this one, as you did under your last one.
posted on June 11, 2006 09:21:34 AM new
Since when do we Americans promote death for those who have not been tried and convicted?
We lower our standards and we become as savage and barbaric as those we fight against.
Guantanamo Bay is a blight on everything America stands for.
posted on June 11, 2006 10:10:31 AM new
Whywould they have killed themselves in an organized way like this unless they were guilty?
I can understand an innocent man not being able to take it anymore and committing suicide. I do NOT see three innocent men deciding to kill themselves as a group out of despair.
Prisoner #1: "Pssst- I've got an idea; let's kill ourselves in protest to show our innocence!"
Prisoner #2: "Great idea!"
Nope. They were either about to be interrogated and didn't want to give up important information, or they otherwise knew they were going to be convicted.
More likely still, this is just another form of terrorists using our own media against us.
"We can't be take part in the war on America anymore so let's kill ourselves so the world will see how evil AMERICA is. Hee-hee!"
No pity from me. They chose to do this.
Dr. Arcane, revelator of mystical secrets http://www.drarcane.com
Got questions about the secrets of the universe?
posted on June 11, 2006 10:23:59 AM new
Perhaps you misunderstood my post DrArc. I was not advocating pity for the detainees who hanged themselves. I was supporting the customs and laws of our country, a right to a trial before conviction. I was pointing out how we are so ready to lend bed sheets to help others hang themselves as being as barbaric as those we fight against.
posted on June 11, 2006 02:06:53 PM new
LOL on the 'silk' sheets.....
--------
Since when do we Americans promote death for those who have not been tried and convicted?
Well...the left has been promoting people being allowed to take their own lives for a LONG long time....you know, doctor assisted suicides?
This way we saved the cost of the doctors being involved. LOL
Besides....they WANT to die....they're NOT afraid of dying....they believe they're going to be better off in their 'after life' with all those virgins.
I'm not mean....I'm just agreeing with THEIR OWN wishes....desires.
While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation:
What would a Democrat president have done at that point? Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack.
Ann Coulter
posted on June 11, 2006 03:36:51 PM new
I love America kiara, unlike an anti-american such as yourself who seems to delight in anything that attempts to bring discredit to America.
I see I hit a nerve but then the truth always does. Best go move those mirrors.
90% vitriol is all you post anymore. Better to have none than the little 10% you offer.
posted on June 11, 2006 04:25:30 PM new
Washingtonebayer, you fail to see that your ignorant view of genocide and how you wish this world to be and lindak’s ignorant view are not the American view and people like you are the ones who discredit America the most. The irresponsible actions of your government also bring discredit to America. In your eyes, your government can do no wrong but if this was happening to American prisoners and they were being held under those conditions you would be screaming from the rooftops how unfair it all was.
Does it ever occur to you that just because some prisoners there may be guilty or chose to kill themselves with sheets that not all may be that way?
Does it ever occur to you that just because some Muslims are terrorists that not all will be?
You keep trying to tell me that I am anti-American because I do not approve of the actions of the Bush government in Iraq. With that kind of thinking then the majority of America is now anti-American also. How do you explain that?
posted on June 11, 2006 04:30:57 PM new
You fail to see what America is and what true americans stand for. Talk about ignorance look in the mirror.
There are more of me in this country than you, oh wait you don't even live here.
More spewing of vitriol from kiara, what you going to do try to claim I am some past poster again? Is that the way of you and your ilk when you can't win a discussion?
posted on June 11, 2006 07:40:37 PM new
Well Ron I guess your President is a dumb ass too since he said..
"We would like to end the 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."
Oh and I suggest that you follow your own advice and refrain from the name calling and derogatory remarks, unless you would like me to reply in the same manner.
[ edited by bebeboom on Jun 11, 2006 07:54 PM ]
