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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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May 31st,
2007 - Death of Guantanamo Detainee Is Apparent Suicide, Military Says |
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Death of Guantanamo Detainee
Is Apparent Suicide, Military Says By Josh White Washington Post Thursday, May 31, 2007; A08 A Saudi detainee at the U.S.
military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was found dead in his
cell from an apparent suicide yesterday afternoon, military officials said.
He would be the fourth detainee to take his own life at the facility in the
past year. Military officials at U.S.
Southern Command did not release details about the death or identify the
detainee, who was among about 80 Saudi Arabians in custody. Attorneys with
the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based law group that
represents many Guantanamo detainees, said they had learned no details as of
last night and did not have independent confirmation that the death was a
suicide. "The detainee was found
unresponsive and not breathing in his cell by guards," military
officials said in a news release on Southcom's Web site. "The detainee
was pronounced dead by a physician after all lifesaving measures had been
exhausted." The Naval Criminal
Investigative Service has started an investigation, and a cultural adviser is
assisting officials at the base to ensure that the detainee's body is handled
in a "culturally sensitive and religiously appropriate manner,"
according to the release. Three detainees committed
suicide in their cells simultaneously on June 10, 2006, using clothes and
sheets to fashion makeshift nooses. U.S. officials called the incident an act
of "asymmetric warfare" and a way to garner negative publicity for
the detention facility on the U.S. base. Those detainees, according to the
military, allegedly conspired with others to carry out a suicide pact and
passed notes among themselves about how to do it. The three suicides in June
were the first detainee deaths reported at Guantanamo since it opened in
January 2002. As of last year, there had been more than 40 suicide attempts
by about 25 detainees, including some who had tried to overdose on hoarded
drugs and one who repeatedly tried to die by hanging and slashing himself. Such cases are illustrative
of the negative image that Guantanamo has internationally; even Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates has expressed a desire to close the facility
because of the taint it carries. Attorneys for detainees have talked
emotionally about the desperation their clients feel and have railed against
what they consider worsening conditions at the facility's newest camp, which
is modeled after U.S. prisons. There are about 380
detainees at Guantanamo, fewer than half of the 775 detainees who have been
there since it was opened to house those captured in the war in Afghanistan
and in the larger Bush administration effort against terrorism. Three
detainees have been charged with crimes under the Military Commissions Act of
2006. Military spokesmen at the
Pentagon and at Guantanamo referred all inquiries to Southcom. A Southcom
spokesman said last night that he could not elaborate on details of
yesterday's death. Wells Dixon, an attorney at
CCR, said last night that he has asked the Justice Department for information
about the detainee, and that his organization is already calling for an
independent investigation into his death. Dixon, who visited Saudi detainees
at Guantanamo earlier this month, said they "were suffering terribly." "The fact that four
detainees have now died while in military custody should not surprise
anyone," Dixon said. "These results are predictable, given the fact
that these men have been confined for so long without charge or trial under
such difficult circumstances." Staff researcher Julie Tate
contributed to this report. External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/30/AR2007053002580.html |