Pentagon identifies Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide; one was up

June 11, 2006, 9:20PM
Pentagon identifies Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide; one was up for transfer

By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — One of the Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide had been cleared for transfer to another country, a second was involved in a 2001 prison uprising in Afghanistan where a CIA agent died, and a third had ties to al-Qaida, the Pentagon said today.

The Department of Defense identified the three as Saudi Arabians Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi and Yassar Talal Al-Zahrani and Yemeni Ali Abdullah Ahmed. The two Saudis were also identified earlier by Saudi officials.

The three 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.

Al-Utaybi had been recommended for transfer to the custody of another country before his suicide, the Defense Department said in a statement released to The Associated Press. It did not name the country but said he would have been under detention there as well.
(snip/...)

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3960629.html

That's what we have to remember, no matter what the Pentagon says about them.

of significance in the Democratic Party say it? What will it take?

June 11, 2006, 8:10PM
'Stench of despair' at Guantanamo decried

By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico— A "stench of despair" hangs over the Guantanamo Bay prison, where three detainees killed themselves this weekend, said a defense lawyer who recently visited the U.S. jail in Cuba.

No other detainees had tried to commit suicide since U.S. military guards found two Saudis and one Yemeni prisoner hanging by nooses made from sheets and clothing early Saturday, Army Lt. Col. Lora Tucker told The Associated Press on today.

While U.S. officials argue the suicides were political acts aimed at hurting American standing in the world, human rights activists and former detainees say prisoners are desperate after years in captivity and view suicide as the only way out even though Islam forbids it.

A European official urged that the widely criticized prison be closed, and two senior U.S. senators expressed concern that most of the prisoners have not been charged with any crimes. A Saudi Arabian human rights group called for an outside investigation of the deaths.
(snip)

"Killing yourself is not something that is looked at lightly in Islam, but if you're told day after day by the Americans that you're never going to go home or you're put into isolation, these acts are committed simply out of desperation and loss of hope," said Shafiq Rasul, 29, who waged a hunger strike while a prisoner in Guantanamo.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3959981.html

One was a baby-raper, one was a kitten-eater, one never washed his hands after using the employee washroom. Yadda yadda yadda.

It's like the BushCo bullshit machine's handle broke off when it was stuck on full power.

Just extraordinary what is unfolding from this administration.

Remember: Regime change begins at home.

why couldn't Bush transfer them to Saudi Arabia? Does this mean BushCo's good friends the Saudis use torture?

I have a friend who does pro bono legal work for the disappeared at Gitmo.

She said that most of them are nervous about returning home; they've been gone without contact for so long that they worry that most of their friends and family will believe that they have "turned" if they are to return home. Many of them will face accusations of treason as well as incarceration (and possible torture) once they are finally freed from Gitmo.

Did they have a pact? Did certain restrictions get loosened on that day? Or were they killed?

they were suicided.

We are a nation of laws but the Gitmo prisoners were withheld without due process. A shame on our society.

Monday, June 12, 2006. 5:41pm (AEST)

Father hopes Hicks can hold on
The father of US detainee David Hicks hopes his son will stay strong and not take his own life inside in the Guantanamo Bay prison where he is being held.

It has been revealed that three Middle Eastern detainees hanged themselves over the weekend.

Terry Hicks admits that after more than four years in detention, his son's mental state is not good.

"He is depressed but he does have his lawyers, they do visit him on a regular basis which probably breaks the monotony for him," he said.

Major Michael Mori, the US military lawyer acting for Hicks, says he is concerned about Hicks, who is in solitary confinement, is depressed and has lost a lot of weight.

"I found him very desperate for human contact, you could just tell when I first got to see him he was just so hungry to interact with another human being, he'd lost a lot of weight," he said.
(snip/...)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1661140.htm

That means he was 17 when he went into Guantanamo.

...some were thought to be as young as 13. One might have even been 11 years old:





<http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,941876,00.html>

<http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/01/09/usdom6917.htm>

but I had read there were young children. The U.S. said they were taking care of them separately. They also said something about educating them.

Later, they denied having children.

...archived the original article. It's still available in various forms from other news sources, but editing is so common in the internet now, I hate reading something like this second hand.

If you find a copy of the original Independent article, please post it.

...and either they were going (as mentioned in the post above) to a country that would kill them...or were they innocent and this administration couldn't have them being interviewed about "the Gitmo Experience" in the overseas press?

the world. I don't think they even allow Red Cross personel to speak to them, do they?

If I'm not mistaken, I think I read about one prisoner they allowed to go home to England, and he said one of the conditions of his release would be that he wouldn't give interviews.

I'll bet you're right on this. If too much pressure rises in the world to release these prisoners, we probably could expect to see some "news" like a prison riot that killed a lot of prisoners, or.... some were shot trying to escape, or....... there was a fire at Guantamo, or food poisoning, or someone sneaked in a bomb and blew a lot of them up. Maybe an epidemic. So many options.

...except for the ones we have quietly released.

One of the three men who committed suicide at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay was due to be released - but did not know it, says a US lawyer.
Mark Denbeaux, who represents some of the foreign detainees, told the BBC's World Today programme the man was among 141 prisoners scheduled for release

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5070514.stm

Prisoners were to be freed, rather than prisoners were to be transfered as a totally different inference of what was going to happen to these guys.

It could very well be rendition to one of our outsourced torture/execution centers.

"That afternoon, Rahman was force-fed, the lawyer said. Force feeding involves strapping a hunger striker into a "restraint chair" and feeding him through a tube inserted into the nose." This was a young man who had attempted to die by refusing to eat. I believe that forced feeding is against the Geneva Convention and is considered torture therein.

The article also points out that Islam forbids suicide.

And the fact that the Pentagon refuses to identify the country to which one of the prisoners was to be transferred to tells you damn well that it would be identified as one where torture would be permitted.

I agree with the lawyer for one of the dead men, that these young men, ages 21, 28 & 30 - after years of subhuman captivity, killed themselves out of despair.
On edit:
The International Committee of the Red Cross forbids forced feeding.

www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,,1728222,00.html
Co-signatory Dr William Hopkins, a psychiatrist from the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, said: "Doctors force-feeding prisoners at Guantánamo are acting as an arm of the military and have abrogated their medical-ethical duties.

"The American Medical Association should launch disciplinary proceedings against any of its members known to have participated in violating prisoners' rights in this way."

The World Medical Association specifically prohibits force-feeding in the declarations of Tokyo and Malta, to which the American Medical Association is a signatory

.
.
.

just for the prisoners own safety of course . . .

Remember, the PNACers evil knows no bounds

Children and women and other innocents are just "collateral damage" if'n they want to get a bad guy . .

No horror coming from this administration would amaze me at this point

(sigh)

That would be the prison where we participated in the outright slaughter of captured taliban soldiers by our proxy warlord army, some of the victims rebelled and fought back and one of our CIA agents got killed. No investigation conducted or charges filed of course, not even against the survivors, as that incident will never see the light of day.

clearly a political prisoner. Why won't any Democratic leader of note say so? What will it take?

and the death of the CIA man. I can't remember his name now. His wife was very vocal after his death. It was a strange occurrence.

Thanks for the reminder.

(Of course he was.......)

Dead detainee 'was to be freed'
BBC NEWS
Last Updated: Monday, 12 June 2006, 09:54 GMT 10:54 UK

One of the three men who committed suicide at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay was due to be released - but did not know it, says a US lawyer.

Mark Denbeaux, who represents some of the foreign detainees said the man was among 141 prisoners due to be released.

He said the prisoner was not told because US officials had not decided which country he would be sent to.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5070514.stm

Starting to get stinky...

If it is true, then what a waste. This is another sad day in Amerika.

He said that during a psych eval....he was asked if he ever had thoughts of suicide...he said he was asked specifically about thoughts of hanging himself with a noose made of clothing and bed clothes attached to the top of the cell...

He said no...not until you just described it.


hmmmm...