US 'neglects mental health of Guantanamo inmates'

Campaigners have accused the Bush administration of deliberately ignoring mounting evidence of psychological and mental health problems among prisoners at Guantanamo Bay despite more than 40 previous suicide attempts.
Lawyers who represent some of the 460 men at the prison said no one should be surprised by the suicides of three inmates at the weekend - one of whom was 17 years old when he was incarcerated and another who was earmarked for transfer.

Bill Goodman, legal director of the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said:"The Bush administration has systematically and deliberately denied these men their most basic rights through a policy of choking off all contact, communication, information and hope." "(It has) consistently fought to keep these men from lawyers, doctors and others who were willing to help them."

His comments came after a senior US official dismissed the deaths as nothing more than a "good PR stunt". The Bush administration sought to retreat from that position yesterday with Cully Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defence for detainee affairs, telling the BBC: "We are always concerned when someone takes his own life. Because, as Americans, we value life, even the lives of violent terrorists who are captured waging war against our country." The CCR provided a precise timetable detailing the efforts of campaigners to raise the issue of suicide risk among inmates as well as the government's tacit acknowledgement of the problem, stretching back to 2002.

(snip)
The Labour MEP Arlene McCarthy co-signed a European Parliament resolution calling on the US to set a timetable for closure of the prison. Ms McCarthy, who visited the prison last month, said: "There is a complete failure by the US administration to see why this is not the right way to deal with suspected terrorists."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article878359.ece

that it would neglect everything else?

Yes, Gitmo has psychiatrists -- to advise the torturerers on how to best destroy people's psyches -- for the greater profit of the Bush Empire.