Guantanamo suicide attempts - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

On June 10, 2006 three prisoners held by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Guantanamo Bay detainment camp

The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...

s allegedly committed suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

. The United States Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

(DoD) stopped reporting Guantanamo suicide attempts in 2002.

In mid-2002 the DoD changed the way they classified suicide attempts, calling them "self-injurious behavior". The DoD acknowledges 41 suicide attempts among 29 detainees. The June 10, 2006 suicides were the first inmate deaths at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp.

On January 24, 2005 the U.S. military revealed that there were 350 incidents of self-harm in 2003.
120 of those incidents of self-harm were attempts by detainees to hang themselves. 23 detainees participated in a simultaneous mass-suicide attempt.

Three Guantanamo detainees die reportedly of suicides on June 10, 2006

On June 10, 2006 the three prisoners Mani al-Utaybi

Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi

Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi was a citizen of Saudi Arabia, who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba...

, Yasser al-Zahrani

Yasser Talal Al Zahrani

Yasser Talal al Zahrani was a citizen of Saudi Arabia who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 93....

, and Ali Abdullah Ahmed

Ali Abdullah Ahmed

Ali Abdullah Ahmed also known as Salah Ahmed al-Salami was a citizen of Yemen who died in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba....

died in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.

According to Pentagon they "killed themselves in an apparent suicide pact

Suicide pact

A suicide pact is an agreed plan between two or more individuals to commit suicide. The plan may be to die together, or separately and closely timed. Suicide pacts are important concepts in the study of suicide, and have occurred throughout history, as well as in fiction.Suicide pacts are generally...

".
Prison commander Rear Admiral Harry Harris has stated: "This was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetric warfare

Asymmetric warfare

Asymmetric warfare is war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly....

committed against us."
Harris also stated that the Guantanamo detainees were: "dangerous, committed to killing Americans.".
He claimed that there was a myth among the detainees that if three detainees were known to have died in the camps the DoD would be pressured to send the rest of the detainees home.

President George Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

expressed "serious concern."

Colleen Graffy

Colleen Graffy

Colleen Graffy is a former deputy United States Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and professor of law at Pepperdine University's London campus....

, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, called the suicides, "a good PR move
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

" -- and, "a tactic to further the jihadi cause".

On June 12, 2006, in a statement that The Scotsman

The Scotsman

The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....

characterized as an attempt "..to pull back from the earlier comments about public relations and 'asymmetric warfare,"
Cully Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said:

"I wouldn't characterise it as a good PR move. What I would say is that 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."

Sean McCormack

Sean McCormack is a former United States Assistant Secretary of State. He was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Department Spokesman on June 2, 2005, and served until January 20, 2009.-Early career:...

, spokesman for the United States State Department also said that "I would not say that it was a PR stunt". The men were apparently unaware that one of them was due to be released. Joshua Denbeaux, a lawyer who volunteered to represent Guantanamo prisoners through the Center for Constitutional Rights

Center for Constitutional Rights

Al Odah v. United States:Al Odah is the latest in a series of habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The case challenges the Military Commissions system’s suitability as a habeas corpus substitute and the legality, in general, of detention at...

, and one of the principal authors of a methodical academic analysis that examined, in detail, what the DoD said about the prisoners' identities, has said that prison authorities were withholding this information because "US officials had not decided which country he would be sent to."

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

Michael Bumgarner

Colonel Michael Bumgarner is an officer in the United States Armed Services.In 2005 and 2006, he was the commander of the Joint Detention Group, the guard force component of Joint Task Force Guantanamo....

, the commander of the camp's guard force, reacted to the suicides by telling his officers: "The trust level is gone. They have shown time and time again that we can't trust them any farther than we can throw them. There is not a trustworthy son of a ... in the entire bunch."

Press Reaction

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...

reports that news of the deaths raised skepticism over whether the Saudi men really killed themselves. The article reports Saudi speculation that the men were driven to suicide by torture.

The article names several prominent Saudis who accused the camp authorities of murdering the three men, and added:

"Some people in the conservative Islamic kingdom questioned whether Muslim men would kill themselves since suicide is a grave sin in Islam. But defense lawyers and some former detainees said many prisoners at Guantanamo are wasting away in deep despair at their long captivity."

Kateb al Shimri, a Saudi lawyer the Post-Intelligencer reports represents the Saudi prisoners, said:

"The families don't believe it, and of course I don't believe it either. A crime was committed here and the U.S. authorities are responsible,"

Joshua Denbeaux said that the suicides: "...represent the Pentagon's absolute worst nightmare." Denbeaux added: "...many of these prisoners have been trying to kill themselves, for months, if not years."

Senator

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

Arlen Specter

Arlen Specter is a former United States Senator from Pennsylvania. Specter is a Democrat, but was a Republican from 1965 until switching to the Democratic Party in 2009...

, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, commented: "Where we have evidence, they ought to be tried, and if convicted, they ought to be sentenced."
Specter added that many of the prisoners' capture was based on: "...the flimsiest sort of hearsay."

Representative

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

Jane Harman

Jane Margaret Lakes Harman is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1993 to 1999, and from 2001 to 2011. She is a member of the Democratic Party....

, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee commented: "Bottom line: We've kept people in this prison for years and years and years without a status, without any rights, and it was the wrong way to go."

Ken Roth, the head of Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

commented: "Sadly, suicides like these are entirely predictable when people are held outside the law with no end in sight."

Government counter-reaction

The Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

quoted the detainee's hospital's head doctor's challenge to the idea that the dead men had been driven to suicide by despair.
He asserted that the men had psychological tests administered shortly before their deaths, that confirmed that they were not depressed. The administration of psychological tests to hunger strikers was routine, and all three men were participants in the recent hunger strike.

The Doctor spoke on condition of anonymity. But he has been previously identified as Captain John Edmundson

John Edmundson

Captain John Edmundson USN was the chief doctor at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.During a reporter's tour of the 48 bed facility in January 2005, Edmundson revealed, in an off-hand comment, that 23 detainees had tried to hang themselves in a simultaneous mass-suicide bid in late...

USN

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

.

According to the Associated Press the chief doctor told reporters that: "Officials have also lowered the threshold to determine when a detainee is at risk of being suicidal ... Now, any detainee thought to be a suicide risk is placed in a tear-proof anti-suicide smock

Anti-suicide smock

An anti-suicide smock, or turtle suit, is a tear-resistant single piece outer garment that is generally used to prevent a hospitalized, incarcerated, or otherwise detained individual from forming a noose with the garment to commit suicide...

_ which can't be fashioned into a makeshift noose _ for 72 hours and given a psychological exam ... There are currently about 20 detainees in green anti-suicide smocks, the doctor said."

Admiral Harris was quoted as saying: "I think it is less about the length of their detention ... It's less about that and it's more that they continue to fight their fight, I think the vast majority of detainees are resisting us."

Confiscating detainees legal papers
On July 9, 2006 The Jurist reported that DoD spokesmen have claimed that the dead men received assistance from others.
Further, the DoD claims that preparations for the hangings were written on the blank paper issued to the detainees lawyers.

The camp authorities has seized almost all the documents from almost all the detainees—a total of half a ton of papers.
The administration wants to suspend all lawyers visits, while a commission reviews those half-ton of papers for any further sign that any of the detainees lawyers helped plan the suicides.

Guantanamo lawyers have reported that the camp authorities are confiscating detainee's mail and legal papers.
The lawyers report that at least one of their clients attributes the confiscation to the premise that they might contain hints that the suicide bids were pre-planned, and possibly were encouraged by detainee's lawyers. According to Clive Stafford Smith

Clive Stafford Smith

Clive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America....

: "They think that they are going to find letters from us suggesting suicide. It's ludicrous."

According to the San Jose Mercury:

"Defense attorney Richard Wilson said in an affidavit that a military legal official told him that investigators had seized all personal papers from every detainee as part of the investigation."

Comments by released detainees who knew the dead men

Bahrain

' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

i detainee Abdulla Majid Al Naimi

Abdulla Majid Al Naimi

Born on March 9, 1982, in Manama, Bahrain, Abdulla Majid Al Naimi is a Bahraini, formerly held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba....

who was released on November 8, 2005 said he knew the three dead men, and commented on their deaths on June 25, 2006.

Al Naimi said that
Al-Utaybi and Ahmed
were captured while studying in Pakistan. He said that they were interrogated for only a brief time after their arrival in Guantanamo, and their interrogators had told them they were not regarded as a threat, and that they could expect to be released.

"The interrogations dealt with them only during the first month of their detention. For more than a year before I left Guantanamo in November 2005, they were left alone. But they were still held in bad conditions in the camp by the guards,"

Al Naimi said that
Al Zahrani, was only 16 when he was captured.
According to Al Naimi Al Zahrani should have been treated as a minor.

"He was 21 when he died, barely the legal age in most countries, and was merely 16 when he was picked up four and half years ago. His age shows that he is not even supposed to be taken to a police office; he should have been turned over to the underage [juvenile] authorities."

Death in Camp Delta

In another report led by Mark Denbeaux, an attorney for two Guantanamo detainees, Seton Hall University School of Law’s Center for Policy & Research has issued Death in Camp Delta, which claims dramatic flaws in the government’s investigation of three simultaneous deaths of detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The June 2006 deaths raised serious questions about the security of the Camp, and this report highlights the derelictions of duty by officials of multiple defense and intelligence agencies who unnecessarily allowed three detainees to die and elected not to conduct a proper investigation into the cause of the deaths.

The three detainees were each reported to have been found hanging in his separate cell shortly after midnight on June 10, 2006. According to the government’s own autopsies, each detainee had been hanging unobserved for a minimum of two hours. The deaths went unnoticed despite the constant supervision of five guards who were responsible for only 28 inmates in a lit cell block monitored by video cameras. According to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), each detainee should have been observed a minimum of once every 10 minutes by the guards. Despite clear violations of the SOP, no guards were ever disciplined.

Buried in the investigation are details of a camp in total disarray. According to Professor Mark Denbeaux, Director of the Center for Policy & Research, the investigation shows “guards not on duty, detainees hanging dead in their cells for hours and guards leaving their posts to eat the detainees’ leftover food.” During initial investigation interviews immediately following the deaths, those guards on duty were warned that they were suspected of giving false statements and were even read their Miranda rights. These guards were also ordered to not write out sworn statements, even though SOPs demanded they should.

The government’s investigation is slipshod, and its conclusion leaves the most important questions about this tragedy unanswered. Taking the military investigation’s findings as truthful and complete, in order to have committed suicide by hanging, the detainees had to:

Braid a noose by tearing up their sheets and/or clothing

Make mannequins of themselves so it would appear to the guards they were asleep in their cells

Hang sheets to block the view into the cells, in violation of SOPs

Stuff rags down their own throats

Tie their own feet together

Tie their own hands together

Hang the noose from the metal mesh of the cell wall and/or ceiling

Climb up on to the sink, put the noose around their necks and release their weight, resulting in death by strangulation

Hang dead for at least two hours completely unnoticed by guards

However, both the Pentagon and the DOJ have responded that only one detainee had a rag in his throat, that their bonds were loose and easily self-tie-able, that it was unnecessary for them to climb to the sink and that considering the seriousness of the situation the guards were expected to wait for NCIS investigators to give their statements (this is SOP when criminal actions are possible). The official response also notes that numerous guards, detainees and medical personnel saw the deceased being transferred from the cellblock to the infirmary and that the video records of the cellblock (which did not show the interiors of the cells) saw nothing amiss.

Fourth Guantanamo detainee dies of suicide, May 30, 2007

Abdul Rahman Ma'ath Thafir al Amri a citizen of Saudi Arabia died in the detainment camps on May 30, 2007.

The Southern Command

Southern Command

Southern Command can refer to a number of military commands:*Southern Command *Southern Command *Southern Command *Southern Command *United States Southern Command*Southern Command ...

announced on the evening of May 30, 2007 that a Saudi prisoner had died of suicide.
They announced: "The detainee was found unresponsive and not breathing in his cell by guards."
The DoD did not immediately release the dead man's identity.
The DoD asserted however that his remains would be treated with cultural sensitivity,

The statement closed with the following:
On Thursday May 31, 2007 Saudi officials announced that the dead man's name was Abdul Rahman Maadha al-Amry.

The Associated Press

Associated Press

reported, at noon May 31, 2007, that the dead man had been identified as one of the "high-value detainees", held in Camp 5.

The Miami Herald, citing sources with inside knowledge of the case, reports that the dead man was
Abdul Rahman Ma Ath Thafir Al Amri

Abdul Rahman Ma Ath Thafir Al Amri

Abdul Rahman Ma'ath Thafir al Amri was a citizen of Saudi Arabia, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba....

.
Their report identified Al Amri as one of the Guantanamo captives who was never allowed to meet with an attorney.

Other newspaper reports commented on the timing of the death, pointing out that it was almost a year after the three deaths of June 10, 2006, and that both incidents followed a new commander being assigned to JTF-GTMO, and both incidents occurred shortly before the convening of a military commission

Guantanamo military commission

The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...

Fifth detainee reported dead of suicide June 1, 2009

Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi

Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi was a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.Al Hanashi's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 78....

a 31 year old prisoner from Yemen died in the camps on June 1, 2009.

On June 2, 2009 the Department of Defense

United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

reported that he committed suicide

Camp officials did not allow journalists who were at the camp for Omar Khadr

Omar Khadr

Omar Ahmed Khadr is a Canadian child soldier and one of the juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He was convicted of five charges under the United States Military Commissions Act of 2009 including murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support for terrorism,...

's Guantanamo military commission

Guantanamo military commission

to report news of his death until they left Guantanamo.

Reported suicide attempts

Juma Al Dossary	Made at least 13 suicide attempts. Attempted suicide during a lawyer's visit. Repatriated to Saudi Arabia, where he graduated from the Saudi jihadist rehabilitation program.
Mishal Awad Sayaf Alhabiri	Left brain-damaged, allegedly following a failed suicide attempt Failed suicide attempt Failed suicide attempts comprise a large portion of suicide attempts. Some are regarded as not true attempts at all, but rather parasuicide. The usual attempt may be a wish to affect another person by the behaviour. Consequently, it occurs in a social context and may represent a request for help.... . He can still obey simple instructions. Repatriated to Saudi custody.
Sha Mohammed Alikhel	Sent to the punishment cells when Guantanamo was full, and all the ordinary cells were occupied. Reports detention in the punishment cells drove him to despair and he made four suicide attempts. Released May 8, 2003.
mass suicide bid	Late 2003 - 23 detainees tried to hang themselves simultaneously.
Isa Khan	Khan has been released in Pakistan. Khan reports that enduring constant surveillance, when he considers himself an innocent man, feels so intolerable that he has considered suicide.
Muhammad Saad Iqbal	Muhammad Saad Iqbal told his Combatant Status Review Tribunal Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". The CSRTs were established July 7, 2004 by order of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense... that he had to wear the orange jumpsuit of the non-compliant captive because he made a suicide attempt on the 191st day of his detention.
Seven Saudi detainees	Joshe Natreen, the American lawyer of seven Saudi detainees, reported that a Guantanamo official informed her that another Saudi had made a suicide attempt since June 10, 2006.
unknown	On December 5, 2007 an unidentified detainee was taken to the prison hospital, and required stitches, after he attempted to cut his throat.
Allal Ab Aljallil Abd Al Rahman Abd Allal Ab Aljallil Abd Al Rahman Abd -Mentioned in the "No-hearing hearings" study:According to the study entitled, No-hearing hearings, Al Rahman Abd's Tribunal was an instance where a detainee had his requests for exculpatory evidence arbitrarily refused, in violation of the orders that established the Tribunals:Al Rahman Abd wanted...	Slit his wrist during an interview with David Remes, his lawyer, in mid 2009. Previous suicide attempts had resulted in his being confined to the facility's Psychiatric ward Guantanamo psychiatric ward In addition to the regular camps for detainees held in extrajudicial detention there is a Guantanamo psychiatric ward at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp complex in Cuba.... .

External links

Guantanamo deaths in 2006 won't go away The Arab American News
The Arab American News
The Arab American News is a weekly bilingual newspaper representing Arab Americans published in Dearborn, Michigan, USA.- External links :*...
Law School Study Finds Evidence Of Cover-Up After Three Alleged Suicides At Guantanamo In 2006 The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
Seton Hall University School of Law Center for Policy and Research's Analysis of June 2006 Suicide Investigation: Death in Camp Delta see
U.S. documents release under FOIA, a substantial sample
The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle

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