Questions emerge about apparent suicides

7 February 2010, 03:18PM

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“We never got another letter. We only received his body.” Ali Abdullah Ahmed, father of Salah Ahmed Al-Salami.

In June 2006, Salah Ahmed Al-Salami, Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani were found hanging in their cells in what the military orignally labelled an act of ‘asymmetrical warfare’¹. Four years later, the official story of suicide appears to be unravelling as former guards speak out, and a secret interrogation facility is discovered within Guantanamo.

The families of the men who died in Guantanamo Bay have been calling for an independent investigation to take place for years in an attempt to understand why their loved ones lost their lives². Questions have always surrounded the deaths of the men due to the high level of secrecy surrounding the circumstances. The families ordered an independent autopsy when the bodies were returned to their home countries. Along with a host of anomalies, the Swiss team, who was appointed to conduct the autopsies, found that organs essential to the investigation had been removed from all of the bodies. Al-Salami’s throat, larynx, pharynx were missing; organs essential to determine whether he died from hanging³. Al-Salami’s hyoid bone was found to be broken, which is consistent with manual strangulation, but it was removed before the Swiss team could investigate⁴. The team also found that the fingernails and toenails had been cut extremely short in all of the men which they say would have removed any DNA evidence. Although the families and those who conducted the autopsies requested the missing organs for further investigation, they have been denied.

The official autopsy report conducted at the time of the deaths by staff on site at Guantanamo Bay has never been publically released. However, in November of 2009, students of Seton Hall Law School examined the heavily redacted Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) report that was commissioned by the former administration to investigate the deaths. The law school’s conclusion was that the official story was full of ‘unacknowledged contradictions’ and another section of the report was described as ‘simply unbelievable’⁵. This conclusion is understandable when the official story is examined. The NCIS report concludes that the three men simultaneously bound their own hands together (and one his feet) stuffed rags quite a way down their throats, then placed the noose around their necks and threw themselves off the washbasin.

However, the report did not address some of the key issues, such as why two of the men had cloth masks over their faces, how they managed to obtain so many sheets considering the strict nature of the facility, or why there was evidence of injections and severe bruising on the stomachs and faces.

Guards Break Their Silence

Four former guards who were interviewed by Harpers say that they were ordered ‘not to speak out’ about what they saw that night, and were reminded to stick to the official story⁶. The day after the deaths, Guantanamo's commander Colonel Bumgarner told the military personnel that although they ‘all knew’ that the men died from having rags shoved down their throats, that the media would report that they died from hanging. On this occasion, the guards report that he reminded them that all of their phone calls and emails were being monitored. Rear Admiral Harry Harris then read a prepared statement to the media reminding the world that the deceased had ‘no regard for human life’. So began a whole host of attacks on these men who had never been charged of any crime, even to the point where they were compared to Nazis, Hitlerites and the Klu Klux Clan⁷.

However new revelations continue to come to light. The former guards describe the existence of a black site called ‘Camp No’, as in ‘no, the camp does not exist’⁸. The camp is reportedly located on the outer perimeter of the detention facility and is said to be run by non-uniformed government personnel (alleged to be CIA). One of the guards, Hickman, estimated that the facility could hold as many as eighty detainees. Hickman told Harpers that on one occasion he had heard a ‘series of screams’ coming from the facility.

Harpers reports that on the night of the deaths, Hickman saw a paddy wagon which was used to transport detainees one at a time leave Camp Delta on three occasions on that evening before 8pm. At around 11.30 pm, Hickman saw the paddy wagon back into the medical clinic ‘as if to unload something’. Later, Hickman and another guard Penvose, entered the medical facility to see what was going on and a medic told them that three detainees had been brought in dead, and that they had died because they had rags shoved down their throats, and one was reportedly ‘severely bruised’.

A lawyer for another detainee who remains in Guantanamo, Shaker Amer, reported that on the same night Mr Amer was very badly beaten. He described being strapped to a restraint chair and having all of his pressure points pressed, being choked, having guards bending his nose repeatedly until he thought it would break, gouged eyes, being pinched on his feet and thighs. He also described having his eyes held open whilst the guards shone a 'Mag light' into his eyes for minutes at a time. Interestingly, he also described them placing a mask over his face so he could not cry out.

Waterboarding, a technique sanctioned under the Bush administration, was carried out on a number of detainees⁹. The technique involves placing a cloth down the persons throat, or over their mouths to simulate drowning. The curious timing and circumstances surrounding the deaths and the highly secretive findings of formal reports warrant further investigation to discover if the men were subjected to ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’. If these men have died as a result of interrogation techniques employed by agents of the U.S. government, then there must be accountability.

Amnesty International has continually called for those responsible for human rights abuses to be called to account. The failure to independently investigate and prosecute alleged abuses is contrary to the U.S.’s international treaty obligations. The culture of immunity and lack of accountability must come to an end. An independent investigation must be undertaken to ascertain the nature of the deaths, and if there are people responsible, they must be held to account.

“The truth is what matters, they practiced every form of torture on my son and on many others as well. What was the result? What facts did they find? They found nothing. They learned nothing. They accomplished nothing.”

General Al-Zahraini, father of Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani

Read the full report The Guantánamo "Suicides": A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle

Update

On the 16th of February 2010, Judge Ellen Huvelle dismissed a case brought by the centre for Constitutional rights on behalf of the families of two of the men who died that day. The families sought damages on the basis that they were illegally detained, tortured, and victims of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. Judge Huvelle concluded that due to the 2006 Military commissions Act, the court was stripped of jurisdiction to hear such cases, so no remedy will be available to the families of those men.

For more, see, 'U.S. court dismisses suit over Guantanamo suicides', Reuters, 17th February, 2010 and, Scott Horton, Court Dissmisses Suits over Gitmo Deaths, Harpers Magazine, 17th February, 2010.

References

1. Michelle Shephard. 'Gitmo Suicide puts Pressure on Obama', 2nd June, 2009. Available at, http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/644324

2. The families have commented that suicide is against Islam and it would be out of character for the men to even consider it. Letters sent to the families of the men from the three detainees coroborate this as one had been cleared for release. See, Mahvish Rukhsana Khan (2008) 'My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the stories they told me.' Scribe: Victoria.

3. Mahvish Rukhsana Khan (2008) 'My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the stories they told me.' Scribe: Victoria.

4. Scott Horton, 'The Guantanamo "Suicides": A Camp Delta sergent blows the whistle', January/February, 2010. Available at; http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368

5. ibid.

6. Andy Worthington, 'Murders at Guantanamo: Exposing the Truth about the 2006 'suicides'', 18th January, 2010. Available at; http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/01/18/murders-at-guantanamo-scott-horton-of-harpers-exposes-the-truth-about-the-2006-suicides/

7. Scott Horton, 'The Guantanamo "Suicides": A Camp Delta sergent blows the whistle', January/February, 2010. Available at; http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368

8. for the full report see Scott Horton, 'The Guantanamo "Suicides": A Camp Delta sergent blows the whistle', January/February, 2010. Available at; http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368

9. See Amnesty International, 'The Torture Memo's', 4th May, 2009. Available at; http://www.amnesty.org.au/hrs/comments/20923/

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