U.S.: Guantanamo Protests Weren't Suicide Attempts

[Neil D]

By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) - Twenty-three prisoners at the Guantanamo detention camp staged a mass protest in 2003 in which some tried to strangle themselves, but the U.S. military said on Tuesday it did not publicize it at the time because it did not consider most of them genuine suicide attempts.

All but two were classified as "self-harm incidents" aimed at causing injury rather than death, said a spokesman for the military's Southern Command, which oversees the controversial U.S. military prison in eastern Cuba.

The mass protest took place between Aug. 18 and 28, 2003, with 10 occurring on a single day, Aug. 22. SouthCom called it "a coordinated effort to disrupt camp operations."

"Some of them did attempt to strangle themselves," said a SouthCom spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Chris Loundermon.

Two of them were treated at the camp hospital for minor injuries, he said.

"They remained in the detention hospital for less than 48 hours for observation and subsequently were transferred to the behavioral health services unit," Loundermon said.

Those two incidents were among the 34 suicide attempts by 21 prisoners the military has previously acknowledged have occurred at Guantanamo since the prison camp opened in January 2002. The rest were considered "self-harm attempts" rather than attempts to cause death, Loundermon said.

"A (press) release would not be made for every self-harm incident," he said.

The United States holds about 545 foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo, some of whom have been there more than three years. Only four have been charged with crimes and their trials are on hold pending the outcome of U.S. court challenges.

The mass protest occurred during a rotation when new guards were brought in. The prisoners were in cellblocks where they could talk with their neighbors through the metal mesh walls.

Jumana Musa, an Amnesty International director who has visited Guantanamo, said the hanging attempts were "just yet another indication of what indefinite detention does to people."

[:"blue"] There's more here in the rest of the article.

Can we analyse this a bit? Is this an army cover up? Something to ease the public's reaction to 'indefinate detention'? I mean, they are ONLY iraqi terrorists, people who have attempted to harm the united states and thier citizens. And heck, folks, if released they would probably recruit some poor deranged guy to do a suicide bombing, and kille at least 5 of our guys...It's a good thing to let them sit there for a long time thinking about thier deeds against us....right?[/]

[Jeannieb43]

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[:"blue"] I mean, they are ONLY iraqi terrorists, people who have attempted to harm the united states and thier citizens. And heck, folks, if released they would probably recruit some poor deranged guy to do a suicide bombing, and kille at least 5 of our guys...It's a good thing to let them sit there for a long time thinking about thier deeds against us....right?[/]

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And MOST of those detainees have now been released. In other words, they really weren't a danger to the U.S. at all.

[This comes from Barbara Boxer's questioning of Condi Rice at her confirmation hearing. Rice agreed when Boxer stated this.]