Obama's Gitmo Deadline Passes As Guard's Account Casts Light on Prisoner 'Suicides'

In the News - In the News

Written by Muslim Link Staff

Friday, 22 January 2010 23:18

By Muslim Link Staff

Promising to return America to the "moral high ground" in the war on terrorism, then newly elected President Obama pledged to close Guantanamo Bay by January 22, 2010. Not only has he failed on that promise, but new allegations by Guantanamo guards indicate prisoner "suicides" the Army reported in 2006 are actually homicides committed by US soldiers.

Three Guantanamo Bay prisoners the United States said committed suicide in June 2006 were actually tortured and beaten to death by a special group of US soldiers, Harpers Magazine reported on January 18, 2010.

Then army sergeant Joe Hickman disputed the US Army's official record of events and met with Department of Justice officials to relate what he saw happen during the evening hours of June 9, 2006. Hickman was on guard duty that night and – after the Department of Justice officially “closed” the case without any fault in the Army's official narration – is now going public with his knowledge of the events.

The three prisoners – one Yemeni and two Saudis – were reported to have died at around the same time. According to the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the prisoners were “able to somehow knot their feet and hands together and stuff rags down their throat” just before hanging themselves. An official military autopsy report listed the cause of death as “unequivocally suicide”. The bodies of all three prisoners had their neck organs missing after the autopsies.

Like most detainees at Guantanamo, the three prisoners were never charged with any crimes.

Soldiers at Guantanamo were asked to not comment on the “suicides”. Although Hickman feared going to prison for speaking to the media, he believed maintaining “silence was just wrong”, reported Harper's Magazine.

Hickman told Harper's Magazine the prisoners were taken out of their cells by an unmarked van with special privileges at Guantanamo. Although guards are supposed to log each and every visitor – even John McCain's visit was logged with precision – the comings and goings of this van and its soldiers was never to be recorded by order of camp superiors. Hickman saw the van take the three prisoners to a special building – which soldiers are told “does not exist” – and a few hours later return with what appeared to be lifeless bodies.

The complete article, “The Guantánamo 'Suicides': A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle,” by Scott Horton, appeared in the January 18, 2010 issue of Harper's Magazine.