The United States Department of Defense (DoD) had stopped reporting Guantanamo suicide attempts in 2002. In mid-2002 the DoD changed the way they classified suicide attempts, and enumerated them under other acts of "self-injurious behavior".
On January 24, 2005 the U.S. military revealed that in 2003, there were 350 incidents of "self-harm".23 Detainees Attempted Suicide in Protest at Base, Military Says , Associated Press, January 25, 2005 120 of those incidents of self-harm were attempts by detainees to hang themselves. Twenty-three detainees participated in a mass-suicide attempt from August 18 to 26, 2003. A number of incidents happened after a change in command at the camp in 2003 resulted in an increase in the severity of interrogation techniques used by military and CIA intelligence officers.
On June 10, 2006, the DOD announced that three prisoners held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps had taken their own lives. The June 10, 2006 suicides were the first inmate deaths at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp. The DoD acknowledged there had been a total of 41 suicide attempts among 29 detainees until that date.Three detainees kill themselves at Guantanamo, Reuters, June 11, 2006 Since June 2006, DOD has announced three suicide deaths by detainees at Guantanamo. In 2008, the NCIS released a heavily redacted report of its investigation of the three suicides at Guantanamo in 2006.
In reports published in 2009 and 2010, Seton Hall University Law School's Center for Policy and Research and a joint investigation by Harper's Magazine and NBC News, respectively, strongly criticized the government's account of the 2006 suicides. Harper's 2010 article, based on accounts by four former Guantanamo guards, asserted that DOD had initiated a cover-up of deaths resulting from torture during interrogation. The DOD has denied these allegations.
History: Conditions of detainees In 2002 the United States government kept conditions at Guantanamo extremely secret, not releasing information about the detainees and especially not their names. That year, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) stopped reporting suicide attempts at the camps.
In mid-2002 the DOD changed the way they classified suicide attempts, referring to these acts as "self-injurious behavior", one of many terms the Bush administration coined to describe camp events. Medical experts outside the camp have argued that doctors did not have sufficient understanding of the detainees to make such conclusions about their intentions or motives.
In the spring of 2003, 32 Afghans and 3 Pakistanis were released from the detention camp. News media reported from interviews with them that some former detainees described despair and numerous attempts among prisoners to take their own lives, in large part because of individuals' belief in their innocence, the harshness of camp conditions, and especially the indefinite confinement and unending uncertainty they faced.
Quotes from ex-detainees:
On January 24, 2005 the U.S. military revealed that in 2003, there were 350 incidents of "self-harm" among detainees at Guantanamo. 120 of those incidents were attempts by detainees to hang themselves. From August 18 to 26, 2003, twenty-three detainees participated in a mass-suicide attempt. Reporters noted that numerous attempted suicides occurred after a change in command at the camp resulted in an increase in the severity of interrogation techniques used against the detainees.
Reported suicides on June 10, 2006 On June 10, 2006 the DOD announced that three detainees had died at Guantanamo, saying they "killed themselves in an apparent suicide pact".Triple suicide at Guantanamo camp , BBC, June 11, 2006 The prisoners were the Saudi Arabians Mani al-Utaybi and Yasser al-Zahrani, and a Yemeni citizen, Ali Abdullah Ahmed.Three Guantanamo detainees die in suicides , Reuters, June 10, 2006
The prison commander Rear Admiral Harry Harris, Jr. (2006–2007) stated: "This was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetric warfare committed against us.""Three die in Guantanamo suicide pact" , The Times, June 11, 2006 Harris also said that the Guantanamo detainees were: "dangerous, committed to killing Americans.""Suicides spur Guantanamo criticism" , CNN, June 11, 2006 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 expressed "serious concern." Colleen Graffy, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, called the suicides, "a good PR move"—and, "a tactic to further the jihadi cause"."Guantanamo suicides a 'PR move'" , BBC, 11 June 2006
On June 12, 2006, Cully Stimson, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, said:
I wouldn't characterize 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."Guantanamo inmate killed himself 'unaware he was due to be freed'" , The Scotsman, June 13, 2006
The Scotsman characterized this as an attempt by the Bush administration "... to pull back from the earlier comments about public relations and 'asymmetric warfare'."
Sean McCormack, spokesman for the United States State Department, said, "I would not say that it was a PR stunt". He said that the detainees were apparently unaware that one of them was due to be transferred to Saudi Arabia, under terms that would require him to be kept in custody, and another was to be released to Saudi Arabia.
Joshua Denbeaux, a lawyer representing detainees through the Center for Constitutional Rights, has said that prison authorities were withholding this information because US officials had not decided which country the detainee was going to be transferred to. Denbeaux is one of the principal authors of A Profile of 517 Detainees through Analysis of Department of Defense Data (2006), published by the Center for Policy and Analysis of Seton Hall University Law School. It analyzed DOD data about the prisoners' identities and allegations for why they were being detained.
Colonel Michael Bumgarner (April 2005 – June 2006), the commander of the camp's guard force, reacted to the suicides by telling his officers soon afterward: "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.""Guards tighten security to prevent more deaths: Human rights groups, defense lawyers call for investigation of 3 men's suicides in military prison" , Charlotte Observer, June 13, 2006
Skepticism about suicide claims The Associated Press reported that news of the deaths raised skepticism over whether the Saudi men had committed suicide. The article reports Saudi government and family speculation that the men were driven to suicide by torture. Several prominent Saudis accused the camp authorities of murdering the three men.
It was reported:
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 representing 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 of the Center for Constitutional Rights 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 Arlen Specter, 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' captures were based on: "... the flimsiest sort of hearsay."
Government comments/investigation 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.""Official: Gitmo Prisoners Waging 'Jihad'", Associated Press, June 28, 2006 "Guantanamo Bay suicide prisoners 'showed no sign of being depressed'" , The Independent, June 28, 2006
On July 9, 2006 The Jurist reported that DOD spokesmen have claimed that the dead men received assistance from others."DOJ tells court legal notes may have aided Guantanamo suicide plot" , The Jurist, July 9, 2006"Guantanamo Probe Finds Evidence of Plot", Associated Press, July 9, 2006"U.S. Says Inmate Legal Notes May Have Aided Suicide Plot" , New York Times, July 9, 2006 Further, the DOD claims that preparations for the hangings were written on the blank paper issued to the detainees' lawyers. As part of the investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), the camp authorities seized almost all the documents from almost all the detainees, a total of half a ton of papers, including their privileged, confidential communications with their lawyers. The administration wants to suspend all lawyers' visits, while a commission reviews the papers for any sign that the detainees' lawyers helped plan the suicides. (Note: The NCIS heavily redacted report was released publicly in August 2008.)
Lawyers for Guantanamo detainees reported that the camp authorities were confiscating detainees' mail and legal papers."Guantanamo lawyers say letters seized" , San Jose Mercury, June 30, 2006 The lawyers report that at least one of their clients attributes the confiscation to DOD thinking they might suggest that the suicides were planned, and possibly encouraged, by detainees' lawyers. According to Clive Stafford Smith, legal director of Reprieve, a British organization representing numerous detainees: "They think that they are going to find letters from us suggesting suicide. It's ludicrous."
Comments by released detainees who knew the dead men Bahraini detainee Abdulla Majid Al Naimi, who was released on November 8, 2005, said he knew the three dead men."Ex-detainee disputes triple suicide report" , Gulf Daily News, 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. 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. Al Naimi thought he 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."
Allegations of homicide and cover-up