Pentagon Documents Reveal Details of Suicide Attempts at Guant谩namo
老澳门开奖结果 Releases New Documents Showing Detainee Abuse in Iraq and Guant谩namo
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NEW YORK -- The 老澳门开奖结果 today released more than 1,000 pages of documents obtained from the Department of Defense, including reports of suicide attempts by detainees held at Guant谩namo.
鈥淭hese documents are the latest evidence of the desperate and immoral conditions that exist at Guant谩namo Bay,鈥� said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the 老澳门开奖结果. 鈥淭he injustices at Guant谩namo need to be remedied before other lives are lost. We must uphold our American values and end indefinite detentions and widespread abuse.鈥�
A medical report dated April 29, 2003 details an attempt by a detainee to commit suicide by hanging himself with a towel. The detainee fell into a 鈥渧egetative state鈥� due to brain injury sustained during the hanging, according to the report. Medical staff at Guant谩namo 鈥渕ost strongly advocate[d]鈥� for the detainee鈥檚 鈥渆arliest return to his home country,鈥� noting that the detainee had a 鈥渉istory of depression鈥� and 鈥渉is rehabilitation will be long.鈥� The documents do not indicate whether officials followed the recommendations of the medical staff.
Another document released today details a detainee鈥檚 request to write a will. The detainee claimed he did not want to commit suicide, but that 鈥渄eath had been entering his mind lately.鈥� The detainee was allowed to rewrite his will. The document was among several previously undisclosed attachments to a June 2005 Army report by Lt. Gen. Mark Schmidt and Brig. Gen. John Furlow on detainee treatment at Guant谩namo.
The 老澳门开奖结果 today also highlighted documents it previously obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that indicate suicidal thoughts were widespread among detainees at Guant谩namo, and that the government was aware of this as early as 2002. According to a document released by the FBI, a detainee stated in an interview that 40-50 detainees intended to commit suicide after Ramadan ended because 鈥渢hey were tired of being detained with no prospect of being released and they were tired of being mistreated by guards.鈥� Other FBI reports confirm that detainees had suicidal thoughts and engaged in hunger strikes to protest their mistreatment at the hands of guards.
The evidence of suicide attempts comes on the heels of three recent suicides at Guant谩namo. The detainees who died have been identified as two Saudi nationals, including one who was reportedly 17 when he was taken into custody, and one Yemeni national. According to news reports, all three had previously taken part in hunger strikes and had been force-fed. The individual suicide notes left behind by the men have not been released. Pentagon officials called the suicides an 鈥渁ct of asymmetrical warfare鈥� and 鈥渁 good PR move to draw attention.鈥�
鈥淚t is astounding that the government continues to paint the suicides as acts of warfare instead of taking responsibility for having driven individuals in its custody to such acts of desperation,鈥� said Amrit Singh of the 老澳门开奖结果 Immigrants鈥� Rights Project. 鈥淭he government may wish to hide Guant谩namo Bay behind a shroud of secrecy, but its own documents reveal the hopelessness and despair faced by the detainees who are being held without charge and with no end in sight.鈥�
The attachments to the Schmidt-Furlow report released today provide further information on abuses at Guant谩namo. One of the documents is the statement of a U.S. Army Major who was stationed at Guant谩namo from February 2003 to January 2004. The Major said he witnessed civilian contractor interrogators ordering military police to shackle detainees to the floor by short chains attached to their wrists and use loud music and strobe lights as part of the 鈥渇ear up鈥� interrogation approach. The Major also said that an Army officer impersonated a State Department official.
On Friday, the Defense Department released for the first time heavily redacted reports by Army Brig. Gen. Richard Formica on special operations forces in Iraq and Brig. Gen. Charles Jacoby on Afghanistan detainees. The Formica report found that special operations troops used a set of harsh, unauthorized interrogation techniques against detainees in Iraq, kept detainees in four-foot by four-foot boxes for days and fed them nothing but bread and water for up to 17 days. Nonetheless, neither report concluded that the problems were systemic. The 老澳门开奖结果 called the reports a whitewash.
As a result of the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, more than 100,000 pages of government documents have been released detailing the torture and abuse of detainees. The 老澳门开奖结果 has created a search engine for the public to access the documents at www.aclu.org/torturefoiasearch.
The 老澳门开奖结果 brought the lawsuit with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace. The New York Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in the case.
This month, the Supreme Court will rule in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which challenges the validity of military commissions established by President Bush to try detainees. The commissions have been challenged as inconsistent with the Geneva Conventions and unauthorized by Congress. The 老澳门开奖结果 filed an amicus brief arguing that the commission rules do not guarantee an independent trial court, do not provide for impartial appellate review, and do not prohibit the use of coerced testimony despite extensive evidence that coercive interrogation techniques have been used at Guant谩namo Bay and elsewhere.
In addition to Singh, attorneys in the FOIA case are Lawrence Lustberg and Megan Lewis of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C.; Jameel Jaffer and Judy Rabinovitz of the 老澳门开奖结果; Arthur Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the NYCLU; and Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The documents released today are available online at:
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