Study faults Guantanamo death probe

[sabra]

Source: aljazeera

A US military investigation into the apparent suicides of three Guantanamo Bay prisoners in 2006 "failed to conform to minimum standards", a study has found.

The Seton Hall University report found that events surrounding the deaths of Yassat Talaal al Zahrani, Mani Shaman al Habardi al Tabi, and Ali Abdullah Ahmed on the night of the June 9, 2006, were far from clear.

...

But questions have been raised about the official account of the way the men took their own lives. The military says that the men braided nooses for themselves, tied their hands and feet together, climbed onto their sink in their cells, and hung themselves.

The three bodies reportedly hung in their cells for two hours before being discovered, despite the cells being under video and guard supervision. When they were found, each man was also discovered to have "a rag obstructing his throat", the study says.

...

In the aftermath of the deaths, journalists and lawyers were ordered off the Guantanamo complex. But the report reveals that rather than pursue a thorough investigation into what had happened, the guards on duty were not ordered to provide sworn statements of the night's events.



Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/12/20091289215957798.html

[wellst0nev0ter]

1. Isn't This The Case Where They Say The Men Were "Terrorizing" Us

with their suicides?

Besides, what's there to be so bummed about. Guantanamo is just like Disneyland. O'Reilly and Rush Pillhead told me so :sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

2. K&R for the good people at Seton Hall and their continuing efforts.

[Snazzy]

3. SETON HALL LAW RELEASES LATEST GTMO REPORT, "DEATH IN CAMP DELTA"

SETON HALL LAW RELEASES LATEST GTMO REPORT, "DEATH IN CAMP DELTA"

Seton Hall University School of Law’s Center for Policy & Research has issued a report, Death in Camp Delta, which finds dramatic flaws in the government’s investigation of three simultaneous deaths of detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The June 2006 deaths raised serious questions about the security of the Camp, and this report highlights the derelictions of duty by officials of multiple defense and intelligence agencies who allowed three detainees to die and elected not to conduct a proper investigation into the cause of the deaths.

The three detainees were each reported to have been found hanging in his separate cell shortly after midnight on June 10, 2006. According to the government’s own autopsies, each detainee had been hanging unobserved for a minimum of two hours. The deaths went unnoticed despite the constant supervision of five guards who were responsible for only 28 inmates in a lit cell block monitored by video cameras. According to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), each detainee should have been observed a minimum of once every 10 minutes by the guards. Despite clear violations of the SOP, no guards were ever disciplined.
CAMP IN DISARRAY

Buried in the investigation are details of a camp in total disarray. According to Professor Mark Denbeaux, Director of the Center for Policy & Research, the investigation shows “guards not on duty, detainees hanging dead in their cells for hours and guards leaving their posts to eat the detainees’ leftover food.” During initial investigation interviews immediately following the deaths, those guards on duty were warned that they were suspected of giving false statements and were even read their Miranda rights. These guards were also ordered to not write out sworn statements, even though SOPs demanded they should.
COVER UP

Professor Denbeaux commented, “An investigation was promised. The promised investigation was a cover up. Worse still, given the gross inadequacy of the investigation the more compelling questions are: Who knew of the cover up? Who approved of the cover up, and why? The government’s investigation is slipshod, and its conclusion leaves the most important questions about this tragedy unanswered.”

Taking the military investigation’s findings as truthful and complete, in order to have committed suicide by hanging, the detainees had to:

1. Braid a noose by tearing up their sheets and/or clothing
2. Make mannequins of themselves so it would appear to the guards they were asleep in their cells
3. Hang sheets to block the view into the cells, in violation of SOPs
4. Stuff rags down their own throats
5. Tie their own feet together
6. Tie their own hands together
7. Hang the noose from the metal mesh of the cell wall and/or ceiling
8. Climb up on to the sink, put the noose around their necks and release their weight, resulting in death by strangulation
9. Hang dead for at least two hours completely unnoticed by guards
...

http://law.shu.edu/about/news_events/releases.cfm?id=79165

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R