Three detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had tried to conceal themselves in their cells to prevent guards from seeing them commit suicide, an official said Sunday.
One of the prisoners hanged himself behind laundry drying from the ceiling of the cell and had arranged his bed to make it look as if he was still sleeping, according to Lt. Cmdr. Robert Durand. The other two detainees who committed suicide also took steps to prevent guards from seeing that they had put nooses around their necks, he added.
The deception by the prisoners raises questions about how long it took military guards to discover the suicides. Military officials said one focus of an investigation into the suicides would be the need for procedural changes, such as barring prisoners from doing laundry in their cells.
Gen. Bantz Craddock, who oversees Guantanamo as head of the Southern Command, told reporters Sunday that the investigation into the deaths “kind of boils down to two things: Are the procedures that you have in place adequate, and then were the procedures followed to the standards?”
3 detainees identified
The Pentagon identified the three detainees as two Saudis, 30-year-old Mani bin Shaman bin Turki al-Habardi and 22-year-old Yasser Talal Abdulah Yahya al-Zahrani, and a 33-year-old Yemeni, Ali Abdullah Ahmed.
White House officials on Sunday described the men as committed terrorists. Military officials said that none of them had been among the handful of prisoners whose cases have been brought before military commissions for prosecution.
The Pentagon released a statement describing Ahmed, the Yemeni, as a “mid to high-level Al Qaeda operative” who was close to Abu Zubaydah, a senior figure for Al Qaeda who has since been captured.
More Top Picks Best Weighted Stuffed Animals For Anxiety
The statement also said that al-Habardi was a member of a terrorist group that recruits for Al Qaeda and had been recommended for transfer to another country; presumably that would be Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon said al-Zahrani was “a frontline fighter for the Taliban” who participated in the prison uprising at Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of Johnny Micheal Spann, a CIA operative.
“You can’t have a final disposition about Guantanamo until the Supreme Court has ruled on the Hamdan case,” said Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, referring to a pending decision on whether detainees at Guantanamo may be tried as war criminals before military commissions and whether they may challenge their detentions in federal courts.
Military officials said they had translated notes left by the prisoners, but officials refused to describe the contents of the messages. All three men were in the same cell block, in 6-by-8-foot cells that were not adjoining but had wire-mesh walls, which might have enabled them to communicate, officials said.
Speaking by telephone from the Saudi holy city of Medina, Talal Abdallah al-Zahrani, 50, the father of Yasser al-Zahrani, said that when he heard from his son in a recent letter, he sounded in good spirits and appeared to be more optimistic than before about being released soon.
“Nothing suggested that he would commit suicide, nothing,” al-Zahrani said. His son was 17 years old in 2001 when he was apprehended in Afghanistan, where he worked with Islamic charities, he said. He said he was behaving in prison, al-Zahrani added.
Al-Zahrani also said he had invited hundreds of people to a wake for his son Sunday night after receiving word of his death from Saudi authorities. His statement about the turnout of mourners underscored the possibility that the return of the bodies to Saudi Arabia and Yemen could turn into anti-American events, if those governments permit it.
Jennifer Daskal, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said Sunday that the three suicides “are an indication of the incredible despair that the prisoners are experiencing” after many of them have been “completely cut off from the world” for as long as four years.
Craddock speculated that the suicides may have been timed to affect the Supreme Court decision on the Hamdan case.
“This may be an attempt to influence the judicial proceedings in that perspective,” he said, according to a transcript of his comments to reporters during a brief visit to Guantanamo on Sunday.
The investigation into how the three prisoners were able to hang themselves and whether changes in procedures are necessary will be conducted by the commander of the prison, Rear Adm. Harry Harris.
The inquiry probably will look at whether procedures requiring guards to observe prisoners at regular intervals were followed on the night of the suicides. Until now, prison officials have voiced confidence that the safeguards were adequate, pointing out that despite dozens of attempted suicides in the last four years, none had been successful.
Guards now will collect bed linens every morning to prevent prisoners from making nooses, Durand said. In addition to possibly revoking permission for detainees to do their own laundry, prison officials are looking at withholding toiletries and other items that might be used in suicide attempts, he added.
Signs of growing unrest
There have been recent signs of growing unrest among the prisoners, including an episode in May in which at least two prisoners attempted suicide and another was said to have faked a suicide to lure responding guards into an ambush.
Several Guantanamo officers said some prisoners had spread the suicide idea, claiming to have had visions in dreams that the prison would not be closed until three prisoners had died.
Joshua Colangeno-Bryan, a lawyer representing Jumah Dossari, a Guantanamo inmate who has attempted suicide numerous times, said he had been told that guards were expected to keep close watch on prisoners, observing them every 30 seconds. But he said the procedures were difficult to follow in practice.