Suicide is painful

Yasser Talal Abdulah Yahya al-Zahrani, one
of the detainees who committed suicide early Saturday.

Prisoners' Ruse Is Inquiry Focus at Guantánamo

By DAVID S. CLOUD and NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: June 12, 2006

WASHINGTON, June 11 — Three detainees at the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, tried to conceal themselves in their cells — behind laundry and through other means — to prevent guards from seeing them commit suicide, a senior military 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, said the official, Lt. Cmdr. Robert T. Durand of the Navy. 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 bodies. Regulations at Guantánamo call for guards to check on each inmate every two minutes.

Military officials said one focus of an investigation into the suicides would be the need for procedural changes, like barring prisoners from doing laundry in their cells.

Gen. Bantz J. Craddock of the Army, who oversees Guantánamo as commander of the United States Southern Command, told reporters on 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?"

The Pentagon identified the three detainees as two Saudis, Mani bin Shaman bin Turki al-Habardi, 30, and Yasser Talal Abdulah Yahya al-Zahrani, 22, and a Yemeni, Ali Abdullah Ahmed, 33.

Reaction around the world seemed muted, though the Liberal Democratic leader in Britain, Sir Menzies Campbell, said he was thinking about touring Guantánamo and repeated his criticism of the policy of detaining suspects without sending them to trial.

Democrats in the United States said little, apparently concerned about appearing to be sympathizing with detainees who could turn out to have significant terrorist connections.

White House officials described the three men as committed terrorists, and military officials said that none had been among the handful of prisoners whose cases had been brought before military commissions for prosecution.

But they can't be held until driven to suicide, regardless of their crimes. It is a violation of human rights. They even tried to spin this as a way of attacking us and making us look bad.Jesus