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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Notes on the Guantanamo suicides

Three prisoners at Guantanamo hanged themselves yesterday. As I was reading the coverage, I came across a few odd bits.

20% of the detainees in Guantanamo are Saudi, even though they're not on the terror lists. Is the number that high because the US is afraid to repatriate them and have them released by the Saudi government?
He said there were up to 103 Saudis detained at the naval base, which holds about 460 foreigners captured mainly in Afghanistan where the United States has fought the Taliban and al Qaeda.

And this bizarre quote from Rear Adm Harry Harris.
The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were "committed" and had killed themselves in "an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us".

And, from Talkleft,
From now on, detainees will have sheets issued to them when they go to bed at night, and they will be removed in the morning. How does this prevent them from hanging themselves after lights-out? This is a band-aid, like putting a piece of tape over a hole in a flat tire, not a solution.

5 Comments:

  • I wonder how long Harris had to work to come up with that phrase. Calling suicides an act of war is bad enough. But what in hell is an asymmetric act of warfare?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:41 PM  

  • Strange that these suicides happened just after Bill O'rielly had left Gitmo.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3:52 PM  

  • Abi, I assume he's aying that because they make us look bad, they are warfare. And, generally assymetric warfare refers to acts by significantly out numbered forces, like car bombs in Iraq. So, maybe because they committed suicide.....? I'm with ya. That's why I excerpted it.

    Time. I didn't know O'Reilly went down there. I mean, what the hell are they doing let him go down there. He's not a reporter.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:58 PM  

  • Helluva way to die..and they werent' even convicted of anything.The military quote turns my stomach.Its a life,not an act of war.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 10:09 PM  

  • I read somewhere that perhaps they were in great despair because of seeing no end in sight to their incarceration. It had been enough years...no representation, no charges, no way to be heard...they just decided fuck it...couldn't take it any more. Their families would have closure.

    By Blogger sumo, at 12:35 AM  

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