Another prisoner at Guantanamo has tried to commit suicide, this time using his finger nail to cut his own throat. William Glaberson reports in today's The New York Times:
"A prisoner at the detention camp here cut his throat with his own fingernail last month, causing a substantial loss of blood, but was never at risk of death, military officials said Tuesday.
"“He did in fact use a sharpened fingernail,” Cmdr. Andrew Haynes, the deputy commander of the guard force here, told reporters on a tour of the camp."
To date, there have been four successful suicide attempts among prisoners at Guantanamo and other numerous unsuccessful attempts.
Writes Glaberson:
"Advocates for detainees describe such acts as signs of desperation born of indefinite detention and hopelessness. But camp administrators call them a tactic to draw publicity and provoke criticism of the government."
The fact that camp administrators call suicides a "tactic" to provoke criticism of the government seems absurd and bizarre. Who possibly is going to end his life for the purpose of criticising the government? This is Bush-speak in its most pure form. "These guys hate freedom so much that they kill themselves." Oh, yeah! Right!
Do we have people in the military like Cmdr. Andrew Haynes who really believe this garbage? Do all Bush hangers-on think that such spin is true? And if they really are believers, what does this say about our society and its values in dealing with prisoners.
We all know that people don't commit suicide in prison unless they are totally depressed, completely without hope, overwhelmed by despair. Prisoners have no rights to petition for a federal court hearing. Camp administrators in the past have discouraged lawyers. The military commissions set up to hear cases may consider information obtained by torture. The accused has no right to confront witnesses against him. No wonder that Guantanamo inmates are depressed, without hope. No wonder that we have so many attempts to commit suicide.
The solution is to grant inmates the rights of habeas corpus, right to confront their accusers, full access to their lawyers, and exclusion of "evidence" obtained through torture.
Or, even better, close Guantanamo, and transfer all inmates to federal centers where they would be under the protection of the federal courts.
But please don't blame the pitiful Guantanamo prisoners who take their own lives.
"A prisoner at the detention camp here cut his throat with his own fingernail last month, causing a substantial loss of blood, but was never at risk of death, military officials said Tuesday.
"“He did in fact use a sharpened fingernail,” Cmdr. Andrew Haynes, the deputy commander of the guard force here, told reporters on a tour of the camp."
To date, there have been four successful suicide attempts among prisoners at Guantanamo and other numerous unsuccessful attempts.
Writes Glaberson:
"Advocates for detainees describe such acts as signs of desperation born of indefinite detention and hopelessness. But camp administrators call them a tactic to draw publicity and provoke criticism of the government."
The fact that camp administrators call suicides a "tactic" to provoke criticism of the government seems absurd and bizarre. Who possibly is going to end his life for the purpose of criticising the government? This is Bush-speak in its most pure form. "These guys hate freedom so much that they kill themselves." Oh, yeah! Right!
Do we have people in the military like Cmdr. Andrew Haynes who really believe this garbage? Do all Bush hangers-on think that such spin is true? And if they really are believers, what does this say about our society and its values in dealing with prisoners.
We all know that people don't commit suicide in prison unless they are totally depressed, completely without hope, overwhelmed by despair. Prisoners have no rights to petition for a federal court hearing. Camp administrators in the past have discouraged lawyers. The military commissions set up to hear cases may consider information obtained by torture. The accused has no right to confront witnesses against him. No wonder that Guantanamo inmates are depressed, without hope. No wonder that we have so many attempts to commit suicide.
The solution is to grant inmates the rights of habeas corpus, right to confront their accusers, full access to their lawyers, and exclusion of "evidence" obtained through torture.
Or, even better, close Guantanamo, and transfer all inmates to federal centers where they would be under the protection of the federal courts.
But please don't blame the pitiful Guantanamo prisoners who take their own lives.
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