Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Did Gitmo "Suicides" Cover Up Murder? U.S. Sgt. Speaks Out on Deaths & Prison’s Secret CIA Site
Full transcript from Demoncracy Now.
In a month marking its 13th anniversary, we look at one of the great mysteries of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay: what happened the night of June 9, 2006, when three prisoners died. The Pentagon said the three — Yasser Talal al-Zahrani, Salah Ahmed al-Salami and Mani Shaman al-Utaybi — all committed suicide. But were they actually actually tortured to death at a secret CIA black site at the base? In a broadcast exclusive, we are joined by Joseph Hickman, a Guantánamo staff sergeant and author of the new book, "Murder at Camp Delta: A Staff Sergeant’s Pursuit of the Truth About Guantánamo Bay."
Harper’s Magazine contributing editor Scott Horton first raised questions about what happened on that night in a 2010 piece he wrote called, The Guantánamo 'Suicides.' For the piece, Horton won a National Magazine Award for Reporting. He appeared on Democracy Now! at the time, questioning the findings of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, or NCIS, which investigated the deaths.
SCOTT HORTON: We were able to see how they had concluded the suicides occurred. And they state that these three prisoners bound their feet, bound their hands with cloth, stuffed cloth down their throats, in some some cases at least, put masks over their faces to hold the cloth in place, fashioned manikins of themselves to put in their beds to deceive the guards, put up cloth to obstruct the view of cameras, fashioned a noose, which they attached at the top of an eight foot wire wall, stepped up, as their hands and feet are bound and their gagging on cloth, stepped up on top of a washbasin, put their head through the news, tightened it, and jumped off. And moreover, that these three prisoners in nonadjacent cells did all of these things absolutely simultaneously in a clockwork-like fashion. So the story is just simply incredible. Simply, not believable, I should stress.
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/15/did_gitmo_suicides_cover_up_murder
Harper’s Magazine contributing editor Scott Horton first raised questions about what happened on that night in a 2010 piece he wrote called, The Guantánamo 'Suicides.' For the piece, Horton won a National Magazine Award for Reporting. He appeared on Democracy Now! at the time, questioning the findings of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, or NCIS, which investigated the deaths.
SCOTT HORTON: We were able to see how they had concluded the suicides occurred. And they state that these three prisoners bound their feet, bound their hands with cloth, stuffed cloth down their throats, in some some cases at least, put masks over their faces to hold the cloth in place, fashioned manikins of themselves to put in their beds to deceive the guards, put up cloth to obstruct the view of cameras, fashioned a noose, which they attached at the top of an eight foot wire wall, stepped up, as their hands and feet are bound and their gagging on cloth, stepped up on top of a washbasin, put their head through the news, tightened it, and jumped off. And moreover, that these three prisoners in nonadjacent cells did all of these things absolutely simultaneously in a clockwork-like fashion. So the story is just simply incredible. Simply, not believable, I should stress.
19 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
liked spying on Congress. 
Dunno if you remember them or not, back in the 50's, during the cold war.
The jokes centered around how Russian citizens reacted to something the Gov't had said.
Now the joke is on us and it is not funny.
