Four US soldiers cast doubt on Gitmo ’suicides’

By GottaLaff

When will there be a thorough investigation of all of BushCo's little antics, followed by some real consequences? Yeah, yeah, I know, I know...

Four members of a US military intelligence unit assigned to Guantanamo Bay are questioning the government's official version of the deaths of three detainees in the summer of 2006.

The soldiers are offering a very different version of events than the one provided by the official report carried out by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service. [...]

"All four soldiers say they were ordered by their commanding officer not to speak out, and all four soldiers provide evidence that authorities initiated a cover-up within hours of the prisoners’ deaths," reports Scott Horton at Harper's magazine. [...]

The US military initially described their deaths as "asymmetrical warfare" against the United States, before finally declaring that the deaths were suicides that the inmates coordinated among themselves.

But a report from Seton Hall University Law School, released last fall, cast doubt on almost every element of the US military's story.

Please read the whole story here.

This is my zillionth post about Gitmo and detainee mistreatment/torture/deaths. And Fayiz al-Kandari is still there after 8 long years. Someone explain that to me, please.

******

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

Seton Hall law school study: Potential cover-up in alleged Gitmo suicides

By GottaLaff

Back in 2006, there were three detainees who died while imprisoned at Gitmo, and their deaths were called "suicides". This, some military officials said, was an effort to "further the jiahdi cause", and more.

But now a new study prepared by Seton Hall law school faculty and students is saying this:

[The report] challenges the Pentagon’s claims. It notes serious and unresolved contradictions within a Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) report — which was publicly released only in fragmentary form, two years after the fact — and declares the military’s internal investigation an obvious cover-up. The only question is: of what? [...]

The study also notes that there has never been any explanation of how the three bodies could have hung in the cells, undiscovered, for at least two hours, when the cells were supposed to be under constant supervision by roving guards and video cameras.

Disturbingly, these facts were collected within the NCIS report — but without discussion or any effort to make conclusions based on them. [... The study] concluded that the three prisoners committed suicide as part of a “conspiracy.” But, according to the study: “The investigations… fail to present any evidence of a conspiracy. In fact, all other evidence is inconsistent with the conclusion that the detainees conspired.”

So what are the possibilities? They seem pretty obvious. Study director and Seton Hall Law Professor Mark Denbeaux:

“Either the investigation is a cover-up of gross dereliction of duty, or it is a cover-up of something far more chilling. More than three years later we do not know what really happened.” Human Rights Watch is calling on the military to release its report unredacted.

That would be transparency we could believe in.

******

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

BREAKING- Kentucky state police: Census worker found hanging killed himself

By GottaLaff

How did he do that with his body bound in duct tape? Nevertheless, MSNBC's headline banner says:

Census worker found hanging killed himself, Kentucky state police say

Waiting to hear more.

UPDATE: It was for insurance money:

Census worker Bill Sparkman committed suicide and deliberately made it look like murder as part of an insurance scam, Kentucky state police have concluded.

Spike in Suicide Calls Related to Economy

Amazing how insidious the crisis is.

(AP) Economic woes are weighing heavily on some Americans - so much so that the federal government is boosting financial support for suicide prevention centers around the nation.

Richard McKeon, the lead health adviser for suicide prevention at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, says calls to suicide crisis centers have increased sharply in the past year - with more than 57,000 calls in July alone. He said about a quarter of the calls were linked to economic distress.

(snip)

"We know that every single day, there are people calling who are in the midst of a suicide attempt," McKeon said in an interview late Tuesday. "Any delay in getting that call answered could be tragic."

Military: Gitmo detainee dies of apparent suicide

By GottaLaff

Close it down, already:

A Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo Bay has died of an apparent suicide, U.S. military officials said Tuesday. His is the fifth apparent suicide at the offshore U.S. prison, which President Barack Obama hopes to close by January. [...]

The Yemeni prisoner, also known as Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al-Hanashi, had been held without charge at Guantanamo since February 2002, a month after the isolated U.S. base started taking prisoners. Military records show the alleged Taliban fighter was about 31.

The apparent suicide happened late Monday, but it was not revealed by the military until after a dozen journalists who were covering a military tribunal session left the base about midday Tuesday. A Defense Department official said the reason was that the Yemeni government had not yet been notified.

Medical records previously released by the military in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The Associated Press showed that the prisoner's weight had dropped to about 86 pounds (39 kilograms) in December 2005 _ an indication that he may have joined a long-running hunger strike among prisoners.[...]

Guantanamo critics said the death underscores the urgent need to close the U.S. prison as soon as possible.

"This kind of desperation is caused by the uncertainty of not knowing whether one will ever be released or even charged," said Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney. [...]

U.S. authorities say Al-Hanashi traveled to Afghanistan in 2001 and allegedly admitted to fighting with the Taliban on the front lines. He lived in four different al-Qaida and Taliban-affiliated guest houses, and was captured at Mazar-e-Sharif following the uprising there, they said.

In court documents, al-Hanashi said he planned to go back to Yemen if released from Guantanamo. He said he hoped to get married and become a history or geography teacher.

So at the time that he allegedly admitted to being a front-line Taliban fighter, was he being waterboarded?