Fun in the Sun at Guantanamo

From the Chicken Noodle Network:

(Emphases are mine, in bold thank you)

Admiral: Gitmo suicides a 'planned event'

First confirmed deaths follow hunger strikes at detention facility

(CNN) -- Three prisoners at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have hanged themselves in what is being called a "planned event," the U.S. military has said.
They are the first confirmed deaths at the compound. Prisoners have attempted suicide in the past.
"Two Saudis and one Yemeni, each located in Camp 1, were found unresponsive and not breathing in their cells by guards," said a statement issued by Joint Task Force-Guantanamo on Saturday.
"Medical teams responded quickly and all three detainees were provided immediate emergency medical treatment in attempts to revive them. The three detainees were pronounced dead by a physician after all lifesaving measures had been exhausted," the statement said.
"This was clearly a planned event, not a spontaneous event," said Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo.
He added that there is a "mythical belief" that the Guantanamo detention center would be shut down if three detainees die.

- snip -

The suicides should surprise no one because the detainees believe they will be held indefinitely with no chance for justice, said Josh Colangelo-Bryan with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents about 200 of the detainees.
"They've been told that while at Guantanamo they have no rights as human beings," he told reporters during a conference call Saturday.
Colangelo-Bryan said one of his clients told him during a visit to the facility in October 2005 that he "would simply rather die than live here with no rights."
Jumana Musa, Amnesty International USA's advocacy director for domestic human rights and international justice, released a statement pointedly blaming the Bush administration for the suicides and calling Guantanamo "an indictment on its deteriorating human rights record."
"By rounding up men from all over the world and confining them in an isolated penal colony without charge or trial, the United States has violated several U.S. and international laws and treaties," Musa said in the statement.
The United States has defended its use of the Guantanamo facility to hold "enemy combatants" during the war on terrorism after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
The U.N. last month issued a report saying that holding suspects indefinitely without charges violates the world torture ban and established human rights law.
The May 19 report called for the shutdown of Guantanamo and any secret prisons the U.S. operates.
Harris said Saturday that every prisoner at Guantanamo is considered "dangerous."
"They are smart. They are creative. They are committed. They have no regard for human life, neither ours nor their own," Harris said. "I believe this was not an act of desperation, but rather an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."
Asymmetrical warfare is when one side uses unorthodox or surprise tactics to attack the weak points of its stronger opponent.

- snip -

CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

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Thanks, Barbara.


I have to wonder about Admiral Harris' statements. For starters, all suicides are planned. You don't just wake up one morning and hang yourself. No, you plan it out, whether you're serious about it or just crying for attention.

Second, well DUH, you stupid, stupid excuse for a Naval Academy graduate. If I were locked up with no charges, for no discernible reason and no hope of getting out EVER, I might consider a desperate act of suicide to be an act of assymetrical warfare. It takes me away from you and gets me out of an untenable position, after all.

Also remember the Islamic concept of suicide, which is different from the 'modern' ideal thought upon in the West. To Westerners, suicide is still considered a mortal sin, and there is a stigma attached to it (which is why, to this day, insurance companies won't pay out for suicides). It wasn't always that way - the Greeks and Romans considered suicide almost the same way the Japanese used to look upon it, as a way out of a bad spot.

Islam considers two forms of suicide; one is for selfish reasons, which is accounted a sin. The other is called istislah, and is suicide for Allah. If you are killing yourself for what you think are good, moral and godly reasons, you can face that yawning abyss of uncertainty with actual joy.

So yes, the suicides at Gitmo may indeed be a form of warfare, a means of saying, "Well, you're holding me and will never let me go, so I will take myself away from you."

Admiral Harris, the ghost of Eichmann is smiling at you right now. The Evil Bureaucrat is probably also somewhat distressed at the shoddy job you're doing to exterminate your inmates. I'm sure he could do a better job.