'Stench of despair' at Guantanamo decried

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

A "stench of despair" hangs over the Guantanamo Bay prison, where three detainees killed themselves this weekend, said a defense lawyer who recently visited the U.S. jail in Cuba.

No other detainees had tried to commit suicide since U.S. military guards found two Saudis and one Yemeni prisoner hanging by nooses made from sheets and clothing early Saturday, Army Lt. Col. Lora Tucker told The Associated Press on today.

While U.S. officials argue the suicides were political acts aimed at hurting American standing in the world, human rights activists and former detainees say prisoners are desperate after years in captivity and view suicide as the only way out even though Islam forbids it.

A European official urged that the widely criticized prison be closed, and two senior U.S. senators expressed concern that most of the prisoners have not been charged with any crimes. A Saudi Arabian human rights group called for an outside investigation of the deaths.

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This is not surprising at all. These guys have been locked up since 2002, tortured repeatedly, with no chance for release on the horizon at all--most of these prisoners don't even have a hearing in the works. Some, no doubt, are dangerous terrorists, but most were probably caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe they're low-level Taliban fighters without any important intelligence info. While severly fucked up, the Taliban is not Al-Qaeda. Of course, they're depressed; I'm sure I would be, too. This is no way to treat human beings, which is why such treatment is Constitutionally prohibited for US citizens. That is, this is just plain wrong. And if it weren't so serious, the US claim that these suicides are a political stunt would be laughable: suicide bombers notwithstanding, killing oneself is a grave sin for Muslims--this is no stunt, it's miserable desperation. There's been a movement recently to get the place shut down, but I don't see what good that'll do. Bush'll just move 'em somewhere else, even further from the light of day. This is all sick and twisted, the eternal shame of America.

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