Politics

Three Dead in Guantánamo

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In June of 2006, three prisoners at Guantánamo Bay died. According to the official story, the trio committed suicide simultaneously in separate cells, an act which the camp's commander infamously declared a form of "asymmetrical warfare waged against us."

Scott Horton at Harper's has a different tale to tell. From the intro to his article:

Now four members of the Military Intelligence unit assigned to guard Camp Delta, including a decorated non-commissioned Army officer who was on duty as sergeant of the guard the night of June 9-10, have furnished an account dramatically at odds with the [Naval Criminal Investigative Service] report–a report for which they were neither interviewed nor approached.

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. Army Staff Sergeant Joseph Hickman and men under his supervision have disclosed evidence in interviews with Harper's Magazine that strongly suggests that the three prisoners who died on June 9 had been transported to another location prior to their deaths. The guards' accounts also reveal the existence of a previously unreported black site at Guantánamo where the deaths, or at least the events that led directly to the deaths, most likely occurred.

The story that follows involves torture, possible homicides, and a cover-up that didn't end when Barack Obama became president. Horton makes his case here, and he has a follow-up post here.