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Gitmo Detainee Commits Suicide

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Posted on May 30, 2007

A Saudi prisoner at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay has apparently committed suicide, the U.S. military said in a statement. Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that indefinite detentions—some now longer than five years—combined with harsh “interrogation techniques” and unfair trials could drive detainees to take their own lives.


BBC:

A cultural adviser was working with the military to ensure that the prisoner’s remains were handled “in a culturally sensitive and religiously appropriate manner,” Southern Command said.

The president of the US Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, told the Associated Press news agency the death was likely an act of desperation.

“You have five-and-a-half years of desperation there with no legal way out,” Mr Ratner said.

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By Lex Luther, June 1, 2007 at 11:43 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Bush says he is a Christian. I don’t think there is anything Constitutional, never mind Christian, about Gitmo.

The only thing Bush seems to know about Christianity is the “Bumper Sticker” variety.

Over Two Hundred years ago the Founding Fathers had the FORSIGHT to writein the Constitution against dictatorships, tyranny and requisite cronyism overtaking the Americas. 
Are these articles just historical artifacts now?

This idiotic theory of Leo Strauss, the Neocons practice - The Benign or Noble LIE - in order to give the American people some meaning in their sad lives is a Joke.  And a rather patronising one at that. 

Are the Straussian elite, the Neocons, so powerful they can distract everyone with “Terrorists” at Gitmo while they deconstruct the American Constitution with impunity?

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By Tony B., June 1, 2007 at 6:49 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Not be a stickler but how are we even certain that it was a suicide.  Can we really take these guys at their word?  have they ever been straight when it comes to the demise of an “enemy combatant”?

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By Debra Istvanik-Strotman, May 31, 2007 at 10:41 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Throw me in Gitmo for five years, torture me, and taunt me and I would undoubtedly commit suicide. Probably wouldn’t have lasted as long as the detainee did.

We all have blood on our hands; as we sit back and say “Isn’t it awful what that jackass in the White House is doing.” What are we doing about it? As long as the guy standing next to you has money in his pocket and no one in his family has been accused of a crime by this administration, he doesn’t care what is happening to those around him. We have become a materialistic country,put money above the good of others.

When someone figures out how to get people to care about neighbors more than designer labels on clothing, only then will we be back to the days when people cared about honesty, integrety, Geneva convention, constitution, and the welfare of all.

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By Matt, May 31, 2007 at 9:03 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

It’s a wonder we all don’t commit suicide. Our vaunted American “freedom” is now a patently phony illusion. It’s a laughable, pathetic pretense. The whole world’s watching in contemptuous amazement as we trash our liberties without a complaint, for this evil fool of a president.

Paul Craig Roberts says it just fine, so I’ll just quote him:

‘What do people in other countries think when they hear Bush prattle on about “freedom and democracy” while he ignores opinion polls and election results and detains people without warrants, tortures them, and puts them before military tribunals in which they are denied even knowing the evidence against them? Bush has contrived a situation for defendants in which no defense is possible. In Bush’s America, people can be executed on the basis of hearsay and secret evidence. If this is “freedom and democracy,” what is tyranny?’

http://antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=11027

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By Perry Mason, May 31, 2007 at 3:15 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

If you go by the crass principle that the louder you shout English at these foreigners, the easier they will understand, it’s hardly surprising you will see them as no better than animals.  What kind of Sadists are running Gitmo?

God only knows if they had anything to do with 9/11.  Advanced Interrogation methods are an “Art Form” not a science.  We’re getting into a hit and miss area here, so information gained can not be very reliable.  I just seems like an excuse to inflict pain on “dirty little foreigner” for the amusment of the Pentagon.
What would you confess to, if you’d been Tortured and locked up indefinately? (5 years in many cases.)

The prisoners will not forget this.  Indeed, Everyone watching Gitmo will not forget.  If ever there was a Recruiting Tool for extremists, this is it.

Gitmo is an Abomination to the very idea of a Civil Society.

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By QuyTran, May 31, 2007 at 12:21 pm Link to this comment

This prisoner isn’t comitted suicide. He was mentally
“tortured”.

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By Ladoña, May 31, 2007 at 11:13 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA’s Executive Director, made the following statement in response to reports of the death of a detainee by apparent suicide in Guantanamo Bay:

“This tragedy is another illustration of the desperation many detainees face at Guantanamo Bay and one more reason that the Guantanamo Bay prison camp must be shut down. Many suspects have been in custody without charge or trial, most for over 5 years.”

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGUSA20070531001

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By Expat, May 31, 2007 at 8:27 am Link to this comment

#74146 by Perry Mason on 5/31 at 1:29 am

Yes!  May tomorrow never come!

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By Perry Mason, May 31, 2007 at 7:35 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I think it is too late.

The manufacturing base has been outsourced to other countries, thanks to Corporate America.  A reversion to Feudalism is not upon us, we are actually in it.  Serfdom is here to stay. 

The best the average Joe can dream of is MacJobs, or the checkout aisle at walmart. 
Unless you are connected, or born into the ruling class, you are screwed.

And what are the people, in their desperation, reverting to?  Mindless religion.  Trying to pray their way to affluence.  Not only are they trying, but they’re also being manipulated and distracted by it. 

Economic uncertainty makes people turn to some pretty crazy Nuts.
Remember, people’s tolerance and compassion are usually linked to how well the economy is doing.  I can think of no better example than what happened in Germany 1932 when Herr Hitler was elected, praying on the desperate.

Excuse the Marxist framework but I think it certainly applies in this case.

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By ctbrandon, May 31, 2007 at 6:17 am Link to this comment

Welcome to the New World Order. Our government can do what they want, when they want. Laws no longer apply to anyone. The Constitution? The Geneva Convention? They mean nothing. Why? Because by god, we are protecting Americans from terrorism, and if we have to destroy the fabric of our nation to do that, so be it.

This wont change until we all start working together to DEMAND that our government stop these activities. We still have a voice. We can still rise above the media and the lies we are force fed every day. We can elect people who still believe in the Constitution. But we must hurry, its almost too late.


Brando
http://www.actforyourself.org

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By kevin99999, May 31, 2007 at 5:51 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

And, how are we know that it was a suicide? Because the government says so.

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By Perry Mason, May 31, 2007 at 2:29 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I think the suicide was given a choice between no Lawyer, and a Govenment approved one. He may have been more than slightly depressed when his new defence attourney walked in: Monica Goodling

Under the crumpled steel of the Twin Towers,
the American Constitution was also one of the casulaties of 9/11. The Law only belongs to those who can now afford it.  But the real winners are Corporate America.  We all protest at their never ending sociopathic Greed and indifference, but nothing changes. They hold ALL the cards now.  It’s just business as usual.

Today it’s dirty little foreigners in Gitmo. Tomorrow it will be Americans.

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