Murders at Guantanamo: The Cover-Up Continues

Sometimes the truth is so sickening that no one in a position of
authority - senior government officials, lawmakers, the mainstream
media - wants to go anywhere near it.

This appears to be the case with the deaths of three men at
Guantanamo on June 9, 2006. According to the official version of
events, Salah Ahmed al-Salami (also identified as Ali Abdullah Ahmed),
a 37-year old Yemeni, Mani Shaman al-Utaybi, a 30-year old Saudi, and
Yasser Talal al-Zahrani, a Saudi who was just 17
when he was seized in Afghanistan, died by hanging themselves, in what
Guantanamo's then-Commander, Rear Adm. Harry Harris, described as an
act of "asymmetric warfare."

Adm. Harris was, appropriately, censured for describing as an act of
warfare the deaths of three men, held for over four years without
charge or trial, but although his comments - and those of Colleen
Graffy, the deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy,
who described the men's deaths as a "good PR move" - were despicable,
it was true that all three men had been implacably opposed to the
regime at Guantanamo, and that each had expressed their opposition to
it - and their solidarity with their fellow prisoners - through
resistance, by enduring painful months of force-feeding
as three of the prison's most persistent hunger strikers, and by
raising their fellow prisoners' spirits as accomplished singers of nasheeds (Islamic songs).

Former prisoners cast doubt on the suicide story

In a statement
issued just after the announcement of the deaths in June 2006, nine
British ex-prisoners recalled the men's indefatigable spirit, and cast
doubt on the US military's claims that they had committed suicide:

The prisoners in Guantanamo knew Manei al-Otaibi [Mani
al-Utaybi] as someone who recited the Qur'an and poetry with a
beautiful voice. He was of high moral character and was loved and
respected amongst the prisoners, as was Yasser. They both came from
wealthy backgrounds and had everything to live for.

They were often involved in protests and hunger strikes, which meant
that they were always given "level four" statuses. That means the only
items they would be allowed in the cell were a mat, and a blanket (only
at night). They didn't have toilet paper, let alone bed sheets that
could be easily constructed into a noose, or even a pen and paper with
which to write a suicide note.

A more detailed analysis was provided by one of the nine British ex-prisoners, Tarek Dergoul, who wrote:

I knew them personally, so I can judge well their frame of mind. Their iman
(belief in God) was very strong, there was high morale and it comes as
a complete shock to my system when it is said to me that they could
have committed suicide. I was with them for a long period of time, and
it never even came into our mind the thought of committing suicide. We
were always far too busy constructing some form of hunger strike or
non-cooperation strike, to even register the thought of suicide. It is
quite simply ridiculous. When we were not in isolation for our
continued protests we were in the regular blocks planning our next move.

Dergoul also provided further descriptions of two of the men and
their state of mind, explaining that Yasser al-Zahrani and Manei
al-Otaibi "would be the first amongst all others to stand up for our
rights and the rights of others."

He
added that al-Zahrani was "a beautiful brother," who had memorized the
entire Qur'an, and "was softly spoken and had a very nice voice. He
used to sing nasheeds for us and all the brothers loved him
as he was always optimistic. He would sing morale-boosting nasheeds for
the other detainees nearby to him. He was very well known to everyone
in the camp."

He also explained that al-Zahrani had "participated in all the
hunger strikes and non-cooperation strikes," which, he added,
"include[d] not speaking in interrogation and also not standing for any
immoral behavior (such as being sexually harassed or watching the
Qur'an being desecrated)." Non-cooperation, he pointed out, "would
result in punishment," and al-Zahrani "ended up doing a lot of time in
isolation simply due to the fact that he would never allow for an
injustice to take place before him without being defiant for the sake
of our rights," but he "had so much determination, will-power and
morale that it is ridiculous to think he could have taken his own life."

Writing about Manei al-Otaibi, Dergoul described him as "another
beautiful brother," who was "extremely funny," and explained that, like
al-Zahrani, he "used to recite poetry - in fact this was the thing he
was best known for - and he also used to sing nasheeds for us." He added:

I stayed beside Manei for three weeks inside the regular
blocks, and that is when he told me about his wealthy family and his
previous life and how he used to get up to no good as people do when
they are young. It was also during those three weeks that he taught me tajweed
(the science of reciting the Qur'an correctly). By the end of that time
we had shared with one another our inner most thoughts. I consider it
an insult and I am sure that his family finds it equally offensive, to
suggest that he would stoop to the level of taking his own life.

Admittedly, the men's outlook on life could have changed in the two
years following Tarek Dergoul's release from Guantanamo, but Omar
Deghayes, who was still in Guantanamo at the time of their deaths,
recently backed up his analysis, describing them as poets with
beautiful voices whose spirits were unbroken at the time of their
deaths, although he did acknowledge that they had been subjected to severe mistreatment.

Seton Hall Law School demolishes the suicide story

If the profiles above suggest problems with the official suicide
story, that is entirely appropriate, as development in the last two
years - and particularly in the last six months - have demonstrated.
The first of these was the publication, in August 2008, of the official report into the deaths, conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The report - actually, nothing more than a 934-word statement
- was presumably intended to be buried under coverage of the
Presidential election, and did nothing to address doubts about the
official story, but over the next year a colossal archive of documents
collected for the investigation was thoroughly analyzed by staff and
students at the Seton Hall Law School in New Jersey.

On December 7, 2009, Seton Hall published a 136-page report, "Death in Camp Delta" (PDF),
which comprehensively undermined the conclusion of the NCIS
investigation. Some of the most important questions asked in the report
were:

• "[H]ow each of the detainees, much less all three, could have done
  the following: braided a noose by tearing up his sheets and/or
  clothing, made a mannequin of himself so it would appear to the guards
  he was asleep in his cell, hung sheets to block vision into the cell -
  a violation of Standard Operating Procedures, tied his feet together,
  tied his hands together, hung the noose from the metal mesh of the cell
  wall and/or ceiling, climbed up onto the sink, put the noose around his
  neck and released his weight to result in death by strangulation,
  hanged until dead and hung for at least two hours completely unnoticed
  by guards."

• "[H]ow three bodies could have hung in cells for at least two hours
  while the cells were under constant supervision, both by video camera
  and by guards continually walking the corridors guarding only 28
  detainees."

• Why the authorities did not report that, "when the detainees'
  bodies arrived at the clinic, it was determined that each had a rag
  obstructing his throat."

• Why the authorities did not report that the detainees "had been
  dead for more than two hours when they were discovered, nor that rigor
  mortis had set in by the time of discovery."

• How the supposed suicides "could have been coordinated by the three
  detainees, who had been on the same cell block fewer than 72 hours with
  occupied and unoccupied cells between them and constant supervision."

Moreover, the researchers also discovered so many omissions and
contradictions in the reports of the various personnel who were present
on the night of the men's deaths that it was impossible to construct a
coherent narrative. It was also impossible not to conclude that, with
so many holes in the official account, the investigation was, as
Professor Mark Denbeaux explained in a press release,
"a cover up," and, in addition, one that raised "more compelling
questions": "Who knew of the cover up? Who approved of the cover up,
and why? The government's investigation is slipshod, and its conclusion
leaves the most important questions about this tragedy unanswered."

In the Seton Hall report, the omissions and contradictions focus on
the fact that the only guards who were asked to make statements on the
night "were advised that they were suspected of making false statements
or failing to obey direct orders" (the statements have never been
publicly released); on asking why other guards were "ordered not to
provide sworn statements about what happened that night"; on asking why
the government "seemed to be unable to determine who was on duty that
night in Alpha Block" (where the deaths supposedly occurred); on asking
"why the guards who brought the bodies to the medics did not tell the
medics what had happened to cause the deaths and why the medics never
asked how the deaths had occurred"; on why there is "no indication that
the medics observed anything unusual on the cell block at the time that
the detainees wee hanging dead in their cells"; and, finally, on "why
the guards on duty in the cell block were not systematically
interviewed about the events of the night, why the medics who visited
the cell block before the hangings were not interviewed, [and] why the
tower guards, who had the responsibility and ability to observe all
activity in the camp, were not interviewed."

In addition, the report also noted the NCIS's failure to review
"audio and video recordings which are systematically maintained;
'Pass-On' books prepared by each shift to describe occurrences on the
block for the next shift; the Detainee Information Management System,
which contains records of all activity for that night as the events
occur; and Serious Incident reports, which are the reports used when
there are suicide attempts."

The authors were also particularly concerned that a prominent claim
in the NCIS statement - "that on the night in question, another
detainee (who did not later commit suicide) had walked through the cell
block telling people 'tonight's the night'" - was not explained. "There
is no indication," they wrote, "of how this could have happened given
camp security rules or, if it had taken place, why security was not
tighter as a result."

Harper's Magazine reports soldiers' testimony, suggests prisoners died in torture sessions

Just six weeks after the Seton Hall report was published, answers to some of these questions were provided in the most extraordinary manner. In an article for Harper's Magazine,
law professor Scott Horton revealed the story of Army Staff Sgt. Joe
Hickman, and a number of other soldiers - the tower guards mentioned in
the Seton Hall report, who "had the responsibility and ability to
observe all activity in the camp, [but] were not interviewed."

Sgt. Hickman, who was on duty in a tower on the prison's perimeter
on the night the three men died, addressed some of the NCIS
investigations' omissions and contradictions by explaining that the
reason that men had been dead for over two hours before their deaths
were reported, that few reports were taken from the personnel on duty,
and that rags were stuffed in the men's throats was not because they
had committed suicide, but because they had been taken from the cell
block earlier that evening to a secret facility outside the main
perimeter fence of Guantanamo - known to the soldiers as "Camp No" -
where they had either been deliberately killed, or had a died as the
result of particularly brutal torture sessions.

Sgt. Hickman, and several other witnesses under his supervision,
told Scott Horton personally that they had not seen anyone moved to the
clinic from Alpha Block, where the prisoners reportedly died, and when
I spoke to Sgt. Hickman a few months ago, he confirmed that this was
the case, telling me categorically that neither he, nor three men he
was in charge of who were stationed no more than 40 feet away from the
clinic, saw anyone moved from the block to the clinic. "They didn't die
in their cells," he explained.

This was not all. Sgt. Hickman - and other witnesses - also
explained that the false suicide story required a cover-up, and that
this involved Col. Mike Bumgarner, the warden at Guantanamo, telling a
meeting of between 40 and 60 men on the morning of June 10 that,
although "'you all know' three prisoners in the Alpha Block at Camp 1
committed suicide during the night by swallowing rags, causing them to
choke to death," the media would report that the three men "had
committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells. It was
important, he said, that servicemen make no comments or suggestions
that in any way undermined the official report. He reminded the
soldiers and sailors that their phone and email communications were
being monitored."

In no time at all, the deaths were reinvented as acts of "asymmetrical warfare," and the whole sordid cover-up began in earnest.

Sgt. Hickman has no reason to lie. He joined the US military in
1983, at the age of 19, as a Marine, and spent time in military
intelligence. Later, as a civilian, he worked as a private
investigator, but after the 9/11 attacks, he re-enlisted in the Army
National Guard and was deployed to Guantanamo in March 2006, where he
"was selected as Guantanamo's 'NCO of the Quarter' and was given a
commendation medal." When his tour of duty ended in March 2007 and he
returned to the US, he was "promoted to staff sergeant and worked in
Maryland as an Army recruiter."

However, as he explained to Scott Horton, "he could not forget what
he had seen at Guantanamo. When Barack Obama became president, [he]
decided to act. 'I thought that with a new administration and new ideas
I could actually come forward,' he said. 'It was haunting me.'" And as
he told me a few months ago, he felt "physically sick" after holding
onto his story for three years.

Unfortunately,
as I mentioned at the start of this article, some stories are so
disturbing that no one in authority wants to go near them, and this is
clearly the case with the deaths of Salah Ahmed al-Salami, Mani Shaman
al-Utaybi and Yasser Talal al-Zahrani. Although the Harper's
article received widespread coverage around the world, it was almost
entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the US, with the New York Times and the Washington Postcontent to run an Associated Press story, without following up on it, and only Keith Olbermann of MSNBC covering the story on TV.

Part of the problem is that, although a Justice Department
investigation was launched after Sgt. Hickman approached Mark Denbeaux
and his son Josh last February, and the Denbeauxs took the case to the
Justice Department's Criminal Division, an initial flurry of interest
rapidly waned, and Teresa McHenry, the head of the Criminal Division's
Domestic Security Section, who took charge of the investigation,
notified Mark Denbeaux on November 2, 2009 that the investigation was
being closed. Scott Horton described Denbeaux's reaction as follows:

"It was a strange conversation," Denbeaux recalled.
McHenry explained that "the gist of Sergeant Hickman's information
could not be confirmed." But when Denbeaux asked what that "gist"
actually was, McHenry declined to say. She just reiterated that
Hickman's conclusions "appeared" to be unsupported. Denbeaux asked what
conclusions exactly were unsupported. McHenry refused to say.

As Horton also noted, McHenry "ha[d] firsthand knowledge of the
Justice Department's role in auditing such techniques, having served at
the Justice Department under Bush and having participated in the
preparation of" at least one of a number of memoranda "approving and
setting the conditions for the use of torture techniques" - commonly
known as the "torture memos" - which "CIA agents and others could use to defend themselves against any subsequent criminal prosecution."

Today, as we pause to remember the three men who died at Guantanamo
four years ago, we should also reflect that, as with the two other
supposed suicides at Guantanamo - of Abdul Rahman al-Amri, a Saudi, on May 30, 2007, and of Mohammed al-Hanashi,
a Yemeni, on June 1, 2009 - nothing resembling an adequate explanation
has yet been provided for their deaths, and Sgt. Joe Hickman, the man
who has done the most to try to expose the truth about the deaths in
June 2006, has apparently put his career on the line for nothing,
sidelined for doing what was right. "Under the Constitution I swore to
defend, we don't do this," he told me when we spoke a few months ago.

Why an independent inquiry is needed - and a call for Shaker Aamer to be released

Calls for a full investigation into all the deaths at Guantanamo may
come to nothing, but they must be made, or we will demonstrate to those
who hold the reins of accountability that the darker the allegations,
the easier they are to hide.

In addition, the fallout from that horrendous night in Guantanamo is
still affecting one other man, who was brutally tortured that same
evening, but who, unlike Salah Ahmed al-Salami, Mani Shaman al-Utaybi
and Yasser Talal al-Zahrani, did not die.

That man is Shaker Aamer,
the last British resident in Guantanamo, who is still held, despite
being cleared for release by a military review board in 2007. A
passionate and fearless defender of the rights of the prisoners - also
like the men who died - he may still be held because of what he knows.

Describing what happened to him - which involved choking, and the
kind of violent punishment for dissent that Tarek Dergoul identified in
the cases of Mani Shaman al-Utaybi and Yasser Talal al-Zahrani - Shaker
Aamer provided a statement to one of his lawyers, which was later filed
as an affidavit with the District Court in Washington D.C.:

On June 9th, 2006, [Shaker Aamer] was beaten for two and
a half hours straight. Seven naval military police participated in his
beating. Mr. Aamer stated he had refused to provide a retina scan and
fingerprints. He reported to me that he was strapped to a chair, fully
restrained at the head, arms and legs. The MPs inflicted so much pain,
Mr. Aamer said he thought he was going to die. The MPs pressed on
pressure points all over his body: his temples, just under his jawline,
in the hollow beneath his ears. They choked him. They bent his nose
repeatedly so hard to the side he thought it would break. They pinched
his thighs and feet constantly. They gouged his eyes. They held his
eyes open and shined a mag-lite in them for minutes on end, generating
intense heat. They bent his fingers until he screamed. When he
screamed, they cut off his airway, then put a mask on him so he could
not cry out.

Note: To take action for Shaker Aamer, please feel free to cut and paste a letter to foreign secretary William Hague, available here, asking him to do all in his power to secure his return from Guantanamo to the UK, to be reunited with his family.