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It is in the breaking news sidebar!
Posted on 07/16/2003 10:45:37 PM PDT by Destro
Guantanamo Bay suicide attempt
Thursday 17 July 2003, 6:05 AM
A detainee tried to kill himself again in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where US authorities are preparing for military tribunals to try terror suspects, officials said.
The attempt was the 29th since the detention mission was started, said spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson.
Most attempts occurred this year, a sign that the indefinite detentions were beginning to take their toll on detainees, who have not been formally charged or allowed to see lawyers.
"This was an individual who was receiving treatment for mental illness," Johnson said in a telephone interview from Guantanamo.
"He has been returned to his cell with no injuries."
The man, in his 20s, tried to hang himself during an exercise break, Johnson said. He was among 18 who have made repeated attempts.
US authorities are holding 680 detainees from 42 countries at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network or Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime.
President George W Bush earlier this month designated six detainees who could be tried before military tribunals. The next step is for a chief prosecutor to draft charges.
Among the six are Australian David Hicks and Britons Moazzam Begg, 35, and Feroz Abbasi, 23.
Hicks, a Muslim who fought with the Kosovo Liberation Army, called his parents 17 days after the September 11 attacks to say he was with the Taliban, British officials said.
He also allegedly threatened to kill an American upon his arrival at Guantanamo, US officials said.
Moazzam Begg, 35, has been held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly five months and was previously detained in Afghanistan for a year, according to the London-based pressure group Fair Trials Abroad. It said the father of four was seized in Pakistan in February 2002 and may be the victim of mistaken identity.
Abbasi has been in US custody since January last year. A British court ruled last November that the British government could not intervene on his behalf though his imprisonment was "legally objectionable".
US officials have refused to reveal the identities of the others eligible for military tribunals, which lawyers and human rights groups see as a red flag for the legitimacy of such proceedings.
The proceedings of military tribunals can be kept secret. The United States has not convened such a tribunal since World War II.
©2003 AP
He also allegedly threatened to kill an American upon his arrival at Guantanamo, US officials said.
I am shocked that a member of the KLA, a Muslim group Senator Leiberman (D) equated with America's founding fathers and on whose behalf President Clinton used the full might of America's armed forces to support would say such things to a former ally!
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Perhaps GITMO is understaffed....wasn't there anyone available to help him in his endeavors?
Nufsed.
A Court of Law.
If they admit and are helpful, they get an easier sentence.
If evidence is provided, that is good and they are proved guilty, they should be sentenced to whatever the crime permits.
However, to keep people locked up, for a maybe, this is against everything the US and her allies stand for.
Just think what happened with this new world court for the Trial of War criminals. The US rejected it out of sight and will not sell arms to any of the countries that would send US militiary to this court.
It just give the fundamentalists and any US bashes ammunition.
If there is no evidence, then you gotta let them go. They were certainly not involved in September if they were in Afghanistan, and being in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban was never a crime, they were a government, which had had meeting with the US government, therfore recognized as such.
After all, we hear all the time, they hate us because of our Freedom.
Now It's Time to Walk the Talk
Well I have no objection to that, as we have the evidence, and Hicks is a bit of a wild boy threatening to kill people, but its a characteristic of Australians from the Prisoner days of the Brits throwing out their garbage.
Indeed. They commit suicide by blowing themselves up around innocent civilians, or attempting to take on the superior fighting forces of the US military, vowing to die by their own hands or suicidal military operations, but there is now to be some sympathy offered?
???
I wonder how many innocents he murdered in the Balkans? The very fact that he has tried to kill himself before demonstrates clearly his desperation and desperately wrong choices he has made.
You are sadly misinformed. These people were captured pursuant to a combat operation and are being held as prisoners of war, not criminals. As members of Al Qaeda, they belong to an organization which is still conducting armed attacks against the USA. No different than any other prisoners of war, they may legitimately be held for the duration of hostilities or until the capturing power decides to release them, normally under some type of parole.
The tens of thousands of Afghans who were captured but were simple members of the Taliban Army were released after the Taliban were defeated and a new Afghan government in place. The guys in Guantanamo are Al Qaeda--big difference. Releasing them would be like releasing Nazi SS prisoners while we were still at war with Germany.
You are sadly misinformed. These people were captured pursuant to a combat operation and are being held as prisoners of war, not criminals. As members of Al Qaeda, they belong to an organization which is still conducting armed attacks against the USA. No different than any other prisoners of war, they may legitimately be held for the duration of hostilities or until the capturing power decides to release them, normally under some type of parole.
The tens of thousands of Afghans who were captured but were simple members of the Taliban Army were released after the Taliban were defeated and a new Afghan government in place. The guys in Guantanamo are Al Qaeda--big difference. Releasing them would be like releasing Nazi SS prisoners while we were still at war with Germany.
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