WAR ON TERRORISM - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
Suicidal Detainee's Condition A Mystery |
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by Josh White The Washington Post Entered into the database on Saturday, April 08th, 2006 @ 18:09:38 MST |
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Lawyers for a suicidal detainee held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, believe
that their client tried to kill himself again by slashing his throat sometime
over the past few weeks but say U.S. government officials have refused to answer
any questions about his condition. Jumah al-Dossari, a Bahraini national captured in 2001, has tried to
take his own life at least 10 times in his four years at the U.S. detention
facility, according to military officials. One of the attempts came during a
visit by an attorney, who found him hanging from a noose in a bathroom with
a deep gash in his arm. Dossari and his attorneys have said the attempts are a statement that the conditions
and indefinite detention have left him desperate. The attorneys say other lawyers visiting clients at Guantanamo Bay in late
March heard that Dossari had slit his throat and nearly died. Declassified notes
obtained by Dossari attorney Joshua Colangelo-Bryan also record the suicide
attempt. Despite weeks of trying to determine Dossari's condition, Colangelo-Bryan said
yesterday, he has not heard from the Justice Department, which represents the
Pentagon in detainee matters. A Justice spokesman referred questions to the
Defense Department. "I'd like to know if he's alive," Colangelo-Bryan said. "I think
it underscores the fact that the government does not believe that it has to
play by any rules at all." Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand, a spokesman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said
yesterday that there has been one suicide attempt at the facility so far this
year -- on March 11 -- and that the detainee is "clinically stable."
But Durand would not identify him. Apparently referring to Dossari, Durand noted that a single detainee accounts
for 12 of the 39 suicide attempts at Guantanamo Bay since it opened in 2002.
No detainee has died in custody there. Lawyers blame the Detainee Treatment Act, enacted a few months ago, for their
lack of information about clients. The government has argued that the law severely
limits access to federal courts for Guantanamo detainees, and hundreds of habeas
corpus cases in U.S. courts have been held up while federal judges weigh the
law's impact. Dossari, who speaks some English, has long claimed he is innocent and is being
held improperly, though a military tribunal -- relying on classified evidence
-- has determined he is an enemy combatant. According to recently released documents
from Guantanamo Bay, government officials believe he was helping al-Qaeda and
the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001, shortly before he was arrested at the
Pakistani border. Before his trip to Afghanistan, Dossari lived in the United States on a visa
and was an imam at a mosque in Bloomington, Ind., according to military records.
Federal agents allege that Dossari was recruiting for al-Qaeda and left shortly
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The only charges levied by the military relate to his allegedly being a cook
for enemy forces at Tora Bora in Afghanistan, where U.S. troops fought a fierce
battle with al-Qaeda and the Taliban in 2001. Dossari denies being there or
being an al-Qaeda member. |