In its March issue, Harpers Magazine challenges the official and widely reported story that three prisoners being held in Guantánamo Bay committed suicide in an act of “asymmetrical warfare.” The article, written by Scott Horton, is based largely on observations of whistleblower Joe Hickman, the highly decorated Staff Sergeant who was on duty as the guard for Camp America’s exterior security force the night the “suicides” occurred. Horton uses Hickman’s disclosures to clearly demonstrate that the official report is false.
Some major findings from the article include:
- The three detainees were taken to a black site referred to as “Camp No,” which, according to the article, soldiers believe is operated by the CIA. Later that night, the same white van that was used to transport prisoners to “Camp No,” returned to Camp America and went directly to the medical clinic.
- Well before the time official reports state that the prisoners were found in their cells, accounts spread throughout Camp America that three prisoners had died by “choking on cloth.” The following morning, the camp’s commanding officer told a gathering of personnel that “we all know” that the prisoners died by choking on cloth, but an official account would be released saying that they had committed suicide by hanging themselves. All present were ordered not to contradict or undermine the official account in any way.
- The story then traces a cover-up of the deaths involving many different agencies of the federal government—including the Justice Department—that has continued for three and a half years, and has continued into the Obama Administration.
The NWC supports whistleblower Joe Hickman for trying to bring the truth to light. Whistleblowers would agree with Sergeant Hickman that “silence was just wrong.” Please read the full Harpers article for the rest of this incredible story.
*Meryl Grenadier (NWC fellow) contributed to this posting.