(Jan. 18) -- Through the course of its contentious history since the terror attacks on 9/11, the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo has faced many charges of prisoner mistreatment. A new investigation by Harper's Magazine adds accusations of homicide and an elaborate cover-up.
Harper's examined three supposed inmate suicides in June 2006. Officially, the three prisoners -- two Saudis and a Yemeni -- hanged themselves in their cells at Camp Delta using nooses made from torn sheets and T-shirts. But citing evidence from several guards who have also been questioned by U.S. Justice Department investigators, the Harper's article suggests that such coordinated suicides would have been difficult to pull off under the close eye of Navy guards.
Furthermore, Harper's reports, the guards' commanding officers never reprimanded them. They were also ordered to stay quiet about the events -- suggesting a full-scale military cover-up within hours of the deaths.
Army Staff Sgt. Joseph Hickman told Harper's that on that night he watched three prisoners be transferred by van from Camp Delta to a black site on the Guantanamo compound nicknamed "Camp No," from which the guards said they sometimes heard screams. The same van that transported the prisoners singly from their cells earlier that evening returned not to the cellblocks, Hickman said, but directly to the Camp Delta medical clinic, where the alarm was raised that three prisoners had died.
Read Harper's full report here.
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