Th eNYT reports 3 Prisoners Commit Suicide at Guantánamo

The three detainees were not identified, but United States officials said two were from Saudi Arabia and the third was from Yemen. Military officials said that the three hanged themselves in their cells with nooses made of sheets and clothing and died before they could be revived by medical personnel.

The military believe the suicides to have been an attempt at protest:

Military officials on Saturday suggested that the three suicides were a form of a coordinated protest.

“They are smart, they are creative, they are committed,” Admiral Harris said. “They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.”

On the one hand, I understand what he is saying: the suicides will damage the US insofar as it will bring more negative attention to the prison. However, I must confess that it comes across as a bit over the top to call three guys hanging themselves to bring Gitmo bad press an act of “warfare”.

Here are a few details on the three in question:

All three men left suicide notes in Arabic, officials said. One of the detainees was a mid- or high-level Qaeda operative, another had been captured in Afghanistan and the third was a member of a splinter group, Admiral Harris said, in an account by The Associated Press. He said all three had participated in hunger strikes at the detention center.

Certainly the three have accomplished their basic goal: more scrutiny and discussion of the prison at Guantánamo.

Update: Indeed, the “war” comment was what the BBC picked up one: Guantanamo suicides ‘acts of war’