This week three prisoners at the Guantanamo prison camp committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells using bed sheets. ...

4. Only 5% of the detainees were captured by United States forces. 86% of the detainees were arrested by either Pakistan or the Northern Alliance and turned over to United States
custody.
This 86% of the detainees captured by Pakistan or the Northern Alliance were handed over to the
United States at a time in which the United States offered large bounties for capture of suspected
enemies.

Oh, and indeed, at least one of the people who killed themselves was to be released the next few days... but nobody had told him yet.

Those people, most of them innocent, have been kept inprisoned for years, without even knowing what they are supposed to have done because that is 'classified information'. Tortured without knowing when it will end, not seen their families (and quite a number might be breadwinners, or be needed to protect their families), deprived of rights that have been the basis of law in civilized countries since shortly after the magna charta (knowing what you were accused of was an important issue), and even the proclaimed innocent ones have only been released just before they would see judges.

Oh, please... even the smallest effort on your part would have shown you...

Harris said the joint suicides were clearly planned by the detainees as a way to advance their cause in the war on terror.

"I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetric warfare aimed at us here at Guantanamo," he said. "We have men here who are committed jihadists. They are dangerous men and they will do anything they can to advance their cause."

The three detainees who died had all participated in a hunger strike at one time, Harris said. The Yemeni detainee was a long-term hunger striker who had begun his strike in 2005 and just ended it last month, he said. The other two detainees participated in one hunger strike in 2005 and another short one this year, he said.
...
The servicemembers at Guantanamo Bay are dedicated and, together with Joint Task Force Guantanamo leaders, have worked hard to ensure the conditions don't exist to allow for suicides, Harris said. However, the enemy combatants at Guantanamo are a determined group that will do anything they can to advance their cause, he said.

"These are dangerous men, and they're not here by accident or happenstance," he said.

Doesnâ??t operational security count for something while there is a war on?

Of course operational security matters. But what security purpose is served by not allowing detainees to have hearings regarding their legal status?

Who said the military isnâ??t being held accountable? I, for one, certainly donâ??t consider the press as the arbiters of accountability in this matter. A deferral on this to Congress and the people through the November elections seems more apropos.

How are the people supposed to hold the military accountable through Congress if they're denied the information necessary to make a decision?

The â??truthâ?? will all come out eventually. Meanwhile, in the absence of factual information I am still willing to give the military and the administration the benefit of the doubt.

If we don't hold our leaders accountable, what makes you think that the truth will come out "eventually"? I'm afraid that this administration has bankrupted its credibility long ago.

Bithead:

These are people who were willing to kill themselves a short time ago, all to further their Jihad.

How do you know? What's your evidence?

So, they killed themselves this last week, with the same purpose in mindâ?¦ advancing the jihad.

How do you know? What's your evidence?

In the end, the only way they succeed in their goal, now, is if we let themâ?¦ which of course, such as the ACLU and the NYT seem quite willing to aid them in doing.

And I wonder if I shouldnâ??t be including Alex and Steve in this, too.

** rolls eyes ** You know, I find it amusing that the desire to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States is, in the eyes of some, tantamount to treason...

These are people who were willing to kill themselves a short time ago, all to further their Jihad. So, they killed themselves this last week, with the same purpose in mind... advancing the jihad. The only difference is, nobody else besides them, got killed. Their deaths were used as they would have been had they not been captured... against their enemy.

In the end, the only way they succeed in their goal, now, is if we let them... which of course, such as the ACLU and the NYT seem quite willing to aid them in doing.

And I wonder if I shouldn't be including Alex and Steve in this, too.

The rules have changed out of necessity when it comes to dealing with our enemies during wartime, and, yes, they are enemies and, yes, we are still at war. It has only been 60 years since we took a demonstrably harsher approach with a much larger population who arguably weren't really a threat at all with Manzanar, et al. IIRC, people of Japanese descent held in the internment camps were not released until the war was over. Alas, the GWOT is far from over. It may not be completely fair to some held in Guantanamo, but then again, I've always found the perfect to be the enemy of the good. And not that it matters a whit, but my mother-in-law is Japanese, so spare me the wanting to lock them up straw men or the accusations that I now want internment camps for all swarthy looking people.

Who said the military isn't being held accountable? I, for one, certainly don't consider the press as the arbiters of accountability in this matter. A deferral on this to Congress and the people through the November elections seems more apropos. Maybe the reason some of the captives are still at Gitmo is that we've declined to summarily execute them as we probably would have done in WW II with combatants captured out of uniform on the battlefield, but they remain too dangerous to be released, e.g., we don't want to have to face them yet again.

Bottom line, I don't know and neither do you why most of the prisoners at Gitmo are still there. The "truth" will all come out eventually. Meanwhile, in the absence of factual information I am still willing to give the military and the administration the benefit of the doubt. As James has pointed out previously, the Constitution isn't a suicide pact. It still seems to me that your concept of American ideals is too utopian to be practical given the changes that have taken place, but we'll just have to agree to disagree about that.

How many suicides happen at Federal Prisons every year across the US of US citizens?

Just because the Army runs Gitmo they are supposed to take care of prisoners better than Federal Corrections officers.

If we lived in a military dictatorship, that might be answer enough. But America's tradition is one of civilian control of the military, not the other way around, and they should be held accountable. They've had almost five years to provide an explanation or evidence, and have not been forthcoming. Even if the reason for not disclosing evidence is that some detainees had valuable intelligence, surely after five years of separation from their comrades has made such intelligence next to worthless. The world's changed quite a bit since then.

Iâ??m all for human rights, but perhaps we have a slightly different definition of what they are or which ones are more important. Iâ??m not ready to throw in the towel because we cannot meet some utopian ideal that you or others may hold.

I'm not asking to uphold a utopian ideal; just an American one.