Guantanamo Officials Say They Can’t Stop All Suicides

In the sharpening debate about whether suicides among detainees here are political statements or the actions of hopelessly depressed individuals, officials at the federal detention center outlined sweeping efforts to prevent them -- but admitted nothing could stop the most determined prisoners.

Contraband sweeps and a security overhaul have turned up evidence of prisoners trying to open their veins with the metal mesh walls of their cells, hoarding prescription medicine -- one prisoner stored 16 painkillers in his artificial leg -- and waging hunger strikes.

Twenty detainees considered most likely to try suicide have been outfitted in bulky quilted “suicide smocks” to prevent hangings.

But some of the top officials at the detention center said that despite extensive effort, they could do little to stop detainees from doing themselves harm.

“It is not possible to make a detention facility or a prison suicide-proof if you have detainees or prisoners bent on suicide,” said Navy Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander of the prison and its interrogations operation.

Harris and the top two healthcare professionals at the prison complex separately met with a handful of journalists spending the week in Guantanamo. Their accessibility reflected Harris’ view of public scrutiny, which is more liberal than that of previous prison administrations.

The interviews, rare until the new administration arrived earlier this year, also seemed aimed at preparing the American public for continued detention and interrogation operations no matter what ruling is handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on the legitimacy of a war-crimes tribunal set to begin prosecuting 10 prisoners charged with conspiracy.

In command here for less than three months, Harris has been confronted with two incidents of detainees overdosing on hoarded prescription medicines, an uprising at the communal-living camp for the most compliant prisoners, a hunger strike involving almost 90 men, and the apparently coordinated suicides on June 10 of two Saudis and a Yemeni prisoner.

Harris stood by his characterization of the suicides as acts of “asymmetrical warfare” by hardened holy warriors, a comment that provoked accusations of insensitivity by human rights advocates and civilian lawyers who say depression is widespread among the 450 detainees.

Harris suggested the prison guards and administrators had been lulled into believing many of the men had come to terms with their circumstances. Most prisoners had managed to get into the two most lenient detention sites, the barracks-like Camp 4 where detainees can congregate and play sports most of the day, and Camp 1, where more “comfort items” are available.

But it was at Camp 4 that detainees ambushed guards on May 18, setting off a clash that pitted prisoners armed with fan blades and broken light fixtures against soldiers who had to retreat and return with riot gear to quell the uprising. Two prisoners at Camp 1 had overdosed earlier that day, and three detainees there committed suicide a few weeks later.

“The campaign against us, the operations against us, are less about the length of their detention than about the effect they think they’ll have,” Harris said of recent incidents, rejecting the notion of Guantanamo critics that despair over indefinite detention was driving detainees to harm themselves.

President Bush and other administration officials have lately acknowledged the international diplomatic disaster created by the detentions and court operations here.

Bush told European allies at a summit in Vienna last week that he was waiting for the high court ruling, which could come as soon as today, to guide his decisions about the prison.

U.S. allies now understand that Washington is not resisting their calls for closing Guantanamo, said John Bellinger, State Department legal advisor, upon return from two weeks of meetings in Europe.

“We want to get out of the Guantanamo business while continuing to protect our interests,” he said Monday. Those interests include preventing any released or transferred detainees from threatening U.S. security as well as ensuring the prisoners are not subjected to torture, abuse or execution in their home countries.

The suicide attempts and other acts of protest are seen by prison commanders as an effort to intensify outside pressure for Guantanamo’s closure.

The Navy captain in charge of the prison hospital said everything that could have been done to identify potential suicides had been done. The three prisoners who hanged themselves had been through medical and psychological evaluations in the two weeks before their deaths because they had taken part in a hunger strike that began in late May. None showed signs of psychological distress -- including the Saudi who had just ended a 180-day hunger strike during which he was repeatedly force-fed through a nasal tube.

“If you ask my opinion, I agree with the admiral that this was somewhat of a political statement,” said the prison hospital commander, who under military policy cannot be further identified. Noting that it is impossible to know when a suicide bomber will be moved to act, he said, “I don’t know if there’s a medical way to pick up on that.”

To avert future misuse of drugs, the prison medics have cut back significantly on the pills given out to detainees and stepped up monitoring of those medications still being issued, said the senior medical officer, a Navy commander.

A guard now accompanies each hospital corpsman on his medication rounds, twice checking detainees’ hands and mouths to ensure that the pills have been swallowed, the commander said. The more potent medications are being administered in crushed or liquid form.

Several hoards of drugs have been found nonetheless, including the 16 painkillers discovered in the artificial leg.

Other measures imposed to deter suicides have included daily collection of bedsheets after the eight-hour sleep period and removal of clothing from any prisoner who shows signs of trying to shred it to make ligatures for hanging.

At least 20 detainees have been outfitted in the quilted suicide smocks that fasten at the sides and shoulders with Velcro hook and loop fasteners and are made of a tightly woven, ripstop vinyl. New mattresses covered in sturdier, plastic-coated fabric that can’t be torn or used to hide pills or weapons also have been put in the cells.