GitMo in the News

The UN called on the US to close GitMo's detention facilities, despite the fact that the UN refused to actually visit the site to see it for themselves.

Then, there were reports that there was a disturbance - called a riot by most of the media reports - at the facility when inmates attacked guards who were trying to stop another inmate from committing suicide.

Well, it appears that the suicide attempt was a ruse to lure the guards into an attack by the inmates waiting with various implements from their bunkhouse.

U.S. military guards were lured Thursday evening into a dormlike room at a minimum-security wing of the detention center in Cuba by a detainee pretending to prepare to hang himself, said Navy Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. The guards wanted to save the detainee's life but were pounced on by other detainees wielding broken light fixtures, fan blades and pieces of metal. The detainees were eventually subdued and six were treated for "minor injuries," Harris said in a press conference. He added that no guards were injured.

The timing between the two GitMo related stories is curious, but is most likely a coincidence and nothing more.

One report notes that there have been 39 attempts since the facility opened in 2002. Of the 39 suicide attempts, at least 12 were attempts by a single inmate - Juma'a Mohammed al-Dossary, a 32-year-old from Bahrain.