Wikileaks Reveals Guantánamo’s Secrets

Among the nearly 800 detainees who came to house the prison at Guantanamo Bay, the high security prison set up by former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002 in Cuba, there were at least 30 mentally ill, some of them attempted suicide and at least three succeeded when taking their own lives, Spanish newspaper “El País” published today information based on the documents leaked by Wikileaks.

Most of those prisoners with psychiatric illnesses were eventually transferred to other countries since their statements were worthless to interrogators and 172 prisoners considered “high risk” country for the U.S. and its allies remain in detention, reports El País.

Acoording to El Pais, one of the international publications that Wikileaks has leaked about the secret documents of the U.S. State Department on Guantanamo, said that among the thirty detainees had suffered of schizophrenia, paranoia and drug addiction.

Modula Abdul Raziq, 40, was one of them. He ate his stool, drank shampoo and covered his naked body with feces. In 2002 he was transferred to Afghanistan. Its been “difficult or impossible to obtain information during interrogations,” the newspaper quoted the secret report which sought their transfer to China.

Among those who attempted suicide several times is Juma Mohammed Abd al Latif al Dosari, 38, born in Bahrain and his file notes that he had “a major depressive disorder” and “limited personality with passive and aggressive treatment.” He tried to commit suicide up to 12 times. He spent five years at Guantanamo as a prisoner of high risk and was transferred to Saudi Arabia.

In June 2006, three prisoners committed suicide, including Yasser al Zahrani, 21. He had come to Guantánamo when he was 17.

When President Barack Obama became president in 2009, he promised to close the detention facility, where detainees would be tried in U.S. civilian courts and prisoners would be transferred to other countries, but to date he has not been close the facility.

Since 2002, more than 600 inmates have been transferred to other countries. The U.S. president recently announced that he will resume military commission trials. The Pentagon has drafted a statement regretting the publication of secret documents due to their sensitivity to U.S. security.

Source: El Universal, El País