Guantanamo Bay detention camp suicide attempts The United States Department of Defense ( DOD ) had stopped reporting Guantanamo suicide attempts in 2002 . In mid - 2002 the DoD changed the way they classified suicide attempts , and enumerated them under other acts of " self - injurious behavior " . On January 24 , 2005 the U . S . military revealed that in 2003 , there were 350 incidents of " self - harm . " 120 of those incidents of self - harm were attempts by detainees to hang themselves . Twenty - three detainees participated in a mass - suicide attempt from August 18 to 26 , 2003 . A number of incidents happened after a change in command at the camp in 2003 increased the severity of interrogation techniques used by military and CIA intelligence officers . On June 10 , 2006 , the DOD announced that three prisoners held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp s had committed suicide . The June 10 , 2006 suicides were the first inmate deaths at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp . The DoD acknowledged there had been a total of 41 suicide attempts among 29 detainees until that date . Since June 2006 , DOD has announced three suicide deaths by detainees at Guantanamo . In 2008 , the NCIS released a heavily redacted report of its investigation of the three suicides at Guantanamo in 2006 . In reports published in 2009 and 2010 , Seton Hall University Law School ' s Center for Policy and Research and a joint investigation by " Harper ' s magazine " and NBC News , respectively , strongly criticized the government ' s account of the 2006 suicides . " Harper ' s " 2010 article , based on accounts by four former Guantanamo guards , asserted that DOD had initiated a cover - up of deaths resulting from torture during interrogation . The DOD has denied these allegations . History : Conditions of detainees . In 2002 the United States government kept conditions at Guantanamo extremely secret , not releasing information about the detainees and especially not their names . That year , the United States Department of Defense ( DOD ) stopped reporting suicide attempts at the camps . In mid - 2002 the DOD changed the way they classified suicide attempts , referring to these acts as " self - injurious behavior " , one of many euphemisms the Bush administration coined to shield the facts of camp events . Medical experts outside the camp have argued that doctors did not have sufficient understanding of the detainees to make such conclusions about their intentions or motives . In the spring of 2003 , 32 Afghans and three Pakistani s were released from the detention camp . News media reported from interviews with them that some former detainees described despair and numerous attempts among prisoners to commit suicide , in large part because of individuals ' belief in their innocence , the harshness of camp conditions , and especially the indefinite confinement and unending uncertainty they faced . Quotes from ex - detainees : On January 24 , 2005 the U . S . military revealed that in 2003 , there were 350 incidents of " self - harm " among detainees at Guantanamo . 120 of those incidents were attempts by detainees to hang themselves . From August 18 to 26 , 2003 , twenty - three detainees participated in a mass - suicide attempt . Reporters noted that numerous attempted suicides occurred after a change in command at the camp resulted in an increase in the severity of interrogation techniques used against the detainees . Reported suicides on June 10 , 2006 . On June 10 , 2006 the DOD announced that three detainees had died at Guantanamo , saying they " killed themselves in an apparent suicide pact " . The prisoners were the Saudi Arabians Mani al - Utaybi and Yasser al - Zahrani , and a Yemeni citizen , Ali Abdullah Ahmed . The prison commander Rear Admiral Harry Harris , Jr . ( 2006 - 2007 ) stated : " This was not an act of desperation , but an act of asymmetric warfare committed against us . " Harris also said that the Guantanamo detainees were : " dangerous , committed to killing Americans . " . He claimed that there was a myth among the detainees that if three detainees were known to have died in the camps , the DOD would be pressured to send the rest of the detainees home . President George Bush expressed " serious concern . " Colleen Graffy , the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy , called the suicides , " a good PR move " — and , " a tactic to further the jihad i cause " . On June 12 , 2006 , Cully Stimson , the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs , said : " The Scotsman " characterized this as an attempt by the Bush administration " . . . to pull back from the earlier comments about public relations and ' asymmetric warfare ' . " Sean McCormack , spokesman for the United States State Department , said , " I would not say that it was a PR stunt " . He said that the detainees were apparently unaware that one of them was due to be transferred to Saudi Arabia , under terms that would require him to be kept in custody , and another was to be released to Saudi Arabia . Joshua Denbeaux , a lawyer representing detainees through the Center for Constitutional Rights , has said that prison authorities were withholding this information because US officials had not decided which country the detainee was going to be transferred to . Denbeaux is one of the principal authors of " A Profile of 517 Detainees through Analysis of Department of Defense Data " ( 2006 ) , published by the Center for Policy and Analysis of Seton Hall University Law School . It analyzed DOD data about the prisoners ' identities and allegations for why they were being detained . Colonel Michael Bumgarner ( April 2005 - June 2006 ) , the commander of the camp ' s guard force , reacted to the suicides by telling his officers soon afterward : " The trust level is gone . They have shown time and time again that we can ' t trust them any farther than we can throw them . There is not a trustworthy son of a . . . in the entire bunch . " Skepticism about suicide claims . The " Seattle Post - Intelligencer " reported that news of the deaths raised skepticism over whether the Saudi men had committed suicide . The article reports Saudi government and family speculation that the men were driven to suicide by torture . Several prominent Saudis accused the camp authorities of murdering the three men . The Seattle PI reported : " Some people in the conservative Islamic kingdom questioned whether Muslim men would kill themselves since suicide is a grave sin in Islam . But defense lawyers and some former detainees said many prisoners at Guantanamo are wasting away in deep despair at their long captivity . " Kateb al Shimri , a Saudi lawyer representing the Saudi prisoners , said : " The families don ' t believe it , and of course I don ' t believe it either . A crime was committed here and the U . S . authorities are responsible . " Joshua Denbeaux of the Center for Constitutional Rights said that the suicides : " . . . represent the Pentagon ' s absolute worst nightmare . " Denbeaux added : " . . . many of these prisoners have been trying to kill themselves , for months , if not years . " Senator Arlen Specter , chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee , commented : " Where we have evidence , they ought to be tried , and if convicted , they ought to be sentenced . " Specter added that many of the prisoners ' captures were based on : " . . . the flimsiest sort of hearsay . " Government comments / investigation . Admiral Harris was quoted as saying : " I think it is less about the length of their detention . . . It ' s less about that and it ' s more that they continue to fight their fight , I think the vast majority of detainees are resisting us . " On July 9 , 2006 " The Jurist " reported that DOD spokesmen have claimed that the dead men received assistance from others . Further , the DOD claims that preparations for the hangings were written on the blank paper issued to the detainees ' lawyers . As part of the investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service ( NCIS ) , the camp authorities seized almost all the documents from almost all the detainees , a total of half a ton of papers , including their privileged , confidential communications with their lawyers . The administration wants to suspend all lawyers ' visits , while a commission reviews the papers for any sign that the detainees ' lawyers helped plan the suicides . ( Note : The NCIS heavily redacted report was released publicly in August 2008 . ) Lawyers for Guantanamo detainees reported that the camp authorities were confiscating detainees ' mail and legal papers . The lawyers report that at least one of their clients attributes the confiscation to DOD thinking they might suggest that the suicides were planned , and possibly encouraged , by detainees ' lawyers . According to Clive Stafford Smith , legal director of Reprieve , a British organization representing numerous detainees : " They think that they are going to find letters from us suggesting suicide . It ' s ludicrous . " Comments by released detainees who knew the dead men . Bahraini detainee Abdulla Majid Al Naimi , who was released on November 8 , 2005 said he knew the three dead men . Al Naimi said that Al - Utaybi and Ahmed were captured while studying in Pakistan . He said that they were interrogated for only a brief time after their arrival in Guantanamo . Their interrogators had told them they were not regarded as a threat , and that they could expect to be released . Al Naimi said that Al Zahrani was only 16 when he was captured . Al Naimi thought he should have been treated as a minor . " He was 21 when he died , barely the legal age in most countries , and was merely 16 when he was picked up four and half years ago . His age shows that he is not even supposed to be taken to a police office ; he should have been turned over to the underage [ juvenile ] authorities . " Allegations of homicide and cover - up . Guantanamo Bay murder accusations were made by United States sources in December 2009 and January 2010 regarding the deaths of three Guantanamo prisoner s in June 2006 at the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp for enemy combatants at its naval base in Cuba . Two of the men had been cleared by the military for release . The United States Department of Defense claimed their deaths at the time as suicides , although their families and the Saudi government argued against the findings . The DOD undertook an investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service . Following release of the redacted NCIS investigative report in 2008 , Seton Hall University Law School ' s Center for Policy and Research published " Death in Camp Delta " ( 2009 ) , a report criticizing the NCIS account for inconsistencies and weaknesses . The Center concluded that there was serious negligence at the camp , or there may have been cover - up of homicides resulting from torture . It noted that no military personnel had been prosecuted for any failings related to the deaths of the detainees . In 2010 , " Harper ' s Weekly " and NBC News released the report of a joint investigation , based on accounts by four former Military Intelligence staff , stationed at the time at Guantanamo . The article written by Scott Horton , a journalist and human rights attorney , suggested the military under the Bush administration had covered up deaths of the detainees that occurred under torture at a " black site " in the course of interrogations . In 2011 , Horton ' s article on the Guantanamo events won the National Magazine Awards for Reporting . The award revived a round of criticism of the article ' s veracity . Attorneys ' concerns . In 2006 and later , defense attorneys were concerned about their clients ' mental health . Mark Denbeaux is a law professor at Seton Hall University and director of its Center for Policy and Research , which had published numerous reports on conditions at Guantanamo . He represents two Tunisian detainees and said at the time that he was worried that other detainees were candidates for suicide . In 2008 the Canadian Supreme Court ordered the release of a video of a February 2003 interrogation conducted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service ( CSIS ) and a Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) officer of Omar Khadr , a Canadian citizen who was 15 years old when captured and one of the youngest detainees held at Guantánamo . In the video , the 16 - year - old Khadr repeatedly cried , saying what sounds to be either " help me " , " kill me , " or calling for his mother , in Urdu ( Pakistani ) . The government was reviewing CSIS actions in its interrogations of Canadian citizens at Guantanamo , including the minor Khadr , as more information had been revealed about abuse of detainees prior to interrogations . Khadr was finally scheduled to be tried at Guantanamo in 2010 . He pleaded guilty in a plea bargain , served a year of his sentence there , and in 2012 was returned to Canada to serve the rest of his sentence . Fourth suicide , May 30 , 2007 . The Southern Command announced on the evening of May 30 , 2007 that a Saudi prisoner had died of suicide . They announced : " The detainee was found unresponsive and not breathing in his cell by guards . " The DoD did not immediately release the dead man ' s identity . The DoD asserted that his body would be treated with cultural sensitivity . The statement closed with the following : On May 31 , 2007 Saudi officials announced that the dead man was Abdul Rahman Maadha al - Amry . The Associated Press reported that same day that al - Amry had been identified as one of the " high - value detainees " , held in Camp 5 . Carol Rosenberg of the " Miami Herald " reported his name as Abdul Rahman Ma Ath Thafir Al Amri and that he was a military veteran of the Saudi army . He had never been allowed to meet with an attorney . Other newspaper reports commented on the timing of the death , pointing out that it was almost a year after the three deaths of June 10 , 2006 . They noted that both incidents followed a new commander being assigned to JTF - GTMO . In addition , the deaths had occurred before the convening of a military commission to judge detainees ' cases . Fifth suicide June 1 , 2009 . Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi , a 31 - year - old prisoner from Yemen , died in the camps on June 1 , 2009 . On June 2 , 2009 the DOD reported that he committed suicide . Sixth suicide May 18 , 2011 . DOD announced that Inayatullah , 37 , an Afghan detainee held since 2007 on suspicion of being a member of Al Qaeda , was found dead on May 18 , an apparent suicide . The press reported that his given name is Hajji Nassim , according to his attorney . He was referred to as Inayatullah only at the Guantanamo camp . He was arrested in Iran near the border with Afghanistan , and was classified by DOD as an " indefinite detainee . " 5 June 2010