Staff Sgt. Joseph Hickman, a Marine veteran who reenlisted in the Maryland National Guard after 9/11, contradicts the military version of events in his new book, 'Murder at Camp Delta: A Staff Sergeants Pursuit of the Truth About Guantanamo Bay.' Three men the Pentagon says killed themselves were actually tortured to death by the CIA claims a Guantanamo Bay staff sergeant.
Three men the Pentagon says killed themselves were actually tortured to death by the CIA claims a Guantanamo Bay staff sergeant. It was murder.
A staff sergeant at Guantanamo Bay claims to have solved one of the military prisons greatest mysteries: Three men the Pentagon says killed themselves were actually tortured to death by the CIA.
The official government line was that Yasser Talal al-Zahrani of Yemen, and Salah Ahmed al-Salami and Mani Shaman al-Utaybi, both of Saudi Arabia, killed themselves in 2006 in a suicide pact.
Rear Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of the Joint Task Force Guantanamo, called the deaths an asymmetric warfare committed against us. The men were said to have hanged themselves.
Staff Sgt. Joseph Hickman, a Marine veteran who reenlisted in the Maryland National Guard after 9/11, contradicts the military version of events in his new book, Murder at Camp Delta: A Staff Sergeants Pursuit of the Truth About Guantanamo Bay. And he paints a sinister picture of the governments use of the prison as a battle lab for cruelly inventive, experimental torture tactics.
Staff Sgt. Joseph Hickman, a Marine veteran who reenlisted in the Maryland National Guard after 9/11, contradicts the military version of events in his new book, 'Murder at Camp Delta: A Staff Sergeants Pursuit of the Truth About Guantanamo Bay.' Staff Sgt. Joseph Hickman, a Marine veteran who reenlisted in the Maryland National Guard after 9/11, contradicts the military version of events in his new book, 'Murder at Camp Delta: A Staff Sergeants Pursuit of the Truth About Guantanamo Bay.' It is my informed opinion that there were three wrongful deaths at Gitmo on June 9, 2006, while I was on duty, Hickman wrote.
The deaths of the three men ages, 20, 30 and 37 were a low point for Hickman, who was excited when his 629th Military Intelligence Battalion was deployed to Gitmo.
Finally, at 41, I had my chance to meet the enemy, he wrote.
Hickman proved his mettle early on in the deployment, leading a charge into a cell of rioting detainees who had soaped the floor and flung urine and feces at him and his men. When one of the prisoners came at them with a shank, he gave orders to fire a spray of 40-mm. rubber rounds that ended what had become a vicious fight.
No Licensing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. dpaarchive FR VOLKER SKIERKA/FR VOLKER SKIERKA/PICTURE-ALLIAN Hickman wrote that he was already disturbed by conditions at the prison where Navy guards would routinely taunt the prisoners into a frenzy. It was possibly the first time such an order had been given at Gitmo, and it earned Hickman a commendation for exemplary leadership.
But, Hickman wrote, he was already disturbed by conditions at the prison where Navy guards would routinely taunt the prisoners into a frenzy. While he harbored little innate sympathy for the detainees, whom he saw as Americas enemies, the racism, the brutality, the chaos, got to him.
One night, he stumbled on what was later confirmed as a secret CIA holding center, a black site that he nicknamed Camp No. There was a definite disconnect between stated procedures and actual practices at Gitmo, he wrote.
The night the prisoners died, Hickman headed the platoon guarding Camp Delta. At 6:30 p.m., standing in a north tower, he saw a prisoner escorted from Alpha Block into a white van with blackened windows. The van soon returned for another detainee.
The deaths of the three men ages, 20, 30 and 37 were a low point for Hickman (pictured), who was excited when his 629th Military Intelligence Battalion was deployed to Gitmo. The deaths of the three men ages, 20, 30 and 37 were a low point for Hickman (pictured), who was excited when his 629th Military Intelligence Battalion was deployed to Gitmo. When the van returned a third time, Hickman raced to a vantage point where he could see where the van was going. Rather than turn right to the naval station, the van took the road leading to Camp No.
At 11:30 p.m., the van returned, this time heading for the medical clinic.
Everything changed, he wrote.
Click for Full Text!