Episode Transcript
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country. At tpl.org/earth Month, That's
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tpl.org/earth Month. A
0:36
heads up before we start that this episode
0:38
deals with suicide. Which. I know can be
0:41
a hard thing for some people to hear about in
0:43
any context, so if you're not ready for that right
0:45
now, this might be when you want to come back
0:47
to later. Lot
0:51
leave previously. On
0:53
cereal. Be here and I can try
0:55
to help make your want to live
0:58
while you're here. Are you contain removable?
1:00
They were like hair though. We're friends.
1:02
Yeah and away I get why you
1:04
complaining and this beaten. That
1:07
I mean it was a floor me
1:09
to me everywhere I thought maybe I'm
1:11
giving the when. Mrs are these guys
1:13
He just wanted better food or be
1:15
the treatments you going to finger real
1:17
to can keep us here for the
1:19
risk of a large it peaceful can
1:21
be. From
1:27
Zero Productions and a New York Times
1:29
it's serial season for Guantanamo one prison
1:31
camp told week by week I'm Sarah
1:33
Koenig. This is part two of Colonel
1:36
Mike Baumgartner and The Worst Year. Early.
1:51
On May eighteenth, two thousand and six.
1:53
Bumgarner was in his morning meeting when
1:55
someone came in with urgent news. So
1:58
as they entered meeting was interrupted. We're very.
2:00
We got a suicide attempt here.
2:04
Grimace. Later, no and here and we another
2:06
was out of here and there. Never been
2:08
found unconscious, frothing at the mouth mouth thing.
2:10
in both instances, A suicide
2:12
attempt on it's own shots? No one. Suicide.
2:15
Attempts happened constantly. Bumgarner
2:17
said. So. Routine that
2:19
some ice trying to cut the real
2:21
sore. somebody tried to hang himself. I'm
2:23
ever the everyday battle there was always
2:25
summertime. He killed two of. Which.
2:28
Bumgarner worried about but not over
2:30
much. He didn't think was the people
2:32
attempting really wanted to die. Besides.
2:35
Suicide isn't allowed in Islam. Most of
2:37
the detainees when a bidet. Anyone
2:39
trying to hang himself, for instance,
2:41
would be discovered immediately, usually because
2:43
other detainees would stop him. They
2:45
would let him do it Them is
2:48
a proven it turns out again they
2:50
always sold on they always told us
2:52
so. So Strada is felt like there's
2:54
a backstop. The Out: absolutely. But.
2:56
maintains was different. First.
2:58
Off these guys. weren't sound hanging.
3:00
there were reportedly frothing. At the mouth.
3:03
Which. Meant poisoned. And. Not
3:05
just won the two people. Bumgarner.
3:07
Said his mind flew straight to
3:10
Guantanamo prophecy. Okay, If there's two, there's
3:12
gotta be a third with out there somewhere. That.
3:14
Influential Saudi. Prisoner soccer armor had
3:17
told him about it a while back.
3:20
Soccer Was in hospital at the time on
3:22
a hunger strike and he said, you know
3:24
about this, don't you about the dream. And
3:27
he told Bumgarner that another detainee had
3:29
had a dream that if three detainees
3:31
died, they'd all get to go home.
3:34
The dream had made it's way through the camp.
3:36
Lots of people heard about it. Several
3:38
former detainees told us they didn't
3:41
put much stock in it just
3:43
seems whenever unlikely. But Bumgarner. Believe
3:45
that. He believed that the detainees believed
3:48
it, but he also believed the substance
3:50
of the drain. That what it
3:52
laid out. Was probably true. I I
3:54
honestly did believe that as they
3:56
got their way that three guys
3:58
died from the. Asian. That
4:01
there would be such I don't
4:04
know what was.myself and gloom but
4:06
I did leave. This room is
4:08
a tremendous pressure now that that
4:10
such a hellhole down there the
4:13
people are killing themselves. Scottish shut
4:15
and asked. Forced so close and
4:17
if we had to close it's
4:19
the guy that is really responsible
4:22
for what happened was me. That's
4:24
the welfare of such a huge.
4:27
Responsibility that you're putting yourself.
4:30
Will Hideous. and it may it may
4:32
be arrogant to think that you ever
4:34
thought of that the as it is,
4:36
the world's dependent on me for you.
4:38
Maybe I'm crazy. Six Herbs was like
4:40
the captain of the ship though. you
4:42
know everything that happens almost ship. I'm
4:44
responsible for. If we
4:46
succeed. You know, His
4:48
me in the crew. If we fail, it's me. And
4:55
under the skipper the Us. As Guantanamo
4:57
with currently enjoying Bumgarner signature
4:59
achievement the period of peace.
5:02
He wanted to keep it that way. He
5:04
could not me would not be the guy who
5:06
screw this up. The.
5:17
Men found unconscious had taken
5:19
overdoses of anti anxiety medication.
5:21
Not their own medication. In all,
5:24
for detainees had become sick, but
5:26
only to seem to be genuine
5:28
suicide attempts. They were hospitalized and
5:30
recovered. And the prophecy
5:32
Bumgarner dreaded. About three detainees
5:34
dying was averted. Still,
5:37
He failed to recognize this May eighteenth
5:39
crisis for what it was a prelude.
5:42
Instead, the headline that day for Bumgarner
5:45
was that detainees had somehow managed. To
5:47
hoard medication which freaked him out. what with
5:49
the medical protocols in the regular cel searches,
5:51
they should not have been able to do
5:53
that. Sir. Right away
5:55
on May eighteenth, Bumgarner ordered a
5:57
facility wide search. So. Sir. Happened
6:00
all the time at Guantanamo, but not
6:02
like this. Every single
6:04
cell. Every single person. Some four hundred
6:06
and sixty detainees at that point. Now
6:09
all hands on deck. Reports
6:12
very about what they found, but Bumgarner remembers
6:14
they discovered a bunch of people he thinks
6:16
it was in the low teens that secret
6:18
pills. In. Mattresses,
6:21
oh that's as it's problem place in
6:23
the folds and for younger ages have
6:26
a seat and where the last thing
6:28
goes around like the hell out of
6:30
he said to him or me or
6:33
years ago a few stitches serfs to
6:35
go here actually they would soldiers back
6:37
up. One guy had a stash
6:39
of pills hidden in his prosthetic leg. So
6:42
yeah, we felt quite a bit. Again,
6:44
detainees were used to having their cells
6:46
past, but this time Bumgarner made a
6:48
risky call. He directed his
6:51
personnel to search all koran to. In.
6:53
Case contraband was hiding inside the pages
6:55
or the spine. He
6:57
knew it would cause tension. Complaints.
7:00
About personnel disrespecting or desecrate in
7:02
the Koran are legion. The
7:04
previous Guantanamo commander had ordered an
7:06
investigation into various allegations in an
7:08
effort to separate rumor from justified
7:10
Fury. And was such a
7:13
sensitive issue. The camp had instituted a
7:15
rule that only Muslim staff, interpreters, Or
7:17
the camps new cultural advisor were allowed to
7:20
touch a. Obviously
7:22
detainees weren't happy about having hand over
7:24
there crimes that day, but Bumgarner said
7:26
nobody made to biggest. States until
7:28
they got to camp. For.
7:31
With always gonna happen they didn't like that
7:33
and so he started get rowdy the and.
7:36
Rowdy. In camp for was not supposed
7:38
to happen ever. Set. For with
7:40
the communal camp there showcase it's
7:42
were bumgarner could bring distinguished visitors
7:45
and boast see. Even though the Geneva
7:47
Conventions don't apply here, we still treat these
7:49
men humanely. The. Detainees live
7:51
together and open dorms. ten beds to
7:53
block. They got to wear white clothing,
7:55
they could play soccer, and basketball that
7:57
could pray together and eat together. One
8:00
former detainee told us you could save leftovers
8:02
for a couple days and then invite friends
8:04
over for brunch. Admissions
8:06
a camp for depended on good behavior.
8:09
It. Was a reward for compliance.
8:12
But. Just because you follow the Americans
8:14
rules, it did not follow. That
8:16
you necessarily trusted the Americans? We
8:19
talked to half a dozen detainees who are in camp
8:21
for. That day in May and they told
8:24
us they had the distinct impression the Americans
8:26
were up to something. Didn't.
8:28
Feel like a normal. Search. It felt
8:30
more like a deliberate provocation, possibly
8:32
for some dark purpose they couldn't
8:35
decipher. Were. That journal job
8:37
and am I supposed one day the
8:39
guards came to us are in a
8:41
weird way they start talking loudly, started
8:44
hitting doors. they wanted to take the
8:46
holy book. That's Mustafa. I had a
8:48
deer originally Algerian later from Sarajevo where
8:51
he lives now. Of. The little
8:53
and must go get a cold. Or locally or
8:55
like rabbit by by the covers and
8:57
they would shake it in a disrespectful
8:59
way, the way you wouldn't do it
9:01
to any regular book. Again,
9:04
Only Muslim personnel were supposed to touch
9:06
the crimes. That was the rule and
9:08
Bumgarner had suspended it. List
9:14
of A Said He tried to broker an
9:16
agreement with the guards whereby he would search
9:18
the currents himself, but it didn't hold. and
9:21
then as Bumgarner would say, but started getting
9:23
rowdy. Even the Afghan prisoners
9:25
who had a reputation for lying low even.
9:27
They get rowdy at the prospect of the koran.
9:29
Under attack, Were
9:31
that that not a bundle? This
9:34
and on our our souls a
9:36
towards him We will fight or
9:38
kill. Reconstructive size
9:40
when it comes to that.
9:42
For that, Samuel hides from
9:45
Sudan, a journalist alone and
9:47
mean by now we live
9:49
on. Use awesome your guns,
9:52
make a meal Boston abundantly
9:54
use. Amazon is only. To
9:57
view. I
10:02
was just hyper activity going on the
10:04
by yelling at us, screaming and back
10:07
at us as the guards the guards
10:09
had already evacuated out of the areas
10:11
that in only patrol. Can
10:14
for was not only the most permissive
10:16
camp for the guards, it was also
10:18
potentially the most dangerous camp because detainees
10:21
could congregate in their dorms and outside
10:23
the upper was getting. Out of hand,
10:25
Bumgarner tried to shut it down lamely.
10:28
And their eyes began to personally as
10:30
you and orders to the home I
10:32
would not wanna see footage of and
10:34
I was I was ticked all. He
10:37
ever get back and years get back in
10:40
your baby doll dell of yeah just all
10:42
kinds of tried to bring order to it's
10:44
quits that really I don't know why adult
10:46
that was the Royal puts ideas I thought
10:48
there would listen to the car that a
10:51
good Terrell as X that got a matter
10:53
of. What
10:55
happened next is been described in reports
10:57
as a disturbance, a fight, or riot,
11:00
Details differ, but most of the documentation
11:02
I've read settle more or less on
11:04
the same story. That. Afternoon
11:06
Bumgarner decided it was time to call
11:09
in the Qrs The Quick Reaction Force
11:11
a team attend soldiers equipped with riot
11:13
control. The Her. Search.
11:16
Until Hickman was in charge of the cure us that
11:18
day. He said they've been called up
11:20
before, but always the mere sight of them
11:22
had quelled whatever was stirring. They never had
11:24
to actually engage with detainees. Was. A
11:26
time they sat around board and their hut
11:29
watching movies on Dvd or whole season's of
11:31
the office. Before. Seating chairs restored
11:33
in their two. Segments. Added some
11:35
time to take a nap and one of them. Were
11:38
made teens when they hustled over to
11:40
camp for Hickman said they could hear
11:42
people yelling and banging and breaking stuff
11:44
and all the different buildings which ring
11:46
the large central yard. About. Two
11:49
hundred Navy guards were staged. They're waiting.
11:52
Secure. Of team lined up outside the
11:54
door of one particularly agitated Block Zulu.
11:56
Block. There's a whole wind up
11:58
protocol they're supposed to go through before they
12:00
physically enter an enclosed space. But that
12:03
got short circuited when a guard
12:05
started yelling about yet another suicide.
12:07
Or Navy Guard. Job.
12:10
Who was stand by the door He said
12:12
detainees in here hang yourself is hanging herself
12:14
and he opened the door real fast and
12:17
we we ran in. The. Navy
12:19
guard was mistaken, no one was hanging
12:21
himself inside. Instead, Pigment says what he
12:23
and his Q R F team encountered
12:25
when they rushed and was an expertly
12:27
slipped up. Floor and and us
12:30
and we split all over
12:32
the place and we were
12:34
getting bombarded with with feces
12:36
and urine. Like it
12:39
had been stockpiled. Yes, They.
12:41
Were waiting force. that's
12:46
what is was that they would
12:48
gave the tennis so so. The
12:51
Palace of for lousy. That
12:54
smaller Mohamed now. The armoury had been a
12:56
Taliban. Official, he told us he was in
12:58
the dorm. When the cure f came bursting
13:00
in these are the detainees were throwing these
13:02
containers of serve so but the guards and
13:04
the soap with spilling out onto the floor
13:06
mixing with the liquid from the tear gas.
13:11
Was more the or whether the grass so
13:13
when they wanted to enter the room and
13:15
more porous the will slip on this ground
13:17
and for this is the truth about this
13:20
issue. Again,
13:22
there's some disagreement, especially between the Americans
13:24
and. The detainees. About some of the
13:27
fine points here. Omri said there was
13:29
no ruse to lure them in know
13:31
ambush, no advance excretion gathering. He
13:34
said they were reacting in the moment
13:36
to being attacked, but everyone involved degrees
13:39
they got pretty vicious again as. So
13:41
the prisoners started to break stuff like
13:44
the light fixtures and stuff the like
13:46
sixers and the water bottles. The prisoners
13:48
started throwing it at the guards. Mozilla,
13:55
Friend used everything that would
13:58
come and defense. Whatever
14:01
death was fans models meeting
14:03
sticks with took a ton
14:05
of stick from him and
14:07
we sit somewhere can with
14:09
that. They
14:13
had the upper hand. first. does show
14:15
Hickman again. they were beaten us. And
14:18
you know when you got people kids
14:20
up for years, they fight like animals.
14:23
They fight it a different level than
14:25
than my eighteen year old kids Just
14:27
graduate high school and worked at Mcdonalds
14:29
part time before they went the military.
14:32
These guys are fighting. After
14:35
about five or ten minutes, segment says he
14:38
gave the order to fire and they did.
14:40
Nonlethal hard pellets though Hickman says they
14:42
use them at a potentially. Lethal Range
14:44
is the first time weapons had been
14:47
fired at detainees at Guantanamo. Hickman
14:50
says he had a detainee in the chest
14:52
with a rubber grenade here. Members laughing was
14:54
comical to see a body go flying like
14:56
that, He said when she feels kind of
14:58
bad about now. But. In the moment
15:00
it was. Payback. Violence.
15:04
Was always in the air at Guantanamo,
15:06
but this was something else. a straight
15:08
up fight. Right out in the
15:10
open. Ten against ten soldiers versus
15:12
detainees. Is soft and that
15:15
they would never made public but. The
15:18
day of the riots, morale was
15:20
never hire. That.
15:22
Steve Tennis, the Navy officer. In
15:24
charge of the guard force and the discipline camps
15:27
two and three. They'd. All been called over
15:29
to camp for to help. Because we
15:31
are to kick their asses and get away with
15:33
it. After all that
15:35
B s we're to takes. Less
15:38
the gallows tastes and endorse they don't
15:40
We never would have said it right
15:42
Dad's place. they probably even to this
15:44
date or light wouldn't Why just put
15:47
it right, Deaths? But as you as
15:49
guinea Garda was involved alerts. That's what
15:51
are times when we finally had our.
15:54
Of. Dickman
15:58
in his team. Push the detainees. Out of
16:00
he will block to wear Navy
16:02
guards are waiting in the courtyard
16:05
while they start bother giving off
16:07
and were thrown him out the
16:09
doors and those navy guys outsider
16:11
literally just beating the shit out
16:13
of them arms as are going
16:15
out there were just cost and
16:17
and placed all say stars in
16:19
the dirt as their put and
16:22
wristbands on him and then they're
16:24
just beat them up wristbands meaning
16:26
like flex cuffs or we're okay
16:28
and beat it like hitting. That
16:30
setting them here. And.
16:32
Know those surveys? do anything?
16:35
Some of them was a resume back to
16:37
us. There were swearing chick us we had
16:39
to stay calm down. For
16:42
accuracy, nobody was gravely injured that day. A
16:44
couple of the guards are banged up the
16:47
not as badly as some of the prisoners
16:49
sasha. They once had been shot with plastic
16:51
pellets. I know my uniform was
16:53
covered. After we were
16:55
done with deluxe where they still this to
16:57
get off daughter was a bio bags goes
17:00
off. Collect.
17:08
Some. Of the detainees held as they like
17:11
the fight as a good day. Soon
17:15
as first much sense They were so
17:17
happy have to this. As
17:20
a fiddle like me had Tesla
17:22
Cove the freedom. Also
17:25
the fight was righteous. They're protecting the
17:27
current saw some yards of business would
17:29
I would a happy to the been
17:31
deployed on. Bumgarner
17:39
couldn't understand it they had it's So Good
17:41
over there. And camp for why they throw
17:43
it away, why they tear the place apart.
17:47
He dealt with the May eighteenth debacle
17:49
not as an existential problems, but as
17:51
a disciplinary one. That.
17:53
Night camp for was emptied out
17:55
completely. All. Those supposedly
17:57
compliant. Detainees said to punish.
18:00
Block. From. Now on, fewer
18:02
people would be allowed to congregate
18:04
at any one time. And as
18:06
for suicide prevention, Bumgarner focused on
18:08
overdosing medical staff only to distribute.
18:10
Medications not guards. But.
18:13
Honestly, Bumgarner said he felt like he had
18:15
things back. Under control. I have.
18:19
Two particles was they arrive at that point
18:21
after just a few days as you can
18:23
tell by your the activity see in the
18:25
camps in the morning briefing your discover a
18:28
rat traffic that you hear. The.
18:30
Camps are pretty quiet. They're sort of back to
18:32
normal. Your. Eyes I didn't
18:34
cheat. Love: Are you in my
18:37
failure or tentacles one up like
18:39
there's something out there was about
18:41
to happen? Maybe.
18:43
Bumgarner tentacles were an activated
18:45
but the tentacles of prisoner
18:47
unrest. Those tentacles were activated
18:49
and probing quietly for escape.
18:53
That's after the break. This
18:56
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Weeks after the violence in May is the
20:00
worst thing about the worst year would happen.
20:02
Through. Ninth, Two Thousand and Six. That
20:05
night, the Joint Task Force Commander Admiral
20:08
Harry Harris hosted the camps top officers
20:10
at a dinner party, a rare break
20:12
for Bumgarner. In it was sore
20:14
like it has been a tough last few
20:16
weeks. And so is
20:18
that. It was
20:21
the Oh Sixes in Above
20:23
sort of. Rare smoke
20:25
cigars Will boss where he loves
20:28
smoke cigars so. Said
20:30
no one is going to be
20:33
dug Looking out over Guantanamo. Sexual
20:35
by itself. Beautiful of relaxed evening.
20:38
That. Sticks with me so bad that. That.
20:42
While all this is building up the
20:44
camps I'm certain probably for the first
20:46
time it only time will happen in
20:48
my time there I am I see
20:51
certain relaxed. At
20:53
Admirals House. After
20:55
the party broke up and people wandered
20:57
home to their quarters, phones and pagers
20:59
started buzzing. Several. Detainees had
21:01
been found unresponsive in their cells.
21:04
In alpha block of camp one about
21:06
fifteen yards from Been Burners office. The.
21:09
Men had been discovered one by one, starting
21:11
a little after twelve thirty am. First
21:14
the guy and sell eight than in
21:16
Cel twelve, another than a third and
21:18
cell size. According. To
21:20
government records. Paintings or Yasir as the
21:22
her on a from Saudi Arabia. He was
21:24
twenty two. Money. Out of
21:26
Tybee. also Saudi H. Thirty. And.
21:29
Ali Abdullah Amen from Yemen. He.
21:31
Was twenty seven. All.
21:34
Three had been some by guards hanging at the
21:36
back of their cells near their things. Which.
21:39
They evidently stepped off of in such a
21:41
ways to suspend themselves. They. Concealed
21:43
themselves by attaching seats are blankets. the
21:45
ceiling in front of the saying. Their.
21:48
Hands were tied. And each had
21:50
a piece of paper in a pocket. A couple of
21:52
short furious. Sentences written in Arabic. By
21:56
the time Bumgarner arrived, the camp was in
21:58
a state. The guards were frantic. When
22:00
said, he comforted a colleague and then pooped in
22:02
a trash. Medical.
22:04
Personnel were working on the three men, though they
22:06
all appear to be passed saving. Within.
22:08
An hour of bunkered his arrival, they were
22:11
pronounced dead. This.
22:14
Was very bad for the prison. That's.
22:16
Where Bumgarner said when. Know.
22:18
Detainees had died since the camp opened
22:20
and now three in one night. This.
22:23
Is bad for us for me.
22:26
How we babies to explain we'd
22:28
like to separate. The
22:31
Nice: That's what I was on.
22:33
How does it does happen. The.
22:36
Immediate answer seem to be one of the
22:38
mill incompetence. The guards were supposed to be
22:40
walking the tier every three. Minutes making sure
22:43
to see skin and movement and each
22:45
detainee in each cell, but there's one
22:47
guard. Later admitted to investigators it gets
22:49
old and boring and it turned out
22:51
to guards has gone to chow at
22:53
the same time, which is against the
22:55
rules. Eventual. The Admiral
22:57
Harris would conclude that prison personnel
22:59
violated six procedures that night, some
23:01
of which might have contributed to
23:03
the detainees ability to kill themselves.
23:05
I can't tell you which sex
23:07
because redacted in any case by
23:09
dawn. Washington was waiting. For
23:12
the in four hours of that happening around
23:14
the telephone and across unstable with the White
23:16
House. Wanting to know what the
23:18
hell happened. Bumgarner. Knew full
23:20
well that question had an uncomfortable cousin. Who's.
23:23
Faultless. This. He
23:25
also knew they all knew they were
23:27
listening toward a pr nightmare. So I'm
23:29
Bumgarner most feared. The. Narrative that
23:32
people were killing themselves at Guantanamo because it
23:34
was such a hellhole. Just
23:36
a month earlier, the Un Committee against
23:38
Torture had issued a report saying the
23:40
prison violated human rights law and should
23:42
be shut down. The You Parliament had
23:44
also called for it's closing in part
23:46
because the inhumane conditions of confinement. Now.
23:49
The Germans, the Danes, the British
23:51
were reiterating close it down. The.
23:55
Us government, though in an abundance
23:57
of confidence, spotted Sweetness into a
23:59
string. He just
24:01
didn't reflect badly on one time are just
24:04
the opposite. These. Deaths justify
24:06
Guantanamo. Hours
24:08
after the conference call with the bigwigs
24:10
in D C. Admiral Harris when Big.
24:13
He told Cnn the suicides are proof that these men
24:16
were still in the fight. A continual threat
24:18
to the United States. They're.
24:20
Smart. They are creative. They are committed. They
24:22
have no regard for human life. Neither are
24:24
Aznar their own. I
24:26
believe this is not an act of desperation. But
24:29
rather an act of asymmetrical warfare waged
24:31
against Us. asymmetrical
24:33
warfare. Meaning the widely adopted.
24:35
Strategy is guerrilla fighters are terrorists
24:38
use to attack a bigger stronger
24:40
enemy. That. Was the government's
24:42
story about the suicides. They were
24:44
an act of war. For
24:47
his part, Bumgarner. Told me he didn't
24:49
cotton to the asymmetrical. Warfare language but
24:51
he was certain the deaths were
24:53
coordinated. And that they were
24:55
calculated to harm not necessarily the United
24:57
States, but to harm Guantanamo. For.
25:00
One thing, He knew all the men on that
25:02
particular block Alpha block of Camp One. He.
25:04
Said they were all instigators manipulators as
25:07
he called them hand in the back
25:09
of the room types. Of
25:11
thousand that whole to hear that wholesale
25:13
block and knew this was gonna happen
25:15
and they had to. They participated it
25:17
to make it happen. Though.
25:21
It. Was all about fulfilling
25:23
prophecy. The. Prophecy that has
25:25
three men died, they'd all be freed. They.
25:28
Killed themselves for the did as a group
25:30
to keep Guantanamo in the nightly news on
25:33
the front page. I am
25:35
hundred present to this that. Those.
25:38
Three people committed themselves.
25:41
To dying for their calls
25:44
to get all a quotation
25:46
marks the brothers. Released
25:49
from Guantanamo to get some battle.
25:51
There's no doubt mama that was
25:53
the purpose for those sources. They
25:55
were dying for the calls and
25:58
jihad they serve as it. The
26:00
out of any. I'm I'm
26:02
depressed, I can't make it anymore and it
26:04
really make know that makes no sense at
26:06
all. For the three on the to simultaneously
26:09
evil plan suicides that what you know that's
26:11
not the way you do. Bumgarner
26:15
believed other more powerful detainees.
26:18
Al Qaeda guys had either plan the
26:20
suicides are at. The very least approved
26:22
them. And. He thought it
26:24
was possible that lawyers for the detainees
26:27
might be encouraging the detainees to protest
26:29
or passing information to their clients. Now
26:32
the same attorneys along with human rights
26:34
activists. Were. Pushing a different narrative
26:36
about the suicides. The prisoners
26:39
had died from despair they said
26:41
from hopelessness after years of abuse
26:43
and no clear legal or administrative
26:45
passwords. Release. A Un
26:48
spokesman said the suicides were quote
26:50
not completely unexpected. Unquote. Amnesty International
26:52
straight up blame the Bush Administration
26:54
for the deaths. Of
26:58
actually inevitably, yet another story emerged about
27:00
what had happened to the three men.
27:03
Some. People began wondering aloud whether they'd in
27:05
fact been killed. Maybe. These weren't suicides
27:08
at all. Maybe. They're homicides.
27:13
My name is for lot of the honey I'm.
27:15
To law as a Her Annie a former
27:18
general in the Saudi Police and the father
27:20
of the youngest man who died Yasir. As
27:22
a her on he he openly challenge the
27:24
Us government's account of what happened to his
27:26
son. In. A remarkably polite
27:28
video statement He implored the President
27:30
and. The. Courts and the American people
27:32
to investigate. I never believed the
27:34
source. There are many signs and
27:37
pieces of evidence or so. the
27:39
story is false and as these
27:41
individuals were tools at Guantanamo. There
27:44
was some weirdness about their deaths. Even.
27:47
If the guards were phoning it in that
27:49
night, for instance, how could these hangings have
27:51
gone unnoticed for so long? A
27:54
couple of the men's bodies were showing the beginnings. Of. Rigor
27:56
mortis when guards cut them down. Which.
27:58
takes about two hours to start to set in.
28:02
The logs the guards made of their rounds that
28:04
night were a little off. Someone
28:06
seems to have falsified a headcount about an
28:09
hour before the first detainee was found hanging.
28:11
But when investigators asked the guards about it,
28:14
they all claimed implausibly not to know
28:16
who wrote the entry. In
28:19
2010, Harper's Magazine published an
28:21
award-winning investigation into the Guantanamo
28:23
suicides with the word suicides
28:25
in scare quotes. And
28:27
it was intriguing. The
28:29
reporter's main source was introduced as a
28:31
whistleblower, Joe Hickman, the former sergeant in
28:33
charge of the QRF team that fought
28:35
the detainees in Camp 4. Hickman
28:38
said some personnel were acting oddly that night,
28:40
and that while he was on duty
28:42
in a guard tower, he saw an unmarked white
28:44
van coming and going from Camp 1, which
28:47
appeared to him to be secretly
28:49
moving individual prisoners to and fro.
28:52
Hickman's hypothesis maybe another
28:54
agency, perhaps the CIA, had taken the men
28:56
for secret meetings and things got out of
28:58
hand and they died, and then they were
29:00
strung up to look like suicides. Hickman
29:03
wrote a book about it. To
29:05
this day he thinks there's a wide conspiracy to hide
29:07
the truth of that night. And
29:10
some of the detainees, including some of the
29:12
former Guantanamo prisoners we spoke to, they
29:15
also refused to believe the men hanged themselves.
29:18
They just don't see how or why they could have done
29:20
it. The Americans must
29:22
have killed them somehow. These
29:25
three competing explanations for the
29:27
suicides, warfare or misery or
29:30
homicide, never seem to fade. People
29:32
still talk about the deaths with some mystery.
29:35
But there is information, a lot of
29:37
it, that to me offers the most persuasive
29:40
answer to the question of what happened. Information
29:42
that lives inside the paper trail these
29:44
men left While they were still
29:47
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Gonna say. Okay,
30:41
So. Of the three stories about what killed
30:43
the men in camp, one. Desperation.
30:45
asymmetrical warfare or homicide.
30:48
I'm going to set aside the homicide idea. Because.
30:51
No evidence. Has surfaced to support it
30:53
after all these years, And
30:55
many good reporters we've spoken to told
30:57
us they did take the idea seriously,
30:59
tried to substantiate it. But. They weren't
31:01
able to. And. Then just the
31:04
size of the cover up we'd be talking about. All.
31:06
Those people. all those falsified witness
31:08
statements and investigative documents and not
31:11
one person has cracked. and twenty
31:13
years the seems unlikely. Said.
31:16
To me, that leaves two. Options: Desperation
31:18
or Warfare. And
31:20
if were weighing the truth of those stories,
31:22
we do have convincing evidence. Bureaucratically.
31:25
Speaking, I know the most about the you many
31:27
men. Ali Abdullah mad because I
31:29
have his medical and behavioral records left
31:31
over from an unsuccessful lawsuit filed on
31:34
behalf of his and Yeah cells that
31:36
are on his father. Awkward
31:39
arrived in Guantanamo in June of two thousand
31:41
and two. He was twenty two years
31:43
old. Or possibly thirty three years old. The
31:46
U S never seems to pin down his
31:48
birthday or his real name for that matter,
31:50
but most of his Guantanamo record say he
31:52
was twenty two. He'd worked selling clothes that
31:54
the suits and ties yemen near his home
31:56
town. He had a thick black beard. And
31:58
was married too young woman. The
32:02
story he told the US was that he was studying
32:04
at a university in Pakistan when he got arrested during
32:06
a raid at the guest house where he was living.
32:09
The US thought he was lying, that the
32:11
studying was a cover story, and that Ahmed
32:13
was maybe a mid- to high-level al-Qaeda operative
32:16
and had possibly traveled with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
32:19
People said they saw him in Afghanistan, in
32:21
Kandahar. He said he'd never been there. I
32:25
have no idea whether he was mid- to high-level
32:27
al-Qaeda, but from the records, it seems like he
32:30
was a mid- to high-level pain in the guard forces'
32:32
ass. He spits on
32:34
someone, throws a cup of pee on someone,
32:36
sexually harasses female guards now and then. Early
32:39
in 2004, he gets irfed a couple of times,
32:42
once for refusal for reservation, meaning
32:44
an interrogation session, none
32:46
of which made him exceptional at Guantanamo. But
32:49
it's pretty clear from the guard logs,
32:51
Ahmed was never okay at Guantanamo. He
32:54
wasn't inclined to settle down or wait it
32:56
out, whatever it was. He was
32:58
a tenacious resistor. In
33:00
January 2004, a guard sees him climbing the fence
33:02
at the back of the wreck area, trying to
33:04
see what's on the other side. The
33:07
guard tells him to come down before the tower guards
33:09
spot him. Ahmed tells the guard,
33:11
I want the infantry to shoot me, so
33:13
I can be with Allah. Please MP, please.
33:17
If he had a reputation at Guantanamo, it
33:19
was for hunger striking. During
33:21
the camp's very first hunger strike in 2002, Ahmed joins in.
33:26
They have to revive him with oxygen when he passes out.
33:29
He joins the hunger strike again in
33:32
July of 2005, not long after Bumgarner's
33:34
arrival. He's one of the guys who
33:36
stops for a couple of days when Bumgarner and Shaker
33:38
Amer work out a deal. And
33:41
he's one of the guys who gets angry when that deal falls
33:43
apart, believes the Americans have tricked
33:45
them, lied to them, breaks his toilet and
33:47
his light fixture, goes back on hunger strike.
33:49
And this time, he never really stops. That
33:54
fall of 2005, as Bumgarner is struggling
33:56
to contain the hunger strike, Ahmed ends
33:58
up in the detainee clinic a few
34:00
times. He's so weak he can barely talk.
34:03
He'd arrived at Guantanamo weighing about 177 pounds. By December 20th,
34:05
he's down to 124 and a half pounds.
34:07
By Christmas, he's hospitalized
34:12
with pneumonia and a sepsis scare. At
34:15
the very end of December 2005, a few weeks after
34:18
the first force-feeding chairs were shipped to the
34:21
island, medical personnel write this note
34:23
in his file. Quote,
34:25
patient states that he wanted to commit suicide because
34:27
he does not want to be a prisoner anymore
34:29
and he lost hope. End quote. Ahmed
34:33
will not stop hunger striking. They
34:35
prescribe him Zoloft. By
34:37
January 10th, he weighs only 122 pounds. They
34:41
strap him into the feeding chair. This
34:45
is how Bumgarner's period of peace looks for
34:48
Ahmed. Dozens and dozens of
34:50
pages of meticulous force-feeding documentation.
34:53
Exact times, exact amounts of liquid nutrition,
34:55
the width of the tube, the lidocaine
34:57
percentage, which nostril they stink it down,
34:59
whether he resists or not, whether he
35:01
gets sick after. Twice a
35:04
day, they're stopping him in the chair. The
35:06
process is so harrowing, most of the hunger
35:08
strikers quit within a few weeks, but Ahmed
35:10
doesn't. By mid-February,
35:13
he's one of only three men still on
35:15
hunger strike and the inside
35:17
of his nose is infected and so
35:19
inflamed the nurse can't get a tube
35:21
down. They put it down his throat
35:23
instead. He's got other medical complaints as
35:25
well. Itchiness, his ear hurts, testicular pain,
35:28
his knees were bashed during an ear thing he tells them
35:30
and now his knee pain is constant. But
35:33
he is gaining weight, 138
35:36
pounds, 150 pounds. In
35:38
his cell, he's allowed to keep a couple
35:40
dozen pictures of his hometown, Ib, Yemen, a
35:42
crazy beautiful city surrounded by green hills
35:45
and waterfalls. All
35:47
The while, the behavioral health team is checking in on
35:49
him and all the while he's waving them off. Have
36:00
a good day. Awkward.
36:02
Keeps getting the feeding tube for
36:04
another month. After that, five months
36:06
total of force feeding. Until
36:08
lunchtime on June second, two thousand and
36:11
Six, a guard walks by Osmond Cell
36:13
and instead of writing. The usual
36:15
one where description and augments
36:17
activity log sitting standing, sleeping, playing
36:19
the guard rights eating in all
36:22
caps with three exclamation points.
36:24
Off mid had voluntarily eaten a meal. This
36:27
hunger strike was over. By.
36:30
This time he weighs a hundred and sixty three
36:32
pounds. Is not clear if he's been
36:34
sneaking suit on the side somehow or if the
36:36
force feeding caused him to gain back the weights,
36:38
but he's physically healthy. After couple
36:40
days, they determine he's ready to get off
36:43
Oscar block and a discipline camp and move
36:45
over to also block in camp. On
36:48
June seventh, two days before he kills
36:50
himself, a behavioral Health staffer comes by.
36:53
Awkward. Is in good spirits. The report says.
36:55
States. The he has no mean thoughts
36:57
of hurting others are himself. He's
37:00
not seeing ghosts or genies and his
37:02
cell not hearing voices. So
37:05
that's how prison personal saw a man. But.
37:07
The clearest picture of what author himself
37:10
was thinking and feeling comes from his
37:12
own writing, which is part of military
37:14
investigative record. He. In the
37:16
other men left letters, brief
37:18
manifestoes, explanations, My.
37:20
Name is Ali Abdullah off my Nasr
37:23
else Salami. I'm twenty seven years old,
37:25
married by countries Yemen and I memorized
37:27
the Koran. Praise and gratitude goes to
37:29
Allah. Osman begins. I. Don't
37:31
know how I start my story. however I know hi
37:33
could end it. He. Writes of
37:35
Us. greed and support for repressive regimes
37:38
in the Middle East, including Iraq and
37:40
Israel. Of his
37:42
treatment in custody there are things and a
37:44
tear gas and the humiliation. They.
37:46
Desecrated our religion or bodies and. Private
37:49
parts. He says he
37:51
gave up his hunger strike just a
37:53
few days back in order to quote
37:55
Safeguard Myself Against The American Suppression and
37:57
I mean final relinquishment without return. God
37:59
willing. I. Remained repressed inside
38:01
a very cold metal box. They call
38:03
it a solitary sell. I have come
38:05
out of this box. And. My intention
38:08
was to put an end to these ordeals. I'm
38:11
not desperate and I swear to Allah
38:13
not afraid. To. Date on
38:15
the letter is June Seventh. Two thousand and Six.
38:17
The. Same day he tells his behavioral health
38:19
staffer his feelings is fine. And.
38:22
Two days before his suicide, In
38:25
another letter addressed to Mohamad Nation to
38:28
the entire Muslim world, He. Says
38:30
it again. Don't. Ever think I
38:32
have been afflicted with desperation? He
38:35
hopes that perhaps by doing what is
38:37
going to do, it revives the hearts
38:39
and awakens the endeavoring and victorious. He.
38:42
Signs off with the telephone number in Yemen. But
38:45
in other more personal letters also dated
38:47
June seventh. He. Sounds terribly sad.
38:50
To. My dearest brother. He reminisces.
38:53
Ask that he let people know what happened
38:55
at home at the shop. As.
38:57
The he take good care of my parents
38:59
and forgive me as my parents to for
39:01
forgiveness. To. My family and the
39:03
beloved. Ones he writes about piety
39:06
and obedience. And also his agony over
39:08
being separated from them. To
39:10
my dear wife, he hasn't seen. Her for five
39:12
years he writes of longing and devotion and
39:14
a gleaming moon and silk and the smell
39:17
of roses and sweet and freshwater. The
39:24
other men left writing to. Yasir
39:26
as a her on his letters or
39:29
thematically and stylistically similar documents that they've
39:31
a little more fire. More for
39:33
raised fist. More talk of a
39:35
Us Led conspiracy to keep them
39:37
indefinitely detain. More ghastly detail. His
39:40
letters to were all dated within days of
39:42
his death. From
39:44
third man money out ab there's only
39:46
one letter in the records did a
39:48
June. It's cool as you all know
39:51
the situation in this prison is worsening.
39:53
He as sell it to release the
39:55
other prisoners from captivity to diminish the
39:57
infidels. As letter concludes.
40:00
Forgive me. We
40:10
as the former prisoners. We spoke to what
40:12
they remembered about the three men who
40:14
died off many or a Cd, the Moroccan
40:16
chef who spent five years and Guantanamo tell
40:19
the story about Yassar as a her
40:21
on a air Cd was off and on
40:23
the discipline lox he said and that's
40:25
the last place he saw Yasir she was
40:27
just opposite most so on. he was very
40:30
young used to go onto arm. They
40:32
were on the harshest, most restrictive block.
40:35
November. Block. Viewers Opposition: I
40:37
was in number eighteen and he was
40:39
number nineteen. Or. Maybe it was
40:41
the other way around. he can't quite remember. But
40:43
they were both afflicted by the punishing cold
40:45
of the air conditioning. Or
40:48
city said he couldn't stand it Freezing all
40:50
night. And. Decided to blocks a season in
40:52
the ceiling of his cell. But.
40:54
In November Block: There's nothing in your
40:56
cell. No material. To work with. so
40:58
he resolved to use his food. Scarce
41:00
is it was angry as he was.
41:03
Thirty. And. I would suit true,
41:05
true, and and set it. On the
41:07
remove it. And there was
41:09
stick. It is. It's defense represents. Which.
41:12
Worked. He didn't
41:14
know it at the time, but it turned out
41:16
yasir and the opposite sell also blocking his ceiling.
41:19
That with. Food We would do
41:21
insurgency. But. We we, we
41:23
do. We didn't have. To what a
41:25
model about it. So one night.
41:28
Or two to see the soldiers bring in
41:30
a house. Moods. The house because
41:32
you most of the so. On. There
41:35
was watching. All this for a crock.
41:39
And you moved in. They. Liberated his
41:41
a season by blasting it with water.
41:44
Air Seat he said. he remembered the guards
41:46
were so young, early twenties like Yasir and
41:48
they seem to be having such a good
41:50
time. Which. I can picture young
41:52
soldiers with a water hose and
41:55
a project and to say was
41:57
was was flooded. And
41:59
then. and he was shuttled in
42:01
the middle of the corridor, and then
42:04
he put him back in his cell like a swimming
42:06
pool, and he said to him, have
42:08
a good night. Soon
42:12
after that, Arashidi said, Yasser was moved,
42:15
probably to Camp 1 Alpha Block, if I had
42:17
to hazard a guess. And
42:20
Arashidi was moved into Yasser's cell, and
42:22
that cell, he said, had an especially
42:24
big AC vent, just huge.
42:27
He couldn't bear to walk under it. Only
42:29
then I realized what he was facing, only
42:31
then I realized what he was going through.
42:34
Arashidi said he spent about three weeks
42:36
in that frigid cell on November Block,
42:38
before he too was moved out. Within
42:41
a week, we
42:43
got the news that three detainees were killed.
42:46
Akhmed Arashidi doesn't have any first-hand knowledge of
42:48
what happened in Camp 1 that night. It's
42:51
not impossible the men were killed, he says.
42:54
But he also believes it's possible they
42:56
were driven to suicide because of
42:58
the harshness. The feeding chairs, November
43:00
Block, Bumgarner's innovations, Bumgarner's
43:03
Guantanamo. So
43:11
were the men martyrs? Was this a
43:13
coordinated political tactic? Or were they
43:15
hopeless prisoners? Sounds to me
43:17
as if they were both. Judging
43:20
from Akhmed's letters especially, Akhmed
43:22
had thought this through. He was
43:24
done suffering, done with the endless force feedings.
43:27
But also, he hoped his death would mean something.
43:30
Maybe even inspire something. Guantanamo
43:33
commanders never figured out exactly how the
43:36
suicides had been planned or carried out.
43:39
So there was no intelligence fix they could grab
43:41
onto. All they could try
43:43
to do in response to this loss of control,
43:45
Bumgarner said, was to try to reassert it.
43:48
It was not, let's be nice. It was
43:51
control. Shut it down, the
43:53
experiment with kindness is not working. Before
43:56
the suicides, the camp administration had planned
43:58
for about three quarters of a day. of the
44:00
detainees to move into more permissive living
44:02
arrangements. Now they flipped that percentage.
44:05
The big new Camp 6, designed to
44:07
be communal like the now-emptied Camp 4,
44:10
would be all single-cells, maximum
44:12
security. They'd put steel
44:14
mesh enclosures along the second floor walkways so
44:16
no one could jump. The
44:19
new recreation yard was carved into
44:21
individual enclosed pens. Admiral
44:23
Harris began using a new phrase in interviews with
44:25
the press, I don't think there's
44:27
such a thing as a medium security terrorist. Mike
44:32
Bumgarner came to believe he was personally
44:34
responsible for the three suicides, not
44:36
because his policies were too harsh, because
44:39
they were too soft. He'd
44:41
relaxed the SOPs in Camp 1 so
44:44
that when Yasser Azaharani was seen washing his
44:46
own blanket in his cell and then hanging
44:48
it up to dry, that was allowed. And
44:52
the extra stuff they were permitted to keep in
44:54
their cells, the clothing, the water bottles, the sewing
44:56
area on alpha block, a cell where you could
44:58
use a needle and thread, the dim
45:00
lights so you couldn't easily see the back
45:02
of the cell, plus the no-flashlights and detainees'
45:04
faces rule for guards so as
45:06
not to disturb detainees' sleep. All
45:09
of that helped the detainees pull off their
45:11
suicides, and all of that, carrots
45:13
planted by Bumgarner. What
45:16
he learned from the suicides was that you
45:18
can't negotiate with terrorists. In
45:21
trying to comply with certain aspects of the
45:23
Geneva Conventions, Bumgarner thought he'd
45:25
bent too far toward accommodating the detainees,
45:28
and the detainees had manipulated his
45:30
leniency. That's what some of his
45:32
superiors had warned about, and some of his subordinates
45:34
had groused about early on, and now he
45:36
saw they were right. November Block,
45:39
that most miserable discipline block he instituted,
45:41
where your hair and beard would get
45:43
shorn, where you couldn't talk, couldn't wear
45:45
clothes, nothing in your cell except a
45:47
merciless vent blasting cold air, that's what really
45:49
worked, he said. That's
45:51
what created compliance at Guantanamo. The
45:54
only way that you deal with
45:57
the people in Guantanamo was
46:00
from a position of strength, from
46:03
position of power, from I am
46:06
in charge to be successful. I
46:09
am in charge. It's going to be
46:11
my way. I'm in charge. Confering
46:14
with the prisoners, endorsing their reasonable
46:16
requests, allowing reasonable concessions,
46:19
he said the detainees must have pegged him as weak.
46:22
You show any weakness whatsoever into
46:25
where I'm going to give to
46:27
you one inch, and
46:30
you give this type of freedom to them, that's
46:33
totally forgotten. I mean, that freedom, totally
46:37
forgotten that you ever did that, made
46:39
that concession. Now the
46:42
bar has moved way down the road again.
46:44
They were always reaching for the next thing.
46:46
And anything you did for them, they didn't
46:48
really recognize. There was no,
46:50
not that you would expect appreciation. People
46:53
always said, well, what do you expect
46:55
from the guys? I mean,
46:57
there's not a trustworthy son of a bitch in
46:59
there. Well, what do you expect? I mean, they're
47:01
terrorists. So, you know, as we thought, what
47:04
do you expect? But
47:06
I didn't really, some of my treated people, humans, I
47:09
just, I thought there was a
47:11
degree. A degree
47:13
of mutual respect, or at least a degree
47:15
of fair play. Bumgarner
47:18
had a stunning faith that if
47:20
he gave the prisoners some privileges, they'd
47:22
be grateful. They'd hold up
47:25
their end of a one-sided bargain.
47:27
Instead, in Bumgarner's eyes, they did the
47:29
worst thing. They killed themselves and
47:31
tried to destroy Guantanamo. And
47:34
that's why he said, at Guantanamo, you
47:37
can't fully employ the Geneva Conventions,
47:40
which spell out not only the obligations
47:42
of the captors, but of the captives, how
47:44
they should behave. That's
47:46
the element of why Geneva Conventions
47:49
can't hold in a camp, because
47:52
there's no obligation on
47:54
those being held. No recognition of
47:56
all the Geneva Conventions. If they
47:58
don't play by their rules, then we can't. can't either, the
48:00
precise thinking that created the mess of Guantanamo
48:03
in the first place. Because
48:05
there had been rules, maybe not perfect rules,
48:07
but still perfectly good rules, that
48:10
the United States spurned at Guantanamo. Guardrails,
48:13
designed to curtail humanity's worst
48:15
impulses toward violence and revenge
48:17
and domination. That's what
48:19
the Geneva Conventions were and the Convention
48:21
Against Torture. International agreements
48:24
the United States not only endorsed and
48:26
adopted, but helped right. For
48:29
some of the prisoners, the worst thing
48:31
about Guantanamo wasn't so much that the US
48:33
wasn't playing by the rules. That's
48:35
what Ahmed Arashidi explained to us. He
48:38
said the worst thing was that the US
48:40
seemed to think it was playing by the rules.
48:43
You know, the worst thing that you
48:45
can imagine is when your
48:47
rights are being
48:49
violated and when you
48:51
are tortured and abused and virtualized
48:54
by someone who
48:56
is regarded as someone
48:58
who respects human rights, as
49:01
someone who doesn't believe in torture. So
49:03
when you are tortured by someone who
49:05
doesn't believe in torture, it's really scary.
49:08
Because you don't know what comes next
49:11
and how bad it's going to get. Because
49:13
you're shocked, how can this guy who believes in
49:16
human rights doing this to me? You know,
49:19
that makes you think that he's going to get worse and worse
49:21
and worse. Immediately
49:41
after the suicides, Bumgarner was in trouble.
49:43
Not for the suicides. He was investigated for
49:46
what's called a spill. A reporter
49:48
from the Charlotte Observer happened to
49:50
be visiting Guantanamo, doing a story
49:52
on Bumgarner when the suicides occurred.
49:54
And Bumgarner's bosses were concerned he
49:57
possibly disclosed classified information to the
49:59
reporter. The accusation was
50:01
weak and quickly fell away. And
50:03
in any case, Bumgarner considered it a pretext.
50:06
He's certain what really pissed off his command
50:09
were some intemperate comments he made in the
50:11
days following the suicides captured by that reporter.
50:14
The most damning thing, he quoted Bumgarner
50:16
saying, in honor of our three dead
50:18
brothers and then biting into a pork
50:20
chop sandwich. Bumgarner
50:23
was suspended from his duties and sent to his
50:25
quarters pending an inquiry. I was based under
50:27
house arrest. I don't know if they called it
50:29
that, but that's basically what I was. Just go
50:31
sit by yourself in the house. Bumgarner
50:34
was floored. The three deaths from the
50:36
premonition had happened and he thought for sure they're
50:38
going to close it. The publicity,
50:41
the politics would overwhelm Guantanamo and
50:43
shut it down and it would be
50:45
his fault. He couldn't comprehend how
50:47
quickly his star had fallen. I
50:50
was bad. I
50:53
mean, it was as if I'd committed a capital crime.
50:56
And here I was, just hours
50:58
before, respected,
51:01
I thought, by people and doing
51:04
the right thing, doing right for God and country
51:06
and oh, and the next
51:08
second I'm like on
51:10
the FBI's most wanted list, at least that's
51:12
the way I felt. And
51:16
when you say also at age
51:20
eight, I'm winning a citizenship awards. I mean, I
51:22
was always the good citizen always. I was the
51:25
guy, I don't say I
51:27
do good, but I never got in
51:29
trouble. I was always the right guy to get
51:31
a stickler on rule
51:33
following and to know that
51:35
I'm being accused of breaking
51:38
the law, that I've been involved in
51:40
something that is wrong,
51:42
that I failed, that we let the nation
51:44
because it was, I could
51:46
talk about it. We're not
51:48
going to let anybody die. I mean, that
51:51
was our mission. That was part of the mission. Nobody's
51:53
going to escape. Nobody's going to die. Those
51:56
are the things that you just don't allow to happen. And.
52:03
That was the first time in my life, to be honest. That
52:06
was the absolute rock bottom of my
52:08
whole life, that period. Would
52:11
nothing come anywhere near close? You
52:17
weren't suicidal or something, were you? Oh,
52:20
you were? Oh, I'm
52:22
so sorry. I
52:25
didn't make any act, but I was close. I
52:29
was very close, very, very, very,
52:31
very close. I was as
52:33
close as you could be without
52:35
doing it. Life
52:38
was over for me. I mean, it
52:41
was horrible. I can't tell
52:43
you how low I was. I can't even begin
52:45
to tell you how low I was. After
52:49
about a week, Bumgardner was cleared. The
52:52
military found he hadn't spilled anything to the
52:54
reporter. And shortly after that, his
52:56
command at Guantanamo was over, and he
52:58
rotated out, laudatory citation in
53:00
hand. His career continued,
53:03
but his rank didn't rise. He
53:05
retired from the Army in 2010. A
53:14
coda to this story of the worst year. Guantanamo's
53:17
favorite reporter, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News,
53:19
had toured the camp on June 9th,
53:21
2006, the
53:23
same day, just coincidentally, as the
53:25
suicides. Tonight, the media drum
53:28
beat continues about Guantanamo Bay. So far, the
53:30
New York Times, Boston Globe, the Cleveland Plain
53:32
Dealer, the Newark Star Ledger, USA Today and
53:34
other newspapers have either criticized Gitmo or called
53:36
for it to be shut down. This
53:39
segment ran a few days afterwards. O'Reilly had
53:41
left the island before the suicides took place.
53:44
He'd gotten a special tour exposed to as
53:46
much as possible, Bumgardner at his elbow. In
53:50
a sit-down interview, O'Reilly had asked Bumgardner about
53:52
the fight that had erupted a month earlier
53:54
in Camp 4. Were you
53:56
surprised these guys tried to kill your guys? Ooh,
53:58
absolutely not. Why? nice to them. Why not?
54:00
Why do they want to tell you?
54:02
Why? Well, they, these folks, they hate us.
54:05
It's a, it's a strange thing. It'd take me hours to try to explain
54:07
this to you. They
54:10
hate us. They hate Americans. I
54:12
mean, I see it every day. I see a
54:14
look in their eyes that I
54:17
cannot explain to you. It is a crazy
54:19
look when you're dealing with them. Uh, they will just go
54:21
to you in a heartbeat. Sir, I, I
54:23
characterize it to everybody that comes through here. Make
54:26
no mistake about it. They will cut your throat in a
54:28
heartbeat. Make no mistake about it. Bumgarner
54:31
told me he knew O'Reilly wanted a sound
54:33
bite and so exaggerated a little gave
54:36
the people what they wanted. What about all
54:38
these poor bakers and barbers who they rounded up
54:40
and threw in here for no reason? I'm looking
54:42
for them, sir. I'm looking
54:44
for them. They're out there somewhere. I reckon. Cause
54:47
that's what the human rights rights tells me. I mean,
54:49
Oh, I know. I know. They tell you that. I
54:51
wish, you know, sir. Again, those
54:53
that come here, see it, walk it. Yeah.
54:56
Leave with a different opinion. These folks
54:59
are not what folks paint in
55:01
the media out there. Not at all. These are not good
55:03
guys. I stake my reputation in
55:05
my, my, my life as a
55:07
career military police. No, we've answered butts.
55:10
We appreciate the hospitality of the joint
55:12
task force in Guantanamo. Coming
55:15
right back with some religious leaders. Bumgarner
55:19
had been worried that pressure from liberals
55:21
and bad press would close Guantanamo. But
55:24
in hindsight, it's obvious he had nothing to worry
55:26
about because this asymmetrical
55:28
drumbeat was always stronger. The
55:30
one pounding out the message to any and all wavering
55:33
Americans don't believe the
55:35
human rights lawyers, the naysayers. Guantanamo
55:37
is vital to our national security.
55:41
When a Riley store was over, Bumgarner told me
55:43
he escorted him off the island. I mean, I
55:45
remember driving him back.
55:47
We're taking him over to put him on a boat to take
55:49
him across. Oh, he
55:52
said to me, he said, Colonel,
55:55
don't worry about it. This place is not going to close. I
55:58
said, I was. very different.
56:01
Yes, sir. How you know that he goes, I'm
56:04
not gonna let it happen. In
56:13
the end, Bumgarner took this terrible year
56:15
of hunger striking and fighting and suicides
56:18
harder than Guantanamo itself. The
56:20
prison had survived the worst. Maybe
56:22
it could survive anything. It's
56:25
almost quaint now to think the government was courting
56:27
the press back in Bumgarner's day, telling
56:29
them to come on down and see for themselves. Because
56:32
skip ahead 15 years and the PR
56:34
goal was to make Guantanamo disappear. Cereals
57:13
produced by Jessica Weisberg, Dana Chivas and
57:15
me. Our editor is Julie
57:17
Snyder. Additional reporting by Cora Currier.
57:19
Fact checking by Ben Phalen. Music
57:22
Supervision Sound Design and Mixing by
57:24
Phoebe Wang. Original score by Sophia
57:27
Dely Alessandri. Editing help from
57:29
Jen Guerra and Ira Glass. Our
57:31
contributing editors are Carol Rosenberg and
57:33
Rosina Ali. Additional research
57:35
by Emma Grillo, Amir Kofaji and
57:37
Sami Yousafzai. Translation by Mohammed
57:40
Raza Sahibzada, Nile
57:42
Hejjo, Atique Raheen, Dana
57:44
Alisa, Bashar Al-Halabi and
57:46
Omar Othman. Additional
57:48
production from Daniel Guimet and Katie Mingel.
57:51
Our standards editor is Susan Wesley. Legal
57:53
review from Alameen Sumar and Maya Gandhi.
57:55
The art for our show comes from
57:57
Pablo Del Khan and Max Guter. Supervising
58:00
producer for serial productions is Nde
58:02
Chubu. Our executive assistant is Mark
58:04
Miller. Sam Dolnick is deputy managing editor of
58:07
the New York Times. Special
58:09
thanks to Manny Superviel, Mansoora
58:12
Daifi, Muhammad El-Faki, Farish Ta
58:14
Taib, Mark Denbo, Hardees Kibriai,
58:16
Corey Shrupple, and Leera Fattar.
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