Pentagon identifies Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide;

June 11, 2006, 9:20PM
Pentagon identifies Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide; one was up for transfer

By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — One of the Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide had been cleared for transfer to another country, a second was involved in a 2001 prison uprising in Afghanistan where a CIA agent died, and a third had ties to al-Qaida, the Pentagon said today.

The Department of Defense identified the three as Saudi Arabians Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi and Yassar Talal Al-Zahrani and Yemeni Ali Abdullah Ahmed. The two Saudis were also identified earlier by Saudi officials.

The three hanged themselves with nooses made from sheets and clothing early Saturday, bringing renewed pressure on the United States to close the prison on a naval base in Cuba where about 460 men are held, almost all of them without charge.

Al-Utaybi had been recommended for transfer to the custody of another country before his suicide, the Defense Department said in a statement released to The Associated Press. It did not name the country but said he would have been under detention there as well.

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