Guantanamo death comes under review

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Another prisoner has died at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the U.S. military said Monday, two days after the man was apparently found unconscious in his cell at the isolated, high-security prison.

Guards administered first aid to the prisoner before he was rushed to a base hospital, where he was declared dead “after extensive lifesaving measures had been performed,” the U.S. military’s Southern Command said in a brief statement.

The prisoner’s name and nationality were not released. But U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release his identity, said he was from Yemen.

Experts have yet to determine what caused the early-afternoon death since there were no obvious signs, said Navy Capt. Robert Durand, a spokesman for the prison.

“We haven’t ruled in or out anything,” Durand said. “There is no apparent cause, natural or self-inflicted.”

The prisoner was the ninth detainee to die at the facility since it was opened in January 2002 to hold men suspected of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. The military has said two of the previous deaths were by natural causes and six were declared suicides.

The latest death occurred in Camp 5, a section of the prison used mostly to hold prisoners who have broken detention center rules.

This prisoner had recently splashed a guard with what military officials call a “cocktail,” typically a mixture of food and bodily fluids, which is why he was on disciplinary status, Durand said.

He was on a hunger strike earlier this year but stopped it on June 1 and was at 95 percent of his ideal body weight and 14 pounds heavier than when he came to Guantanamo, the spokesman said.

Prisoners at Guantanamo include a handful charged with war crimes, including five accused of helping carry out the 9/11 terror attack on the U.S.