The Cover-up of Human Rights Abuses and Crimes at Guantánamo: The Case of Computer Database Tampering by Authorities

Abstract

Operations inside Guantánamo’s high-security prison remain largely unexamined, protected by government secrecy. But research into the supposed suicides of seven detainees not only raises questions about their deaths, but also reveals how the cover-up of crimes took place.

Investigation has revealed repeated instances of evidence tampering with regards to the detainee deaths, including manipulation of computer records, medical and psychological malfeasance, and news about other deaths at the facility, as reported to a Pentagon medical board in February 2002.

The evidence tampering centers on Guantánamo’s Detainee Information Management System (DIMS), and represents a pattern of interference with investigations into the deaths six of the seven Guantanamo “suicides.”

Guantánamo’s DIMS system is a facility-wide computer system. According to a 2012 Army report, DIMS “is the primary tool used to track day-to-day information about detainees, and is made up of electronic entries regarding each detainee.”

Between 2006 and 2012, in almost every instance when a detainee was found dead at Guantánamo, computer logs that would have documented guard, medical official or detainee activities or locations either went missing, presented evidence that contradicted witness statements, or standard operating procedures (SOP) pertaining to their use were not followed.

The issue of hiding information about detainee deaths also surfaced in a February 19, 2002 transcript of a meeting of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board (AFEB), which stated, “[a] number of the detainees have died of the wounds that they arrived with” at Guantánamo. The speaker was Captain Alan Yund, the Navy’s liaison officer to the AFEB. Yund worked directly with Admiral Steven Hart, the Director of Navy Medicine Research and Development.

There is a great deal about the operations and history of Guantánamo that is still shrouded in secret. This paper will examine little reported aspects of Guantanamo’s detainee maltreatment and its cover-up.

Bio

Dr. Jeffrey Kaye is a retired clinical psychologist now residing in Hawaii. He has conducted dozens of torture evaluations for asylum applicants and has been accepted as an expert witness in the U.S. immigration courts. He is the author of Cover-Up at Guantánamo: The NCIS Investigation Into the Suicides of Mohammed Al Hanashi and Abdul Rahman Al Amri. He has published investigatory articles about torture, war crimes, and allegations concerning biological warfare during the Korean War at Counterpunch, Al Jazeera America, The Guardian, Muckrock News, Medium.com, and other websites.

A link to my book is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LWTOWRI/

A link to a list of most of my work in the past few years can be found here: https://jeff-kaye.medium.com/