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WASHINGTON – The State Department on Monday sought to distance itself from comments by a U.S. official calling suicides at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay a “good p.r. move.”
“We would not say that it was a p.r. stunt,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. “We have serious concerns anytime anybody takes their own life.”
CountryWatch: Cuba
Colleen Graffy, deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state for public diplomacy, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the deaths were a “good p.r. move to draw attention.”
Two Saudis and one Yemeni hanged themselves after being held at the prison camp for about four years without charge. About 460 men accused of having links to Afghanistan’s Taliban or the Al Qaeda terror network are still being held. Most have been held for more than four years without charge.
The suicides triggered worldwide condemnation of the isolated detention center at the U.S. military base in southeast Cuba.