Why are the detainees still there? The government has declared recently that
al-Qaida is now on the payroll, so then why are we wasting money to keep Guantanamo open?
A former hunger strike prisoner at Guantánamo Bay has died, the US military said Monday, after the man was apparently found unconscious in his cell at the isolated, high-security prison.
The prisoner, whose name and nationality were not released, was found by guards on Saturday and taken to a base hospital, where he was declared dead "after extensive lifesaving measures had been performed," the US military's southern command said in a brief statement.
He was the ninth prisoner 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 those deaths were by natural causes and six were declared suicides.
The death occurred in Camp 5, a section of the prison used mostly to hold prisoners who have broken detention center rules, said navy captain Robert Durand, a spokesman for the prison.
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 had been on a hunger strike in the past but had resumed eating on
