21-year-old Saudi inmate Yasser al-Zahrani and two other inmates committed suicide at Guantanamo Bay.
US backs away from Guantanamo 'PR stunt' remark
The United States is seeking to distance itself from remarks made by a senior diplomat who described a triple suicide by inmates at the Guantanamo detention camp as "a good PR move".
Colleen Graffy, deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy, told the BBC that the suicides by two Saudi nationals and a Yemeni appeared to be a conscious "strategy".
"It does sound like this is part of a strategy - in that they don't value their own lives, and they certainly don't value ours; and they use suicide bombings as a tactic," Ms Graffy said on BBC's Newshour program.
"Taking their own lives was not necessary, but it certainly is a good PR move."
[Ms Graffy works under special envoy Karen Hughes, a trusted aide of President George W Bush, who is assigned the task of improving the US image abroad, particularly in Islamic countries.]
Hanging oneself in a jail cell could hardly be defended as a "martyrdom operation".
No comments:
Post a Comment