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No evidence suggests it, including their state of mind. Colonel Bumgarner's official statement says: "Two of the three had been cleared by Behavioral Health Services just the week prior (to their deaths) and were noted to be in good spirits."
According to NCIS, the supposed evidence of intent was an unnamed detainee saying on the night of the incident - "tonight's the night." Yet nothing confirms it, and if it was known, why wasn't security tightened? The alleged detainee wasn't interviewed, and 21 others had no knowledge of planned suicides. Many, in fact, said they would have alerted camp personnel had they known.
In addition, no evidence corroborates a coordinated event or the ability of detainees to communicate. They're prohibited from conversing, being together in the same place at the same time, passing notes or anything between cells.
Alleged suicide notes on detainee bodies and in their cells had similar, ambiguous wording expressing no explicit intent to commit suicide. None, in fact, indicate a collaborative effort.
DOD Statement: "To hang themselves, they did not need to jump off the sinks as suggested by the author, but only had to apply the necessary pressure to the neck to cut off blood flow."
This contradicts the NCIS's report including sworn eyewitness statements saying, "It appeared to me that (they) climbed onto the sink and tied (themselves) off and then jumped from the sink." Each was found fully suspended close to their sinks, their feet not touching the floor.
CP&R "consistently maintain(s that) the three detainees did not necessarily die in the manner concluded by the DOD's investigators, and that the evidence in the NCIS file does not support the government's conclusions."
DOD Statement: "The knots, which bound their hands (and in one case, the decedent's feet), were not elaborate, but were indeed possible to make by each of the detainees who died."
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