Colleen "Gitmo Suicides A Good P.R. Move" Graffy, U.S. DIPLOMACY official

[Human Torch]

Guantanamo suicides a 'PR move'

A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a "good PR move to draw attention".

Colleen Graffy told the BBC the deaths were part of a strategy and "a tactic to further the jihadi cause", but taking their own lives was unnecessary. But lawyers say the men who hanged themselves had been driven by despair. A military investigation into the deaths is under way, amid growing calls for the centre to be moved or closed.

Speaking to the BBC's Newshour programme, Ms Graffy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, said the three men did not value their lives nor the lives of those around them.

:spray:

Detainees had access to lawyers, received mail and had the ability to write to families, so had other means of making protests, she said, and it was hard to see why the men had not protested about their situation.

http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Famericas%2F5069230.stm

Biography of Colleen P. Graffy

Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Washington, DC

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy

Colleen Graffy assumed her duties as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs in September 2005. In this capacity, Ms. Graffy oversees public diplomacy and public affairs programs for the Bureau and coordinates efforts with Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes. Prior to her current position, she was the Academic Director and Associate Professor of Law at the London Law Program for Pepperdine University School of Law.

Originally from Santa Barbara, California, Ms. Graffy earned her B.A. from Pepperdine University and her M.A. from Boston University. She then served as co-director of Pepperdine’s Year-in-Europe program in Heidelberg, Germany.

Ms. Graffy completed the Diploma in Law in London. After attending the Inns of Court School of Law, she was called to the Bar of England and Wales as a Barrister of the Middle Temple. As academic director of the London Program, she was in charge of the London Moot and Clinical Program and taught International Public Law, International Environmental Law, International Law, and the Use of Force and Legal Ethics. Altogether, she has resided nearly 20 years in London, where she was often invited by the media to communicate the U.S. point of view on international issues.

Ms. Graffy is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, The British Institute of International and Comparative Law, The Pilgrims, and The British American Project and was Chairman of the Society of English and American Lawyers. She is a Bencher at the Middle Temple.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Graffy has written on legal issues in the United States and Britain and is a frequent commentator for radio and television on transatlantic political, legal, and cultural issues.

Released by the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, September 2005

http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/or/57713.htm

Colleen P. Graffy
Director of London Program and Associate Professor of Law
B.A., Pepperdine University, 1979
M.A., Boston University, 1982
Diploma in Law, City of London University and Inns of Court School of Law, 1991
LL.M. (merit), King's College, University of London, 1996

law.pepperdine.edu/ academics/faculty/graffy.html

[WCGreen]

1. Maybe these guys were caught up in the sweep...

You know where they throw a whole mess a people in jail, "round up the usual suspects..."

And since we are keeping them forever, it seems...

Couldn't they just have givin' up....

I mean if you were innocent and desperate and had no hope of getting out....

Wouldn't you consider suicide....

[gaspee]

2. I honestly don't think

I would have waited so long. It's going on five years for most of them. No contact with the outside world. Torture, or if you prefer a sanitized version, humiliation, total control and constant degradation. Makes the math pretty simple. No hope = suicide. Simple equation.

And from all the noise the so called patriots make about gitmo, I thought the ultimate goal of the place was for the detainees to end up dead. What other conclusion can a logical person come to?

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. Those cowards are at it again!

[niallmac]

4. Wow! Look at Colleens resume. No wonder she knows what the detainees

think and feel. She knows that they, each one of them is unlike any human beings we non detainees are familiar with.
She knows that they cannot feel like we do nor do they empathize or much much less have any
whisper of humanity in their bones.
Yes, the intellectual international political diplomatic law degreed types like Colleen can pretty much
dictate the truth to us NASCAR morons and say that the people in Gitmo are, you know, not human and not
to be concerned about.
So fucking educated Colleen.
So fucking stupid.