Murder at Camp Delta

November 24, 2014
Hickman raises more questions than answers in this disturbing eyewitness account of the mysterious deaths of three Arab prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in 2006. A proud soldier who re-enlisted with the Maryland National Guard after 9/11, Hickman was on duty the night two Saudis and a Yemeni committed suicide in their cells, according to the official story told by the U.S. military and reported by the international press. But Hickman alleges that the suicides were a cover-up by the U.S. government, and he suspects the men were killed by experimental torture methods being deployed at the site. After his Gitmo tour of duty ended in late 2008, the author took his story to Mark Denbeaux, a professor of law and director of Seton Hall University Law School’s Center for Policy and Research, which had published a detailed profile of Guantanamo detainees in early 2006. With the aid of Denbeaux’s students and Hickman’s own lawyer, Denbeaux’s son, Josh, Hickman dissected thousands of documents to prove his theories, which major media outlets and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service mostly ignored. In response, he wrote this book, in which he makes his case with compelling clarity and strength of character. Unnervingly, we may never know if he’s right. Agent: Stuart Miller, Stuart M. Miller Co.

January 1, 2015

Hickman, a former corrections officer and decorated soldier and marine, served in a Maryland National Guard unit at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. While there, he was appalled by general racism, disorder, and prisoner mistreatment. On the night of June 9, 2006, three Arab prisoners supposedly committed suicide, but Hickman writes that he saw and heard things that caused him to doubt this. Was it just a mistake or were private contractors outside the command structure involved? When he returned to the United States, he contacted Seton Hall University professor Mark. P. Denbeaux, who looked into this incident with his students--they dissected the voluminous Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) report and found many discrepancies. Meanwhile, the government announced that they could not corroborate Hickman's story. The author, angry about these injustices, believes the alleged actions harmed the country and were not representative of most of the people he met in the armed services. There is a useful map of the camp but no photographs, acronym list, organizational charts, or bibliography, which is a big gap. VERDICT Some readers will see this book as a traitorous attack on patriots protecting the United States from fanatics by any means, while others will view it as confirmation from a veteran that an out-of-control government and individuals went way beyond the law--and gained nothing but trouble from it. [See Prepub Alert, 8/11/14.]--Daniel Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL

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