Three Guantanamo Bay detainees whose deaths were ruled a suicide in 2006 had been moved from their cells hours before their deaths to a secret site in Cuba, an article in Harper's magazine asserts.

The published account released Monday raises serious questions about whether the three detainees actually died by hanging themselves in their cells. It suggests the U.S. government is covering up details of what exactly happened in the hours before their deaths on the night of June 9, 2006.

In response to the magazine article, written by New York human rights lawyer Scott Horton, who has worked for years on issues pertaining to Guantanamo Bay detainees, the Justice Department said Monday that it had thoroughly reviewed the allegations and found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Article based on interviews with prison guards

Horton reported that the deaths of the three detainees, or the events that led directly to their deaths, most likely occurred at a previously undisclosed facility 1.6 kilometres or so from the main complex of the Guantanamo Bay military prison.

Horton based much of his account on interviews with several prison guards who said they knew of the existence of the "black" site and that they saw three detainees removed from Camp Delta several hours before the deaths were reported and said the prisoners were transported in a white van toward the secret site.

Those who knew of the black facility referred to it as "Camp No," reported the magazine, quoting Army Staff Sgt. Joseph Hickman, one of the guards.

Anyone who asked if the black site existed would be told, "No, it doesn't," Horton reported, quoting Hickman. The article will be published in the magazine's March issue, but is already available on the publication's website.

After the terror attacks on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001, the CIA set up a number of so-called black sites around the world, where harsh interrogations of terrorism-era suspects took place. The Harper's article suggested such a site at Guantanamo Bay might have belonged to the CIA or to the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command.

The three Guantanamo detainees were Salah Ahmed Al-Salami, 37, of Yemen; Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, 30, and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani, 22, both of Saudi Arabia.

The article says that at a 7 a.m. meeting on June 10, 2006, with 50 or so soldiers and sailors, Army Col. Michael Bumgarner said that the three men had died by swallowing rags, causing them to choke to death. Bumgarner was a commander at Guantanamo Bay.

According to the article, Bumgarner went on to say that the news media would be guided to report something different — that the three prisoners had committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells.

The servicemen were to make no comments or suggestions that in any way undermined the official report, Bumgarner reminded them, according to the Harper's piece.

Four guards on duty the night of the deaths gave an account to the magazine that differs from the official account and the four were not interviewed by the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which looked into the deaths, Horton reported.

Army colonel responds

On Monday, in response to the article, Bumgarner said in an email that "this blatant misrepresentation of the truth infuriates me."

Bumgarner said that Hickman "is only trying to be a spotlight ranger; he knows nothing about what transpired in Camp 1 or our medical facility. I do; I was there." Camp 1 is the facility where the three detainees were ordinarily held.

Bumgarner added that he would have to get clearance before he can talk to the news media, "but rest assured, I do want to talk to you very badly and set the record straight."

The month after the Obama administration took office, according to the magazine, a father-son legal team that had been in contact with Hickman met in Washington, D.C., with two Justice Department lawyers and related what Hickman said he had seen the night of the three detainees' deaths.

That led to a meeting between Hickman and Teresa McHenry, head of the criminal division's domestic security section at the Justice Department, who told Hickman's lawyers that she was heading up an inquiry, Horton reported.

Two and one half months ago, McHenry called one of Hickman's lawyers, Mark Denbeaux, and said that the Justice Department was closing the inquiry.

"The department took this matter very seriously," Justice Department spokesperson Laura Sweeney said in response to the Harper's article. "A number of department attorneys extensively and thoroughly reviewed the allegations and found no evidence of wrongdoing."

Denbeaux told Horton that the recent contact with McHenry "was a strange conversation."

Denbeaux was quoted as saying that McHenry explained that "the gist of Sgt. Hickman's information could not be confirmed."

When Denbeaux pressed for more information, McHenry reiterated that Hickman's conclusions appeared to be unsupported, the article said.

Denbeaux is a Seton Hall University law professor who oversaw a recent report on the deaths of the three detainees.

The law school report says 1,700 pages of government-released documents fail to explain how three bodies could have hung in cells for at least two hours while the cells were under constant supervision, both by video camera and by guards continually walking the corridors.