Washington, January 25 (RHC)-- The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has staged suicides to cover up inmate deaths at the notorious U.S. military prison at Guantanamo, according to a former guard.

Nearly 10 years ago, the Pentagon announced that three Guantanamo inmates "killed themselves in an apparent suicide pact." In June 2006, the U.S. said that "two Saudis and one Yemeni, each located in Camp 1, were found unresponsive and not breathing in their cells by guards."

However, former Guantanamo guard Joseph Hickman says the alleged suicides were in fact staged by the CIA, saying the U.S. government might have had an interest in silencing the prisoners who "caused a lot of problems."

In an interview with Russia Today, which was published over the weekend, Hickman unveiled what he saw in the few hours leading up to the deaths. He said he witnessed hunger strike leaders being brought to a secret CIA black site, where CIA agents would make their deaths look like suicide by hanging.

"All three of those detainees that went to that CIA black site that night were all leaders of the hunger strikes, massive hunger strikes," Hickman said. "There were constant hunger strikes since they arrived. They caused a lot of problems for the command."

The U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) claimed then that all three were preparing for the suicide and hanged themselves with torn sheets and T-shirts, while their hands were tied.

Guantanamo was established by former U.S. president George W. Bush's administration in 2002 as a prison for alleged foreign terrorism suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. It is located in eastern Cuba, illegally occupied by the United States.