‘No Coincidence’ Guantanamo-like Clothes Put on ISIL Victims

US Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Brian McKeon pointed out that the Jordanian pilot and a Japanese hostage recently appearing in ISIL execution videos were clothed in orange jumpsuits, believed by many to be the symbol of the Guantanamo detention facility.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Orange jumpsuits put on Jordanian and Japanese hostages executed by the Islamic State (ISIL) militants may be linked to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a senior US official said Thursday.

"It is no coincidence that the recent ISIS videos showing the barbaric burning of a Jordanian pilot and the savage execution of a Japanese hostage each showed the victim clothed in an orange jumpsuit, believed by many to be the symbol of the Guantanamo detention facility," Brian McKeon, US Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy said, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

McKeon's statement published on the committee's website follows the release of a video on Tuesday, showing the Jordanian pilot Muath Kasaesbeh burned to death by Islamic State extremists and another Islamic State-made video issued on Saturday displaying the beheading of Japanese reporter Kenji Goto.

The pilot and the reporter, as well as other victims of the Islamic State militants, were shown wearing orange clothing in the videos posted by the jihadist group.

McKeon emphasized that the ongoing "operation of the detention facility at Guantanamo weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies, and is used by violent extremists to incite local populations".

The Guantanamo prison was opened in 2002 in the wake of 9/11 terror attacks on the United States. Despite repeated pledges by US President Barack Obama to close the notorious detention facility, it is still in operation.