- In April 2009, a confidential February 2007 ICRC torture
report was publicly released. Titled, "ICRC Report on the Treatment
of Fourteen 'High Value Detainees' in CIA Custody," it detailed harsh
and abusive treatment from their time of arrest, detention, transfer, and
incarceration at Guantanamo where ICRC professionals interviewed them.
-
- Besides detailed information on torture and abusive treatment,
they obtained damning, consistent detainee accounts of medical personnel
involvement, including:
-
- -- their monitoring of and direct participation in torture
procedures;
-
- -- instructing interrogators to continue, adjust, or
stop certain ones;
-
- -- informing detainees that medical treatment depended
on their cooperation;
-
- -- performing medical checks before and after each transfer;
and
-
- -- treating the effects of torture as well as ailments
and injuries during incarceration.
-
- Condoning or participating in torture grievously breaches
medical ethics and the 1975 World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration
of Tokyo "Guidelines for Physicians Concerning Torture and other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Relation to Detention and
Imprisonment." It states:
-
- -- in all cases at all times, "physician(s) shall
not countenance, condone or participate in" torture or any other form
of abuse;
-
- -- they "shall not use nor allow to be used (their)
medical knowledge or skills, or health information" to aid interrogation
in any way;
-
- -- they "shall not be present during any procedure
during which torture or any other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment is used or threatened;"
-
- -- they "must have complete clinical independence"
in treating persons for whom they're medically responsible; and
-
- -- WMA encourages the international community and fellow
physicians to support medical professionals who face "threats or reprisals
resulting from a refusal to condone" all forms of torture and abuse.
-
- Protocol I of the 1949 Geneva Conventions states:
-
- "Persons engaged in medical activities shall neither
be compelled to perform acts or to carry out work contrary to, nor be compelled
to refrain from acts required by, the rules of medical ethics or other
rules designed for the benefit of the wounded and sick, or this Protocol."
-
- On July 7, 2005 in the New England Journal of Medicine,
Dr. Gregg Bloche and Jonathan Marks published an article titled, "Doctors
and Interrogators at Guantanamo Bay" in which they cited evidence
that "Health information (was) routinely available to behavioral science
consultants and others" engaged in interrogations, in violation of
strict medical ethics.
-
- In early 2003, detainee medical records were readily
available, and since late 2002, psychiatrists and psychologists were involved
in crafting extreme stress techniques "combined with behavior-shaping
rewards to extract actionable intelligence from resistant captives."
-
- "Wholesale disregard for clinical confidentiality"
seriously breaches medical ethics "since it makes every caregiver
into an accessory to intelligence gathering." It also "puts prisoners
at greater risk for serious abuse."
-
- In July 2006, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
published a report titled, "Report on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman,
and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba" that
included evidence of medical personnel involvement in torture.
-
- Detainee Othman Abdulraheem Mohammad was told that medical
treatment would depend on his cooperation. Lakhdar Boumediene said every
time he requested care he was told to ask permission from his interrogators.
They "controlled his access, (and it) was granted or denied based
on the interrogator's assessment of his level of cooperation."
-
- Bosnian prisoner medical records confirmed that medical
staff were present during their interrogations "and authorized (them)
to proceed."
-
- Medical personnel monitored Mohammed al Qahtani's interrogation
during nearly two months of "severe sleep deprivation and physical
stress." At one point, they rushed him to the base hospital when his
heart rate dropped dangerously low. After stabilization, they returned
him the next day for more interrogation.
-
- Other prisoners described doctors performing unnecessary
and abusive procedures, including forced amputations, after which they
were denied proper treatment.
-
- Psychiatrists and psychologists designed "extreme
interrogation techniques as part of the Behavioral Science Consultation
Team (BSCT)." In late 2002, it was tasked "to torment detainees
in interrogations...."
-
- International and US Laws Prohibiting Torture
-
- Numerous international and US laws unequivocally ban
torture under all conditions at all times with no allowed exceptions ever,
for any reasons, including in times of war.
-
- The Third Geneva Convention covers war prisoners and
detainees. It prohibits torture and protects their right to be treated
humanely against "violence to life and person (and) humiliating and
degrading treatment" as well as to judicial fairness and proper medical
treatment. The Fourth Geneva Convention affords the same rights to civilians
in times of war.
-
- The federal anti-torture statute (18 USC, 2340A) prohibits
its use outside the US and defines it as "an act committed by a person
acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical
or mental pain or suffering....upon another person within his custody or
physical control."
-
- The 1991 Torture Victims Protection Act authorizes civil
suits in America against individuals, acting in an official capacity for
a foreign state, who committed torture and/or extrajudicial killing.
-
- The 1984 UN Convention Against Torture bans all forms
of torture, cruel and degrading treatment in all circumstances at all times
with no exceptions ever allowed.
-
- The US Constitution's Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments
prohibit cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
-
- The US Army's Field Manual 27-10 states that military
or civilian persons may be punished for committing war crimes (that include
abusive interrogations) under international law. Army Field Manual 34-52
outlines interrogation procedures and specifically prohibits force, mental
torture, threats, and inhumane treatment.
-
- The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) bans cruelty,
oppression, actions intended to degrade or humiliate, and physical, menacing,
and threatening assaults. Army Regulation (AR) 190-8 protects detainees
from violence, assaults, and insults, and directs that they be treated
humanely with respect.
-
- The 1996 US War Crimes Act prohibits grave Geneva Convention
breaches, including (as stipulated under Common Article III) "violence
to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel
treatment and torture (as well as) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular
humiliating and degrading treatment."
-
- Other binding international laws also prohibit torture,
including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1992 International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with no exceptions or justifications
allowed, such as orders by field commanders, Pentagon officials, or the
President of the United States.
-
- Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)
-
- Founded in 1986, PHR "mobilizes health professionals
to advance health, dignity, and justice and promotes the right to health
for all." It also "investigates human rights abuses and works
to stop them" in conflict zones, US prisons, and offshore detention
facilities where torture is routinely practiced.
-
- In 2005, it published a report titled, "Break Them
Down: Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by US Forces," which
it called the first comprehensive examination of "the use of psychological
torture by US personnel in the so-called 'war on terror,' " including
sensory deprivation, prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation, forced nudity,
using fierce dogs to instill fear, cultural and sexual humiliation, mock
executions, and threatened violence against loved ones.
-
- It called the effects devastating and longer-lasting
than physical torture, and said psychological abuse is morally reprehensible
and illegal under international and US law.
-
- In August 2009, PHR published a new report titled, "Aiding
Torture: Health Professionals' Ethics and Human Rights Violations Revealed
in the May 2004 CIA Inspector General's Report," including ethical
misconduct not previously known. It revealed the role of health professionals
involved "at every stage in the development, implementation and legitimization
of this torture program."
-
- It explained that doctors and psychologists actively
participated in abusive interrogations and contributed to the physical
and mental suffering of detainees. It called their actions "an unconscionable
affront to the profession of medicine," made worse by experimenting
on inmates, then "aggregat(ing) data on (their) reaction to interrogation
methods."
-
- PHR's Steven Reisner said "They were experimenting
and keeping records of the results," a war crime under Geneva and
the Nuremberg Code that requires "voluntary consent" of human
subjects and prohibits experiments:
-
- -- that inflict "unnecessary physical and mental
suffering and injury;"
-
- -- if there's "an a priori reason to believe death
or disabling injury will occur;" and
-
- -- from being implemented if there's reason to believe
they'll cause "injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject."
-
- PHR's report detailed the psychological and medical effects:
-
- -- forced shaving inflicts psychological harm "by
means of humiliation, both personal and religious;"
-
- -- hooding disorients and causes acute anxiety depression,
depersonalization, and abnormal behavior;
-
- -- dietary manipulation inflicts discomfort and psychological
stress;
-
- -- prolonged diapering causes physical and psychological
stress and harm;
-
- -- walling inflicts physical injuries as well as psychological
stress, rage, and helplessness;
-
- -- confinement in a box in extreme stress positions causes
extreme physical and psychological pain and trauma; and
-
- -- other abuses, including waterboarding that simulates
drowning and the feeling of helplessness to prevent it.
-
- Involvement of Medical Professionals
-
- They help develop, implement, provide cover for, and
justify torture and abusive practices. They're actively involved in designing
harmful interrogation techniques in clear violation of the law and medical
ethics. They're "complicit in selecting and then rationalizing (methods)
whose safety and efficacy in eliciting accurate information have no valid
basis in science." Their actions constitute "a practice that
approaches unlawful experimentation."
-
- CIA guidelines require health professionals, including
a doctor and psychologist, to be present during enhanced interrogations,
"thereby placing (them) in the untenable position of calibrating harm
rather than serving as protectors and healers as" their ethical code
demands.
-
- They also participate in initial physical and psychological
assessments, then monitor all subsequent interrogations. They know their
actions are harmful, unethical, and illegal, yet they serve willingly.
-
- PHR believes they should be investigated on charges of
"alleged criminal conduct." Those proved guilty should be prosecuted,
lose their license, professional society memberships, and any standing
in the medical community henceforth.
-
- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at<mailto:lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net>lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday
- Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
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