King Leopolds Ghost

Guantanamo Bay Teach-In

Session Three: First, Do No Harm: Medical Professionals and Guantanamo

Worldwide attention has been focused on allegations of abuse during interrogation of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan. The current controversy about Guantanamo interrogations adds the dilemma of determining when psychological pressure turns into torture.

Military physicians at Guantanamo have two very different functions: the traditional role of treating those detained, and the nontraditional role of assisting the administration in obtaining information from the detainees through interrogations. Physicians for Human Rights have stated that doctors and psychologists at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay are taking part in practices, including force feeding, that violate medical ethics. Doctors at Guantanamo have inserted feeding tubes through the noses of prisoners on hunger strike. Psychiatrists and psychologists have observed harsh interrogations and advised interrogators on ways to persuade detainees to cooperate.

The three panelists provided a discussion about the proper role of physicians (and related mental health professionals) in designing and supervising interrogations, participating in forced feeding of prisoners during a hunger strike, and intervening if interrogations become abusive.

Leonard Rubinstein, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, has been outspoken about the role of doctors and mental health professionals at Guatanamo. He claims that these are fundamental violations and stated that "when doctors join the military, their medical ethics should not change. Medical personnel should not participate in any procedures harmful to the patient."

He also stated that US Army doctors have violated the Geneva Conventions by collaborating in the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and other US military detention facilities. There are allegations that medical personnel have been in direct violation of international laws of war and medical ethics and have worked with the US military in designing torture techniques used against detainees. Not only did caregivers pass health information to military intelligence personnel; physicians assisted in the design of interrogation strategies, including sleep deprivation and other coercive methods tailored to detainees medical conditions. Medical personnel also coached interrogators on questioning technique.

Such practices are in clear violation of the Third Geneva Convention, which states: "No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever." New draft rules of conduct for interrogations, while permitting army medical personnel to attend the sessions, apparently would give them the right to refuse on ethical grounds.

A January 2004 military memorandum laid out an Interrogation and Counter-Resistance Policy. Some of the techniques include: dietary manipulation (minimum bread and water), environmental manipulation (reducing air conditioning in summer, lowering heat in winter), sleep management and sensory deprivation (for 72-hour time period maximum), isolation (for longer than 30 days), stress positions, and presence of working dogs.

However, the American Psychological Association has been more receptive to the administration's arguments, and the President of the APA, Dr. Gerald Koocher noted that in contrast to psychiatry, psychology has a history of participation in a range of nontherapeutic functions and that there are distinct differences between the two professions. The American Psychological Association has issued detailed guidelines on the subject that allow for the involvement of psychologists in interrogations.

Biscuits (psychiatrists/psychologists that headed Behavioral Science Consultation Team)