WASHINGTON, 25 June 2005 — Military doctors at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba have helped interrogators put maximum pressure on detainees, according to an article in the New York Times. The report, published yesterday, claims military doctors have consistently advised interrogators on methods to increase the psychological suffering of detainees and force them to cooperate with American military authorities.
The Times article alleges that doctors used the medical histories of individual prisoners to come up with ways to cause them maximum fear and distress to help them obtain intelligence information from the detainees.
Responding to the charges of doctors aiding interrogators, Bryan Whitman, deputy press spokesperson for the Department of Defense, said no investigation has produced credible evidence of military physician participation in inhumane treatment of detainees.
“As articulated in our policies and procedures, health care personnel have a duty to uphold the humane treatment of detainees to include matters affecting both physical and mental health,” Whitman told the press.
He said the physicians are not involved in direct patient care of detainees, and that “behavior science consultants may observe, but not conduct or direct, interrogations.”
But human rights organizations are concerned by the charges of medical meddling.
Leonard Rubenstein, executive director of the Washington-based Physicians for Human Rights, told Arab News: “We believe the international community and the US have always taken a strong stand against medical complicity for abusive interrogation, and the Pentagon’s new ethical guidelines inviting a medical role in interrogation is a contravention of international standards.”
Rubenstein said his organization and other human rights organizations had urged several immediate steps by the US government, including:
— An independent, bipartisan commission empowered to investigate all allegations of torture and ill-treatment,
— Retraction of all legal opinions and policies that permit or condone torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,
— Promulgation and public disclosure of interrogation rules consistent with the prohibition against torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,
— Assurance of accountability up the chain of command for torture and ill-treatment by US personnel and
— Promotion of ethical practice by military medical personnel.
Last week, news of the use of psychologists and psychiatrists in interrogations at Guantanamo forced the Pentagon to issue a statement saying that officials were to ensure that doctors did not participate in unethical behavior. While the American Psychiatric Association has guidelines that specifically prohibit the kinds of behaviors described by the former interrogators for their members who are medical doctors, the rules for psychologists are less clear.
Meanwhile, a UN source in Geneva yesterday said Washington has for the first time acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centers in Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq.
