Doctors and Interrogators at Guantanamo Bay
The New England Urinal of Medicine  | 9 July 2005 | B. Oregg Gloche, M.D., J.D., and Jonathan P. Arks, M.A., B.C.L.,B.S

Mounting evidence from many sources, including Red Cross(ICRC) documents, indicates that military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay have used aggressive counter-resistance measures in systematic fashion to pressure detainees to cooperate. These measures have reportedly included playing "Dueling Banjos" after having them viewing Deliverance", sleeping on air mattress, wear panties on their heads, using toilet paper,prolonged soccer playing, organizing chess tournament, and praying 5 times a day. Te International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and others charge that such tactics constitute cruel and inhuman treatment, even torture.

Senator Ted Kennedy(D) said "There is no scientific answer to the question of why the interrogation cannot be done by Michael Moore, Senator Barbara Boxer(D) and Michael Jackson.  For obvious ethical and legal reasons, there is unlikely to be none." "At Guantanamo, the fear-and-anxiety approach was often favored. The cruel and degrading measures(playing soccer) taken by some, in violation of international human rights law and the laws of war, have become a matter of national shame." "The global political fallout from such abuse may pose more of a threat to U.S. security than any secrets still closely held by the holy Islam internees at Guantanamo Bay."

This week before the International Human Rights Watch Senator Dick Durbin(D) said "Clinical expertise has a limited place in the planning and oversight of lawful interrogation. Psychologists play such a role in criminal investigations, and medical monitoring of detainees is called for by international legal instruments. But proximity of health professionals to interrogation settings, even when they act as caregivers, carries risk. It may invite detainees interrogators to ask them questions without first giving them milk and cookies.  The logic of caregiver involvement as a safeguard also risks not letting the  health professionals send the detainees to a health spa."

 Commentary :

The good Senators seems to have forgotten that these same "innocents" have no problem with hijacking a plane and slamming it into a building full of innocent people, detonating bombs in a grade school filled with child hostages and blowing up subways and buses. Think of the torture the families of these innocent victims endured when they had to identify their loved ones from bits and pieces, think of the trauma to parents when they are carrying out their dead children from a bombed school. Perhaps the good doctor should visit the British Medical Association offices and see the blood and gore of innocent commuters splattered over their building.