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Medical Oaths Betrayed
A: I don't think so. The only one was [same inmate as above] but Staff Sergeant never stopped it. He only voiced concern that we ease up on the detainee so he could remain calm and keep his blood pressure down. . . .
[Interrogator -- name redacted]: [Name redacted] and I were the agents while [name redacted] sat in as the medic on standby. . . . Every time, maybe two or three times, the [detainee] showed any sign of difficulty, [co-interrogator] would take a break to allow [medic] to attend to him. . . . We took several breaks that night. The man was old and in the middle of the interrogation, we gathered up his pills (or medication) and gave it to him .
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One log that detailed the medical monitoring of interrogations was leaked from Guantanamo Bay, excerpted in Time magazine and later authenticated by the Pentagon. According to the log, in 2002 psychologist John Leso monitored the interrogation of Mohamed al-Qahtani, making suggestions on how to increase the stress on the prisoner. The 50-day chronology details the techniques employed: isolation, sleep deprivation, masking, head shaving, shackling, threatening with a dog and so on. The log shows regular monitoring by medics, who, at one point, administered nearly three bags of medical saline intravenously while the prisoner was tied to a chair. When Qahtani asked to urinate, he was told to do so in his pants. He was treated twice for a slow heart rate caused by hypothermia that was intentionally induced by air conditioning.
Medical examinations of prisoners -- both before and after interrogations -- were often skipped. In 2005, the Army's surgeon general found that 15 to 50 percent of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay were examined before being questioned, and less than 15 percent were examined for injuries afterward. Even when such exams took place, however, they were not necessarily for the prisoners' benefit. According to the 2004 report by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba on abuse at Abu Ghraib, medical personnel vetted prisoners for interrogations that were designed in accordance with the medical findings to include stress positions, sleep deprivation, isolation and dietary manipulation.
This process required the use of Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs or "biscuits"), which helped design interrogation plans to exploit prisoners' psychological and physical vulnerabilities. The BSCTs used clinical information to clear prisoners for harsh interrogation plans; they also used medical information to develop a plan to break a prisoner's resistance to questioning. Clinicians at Guantanamo Bay met with BSCT personnel to offer insight on prisoners' weaknesses, according to the report by Maj. Gen Geoffrey D. Miller, who took command of the Abu Ghraib prison after the abuse scandal broke out.
At times, behavioral clinicians reportedly micromanaged some interrogations; one Guantanamo Bay psychiatrist even suggested rationing toilet paper to seven sheets per day and limiting water for bathing. Similarly, a military intelligence specialist in Iraq applied her background in psychology to design approaches to "interrogate those who could not be broken." She approved coercive interrogation plans involving sleep deprivation but vainly protested the use of dogs or nudity. She eventually asked to be relieved of interrogation duties.
'The Dude Eventually Died'
In December 2002, Rumsfeld empowered Guantanamo Bay interrogators to deny a prisoner's "medical visits of a non-emergent nature." Although he later revoked the order on advice of legal counsel, the practice of punitive denial of treatment apparently continued throughout the prison system.
In Iraq, Army investigators reviewed a video showing a prisoner with bound wrists lying on the ground near a checkpoint. Entry and exit gunshot wounds are visible. While the soldiers discuss whether to summon medical care, one soldier tells the moaning prisoner to "shut up" and kicks him in the face or upper chest, according to the report of an Army criminal investigation. A soldier who was present during the videotaping later joked that they "weren't in any hurry to call the medics," adding that he "thought the dude eventually died."
A recently filed lawsuit and an FBI memo describe four prisoners, three at Guantanamo Bay and one apparently in Afghanistan, who were denied a prosthetic limb, antibiotics for wounds (two cases), and treatment for constipation until they cooperated with interrogators. An FBI memo tells of a prisoner, arrested in Afghanistan, who was denied treatment for a gunshot wound and was tortured for at least three days before being taken to a hospital.
At Guantanamo Bay, a psychology technician complained to an officer who refused to allow a prisoner to receive a medical evaluation for back pain. According to "Inside the Wire," a 2005 book co-written by former Army linguist Erik Saar, the officer answered, "I run this cellblock the way I see fit. If I think a detainee is complaining about back pain just to get to walk across the camp to the medical clinic one sunny afternoon, then I'm not going to put it in my log. Now leave my block and next time stay in your lane."
Another Guantanamo Bay interrogator, who had read a prisoner's medical files, asked for medical treatment for the prisoner's eyes, according to a June 2005 report by Jane Mayer in the New Yorker. His commander replied, "He should have gotten the medical help before he went on jihad."
'Blood on the Wall'
Investigations of prison abuse describe clinicians who could not "see" abuse. A Navy medic, Petty Officer Carlton Blay, testified in a prison-abuse trial that he watched a guard slap and punch prisoners at Camp Whitehorse in Iraq. Blay said that the beatings were meant to get the prisoners "to know that these people were now in charge." He testified that he did not report the beatings because he thought they were reasonable.
