The torture techniques designed and administered by the two psychologists hired by CIA were not only illegal, they might not have produced desired results; the psychologists were paid $81 million
The report by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) on torture of detainees after the attack on World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001, has revealed involvement of health professionals beyond their mandated role. The SSCI recently released its 500-odd pages Executive Summary of a detailed report that runs into nearly 6,700 pages. Prominent psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, designed torture techniques and, in some cases, even personally administered them. They were hired by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and paid US $ 81 million till 2009 for their services. CIA Office of Medical Services (OMS) had no authority on them as they did not report to it. The brutality with which the torture sessions were conducted has drawn the ire of human rights activists and health professionals who have shown concern about illegality of the techniques and misuse of medical profession.
Reverse engineered techniques
For investigating 9/11 attacks, the CIA detained a number of people to interrogate them about the involvement and whereabouts of Al-Qaeda. Mitchell and Jesson designed "enhanced interrogation techniques” (EITs) for this purpose in 2002.The two were formerly with the US government's Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) programme. According to the Senate report, they reverse-engineered the techniques used to train US military personnel to withstand torture and abuse if captured.
The SERE-based techniques that Mitchell and Jessen proposed for the CIA to use on detainees include the following: waterboarding, stress positions, slapping, isolation, sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation, sensory deprivation and overload, and sexual humiliation, among others.
Rectal rehydration and waterboarding
The worst form of torture was rectal hydration and feeding. In the process fluids are fed through rectum of an individual. The CIA has defended its use of rectal rehydration as a “well acknowledged medical technique.” The Senate report noted that rectal hydration and feeding was conducted “without medical necessity”.
This means that oral and/or IV access was possible in these individuals, noted an analysis of SSCI report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). The organisation has been instrumental in pressurising the government to release the report and give justice to the victims of illegal torture. Disapproving the medical use of rectal hydration and feeding, PHR analysis notes, "Rectal hydration is almost never practiced in medicine because there are more effective means, such as oral and intravenous fluid administration. It is never considered as a first-line form of therapy for rehydration or nutritional support. The large colon has the capacity to absorb fluids, but has a very limited capacity to absorb nutrients with the exception of glucose and electrolytes." The technique is used in field conditions, and was used during World War II when severe injuries resulted in marked blood loss and oral and intravenous administration of fluids were not possible.
About the role of the two psychologists in personally administering the torture, the executive summary gives some examples. Jessen travelled in January 2003 to a CIA black site in Poland, where he evaluated one detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and recommended the use of illegal technique waterboarding, to be administered by himself with the assistance of Mitchell. In 2005, CIA had destroyed tapes which were evidence of Nashiri's waterboarding. He was held captive in secret CIA prisons in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Morocco, and Romania, before being transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He was granted victim status by Polish government in 2010. In Guantanamo Bay, charges were brought against him in 2008, dropped in 2009 and reinstated in 2011.
Currently he is an under trial.
In another instance in June 2003, both Mitchell and Jessen went to Poland to interrogate another detainee, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was subjected to waterboarding and other techniques. Subsequently, the two conducted a psychological assessment of Mohammed to determine if he could withstand additional torture techniques that they would then administer. Mohammed is being tried for masterminding the 9/11 attacks.
On politicians’ prompting
SSCI noted that not only were the torture techniques used by CIA illegal, they also did not produce intended results.
Hinting at the role of political class and general climate against the attacks, in the foreword, Dianne Feinstein, chairperson of SSCI, mentioned that "CIA was encouraged by political leaders and the public to do whatever it could to prevent another attack. However, she goes on to note that past experience of CIA itself showed that such techniques do not produce intelligence, rather result in false answers. Coercive interrogations have historically proven to be ineffective. "Yet these conclusions were ignored," she writes.
Human rights body demands accountability
PHR has called on the US administration to hold those responsible for torture–including physicians, psychologists, and other health professionals–legally and ethically accountable for their actions and has asked for legal action against them.
| Interview: ‘Federal commission of inquiry needed to fix accountability, order prosecution’ |
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How were the health practitionersare involved in CIA's torture programme? The forms of complicity in torture by doctors, psychologists, and physicians’ assistants included designing, directing, and financially benefiting from the torture programme. They intentionally inflicted harm. In addition, they helped legalise the systematic use of torture. They made cooperation with interrogators a condition for providing medical care when the detainees needed it. What is the background of the struggle for the release of the report? PHR is a New York-based advocacy organisation that uses medicine and science to stop severe human rights violations and mass atrocities. It has more than 25 years of experience in the medical documentation of torture and ill treat¬ment. It led to the development of the first international guidelines for medico-legal documenta¬tion of torture and ill treatment that are contained in the Istanbul Protocol. PHR has extensively documented the systematic use of psychological and physical torture by US military and medical personnel against detainees in its reports, including Break Them Down, Leave No Marks, Broken Laws, Broken Lives, Aiding Torture, and Experiments in Torture. There was a 2004 CIA practices Inspector General report that was released later. It documented some CIA abuses, but the current SSCI Executive Summary is the most comprehensive account of CIA torture practices. The report clearly shows that interrogation was given priority over medical needs of detainees. How would you respond to that? How will you take the issue forward, especially regarding involvement of medical professionals? Torture is always illegal and immoral and, as the report shows, it provided no actionable intelligence. Most importantly, it compromised everything the United States stands for as a country based on the rule of law, while betraying the core tenet of the healing professions—to do no harm. The report is a critical step in establishing a public record of the nature and extent of CIA torture, but the question remains – will those responsible for the authorization and implementation of torture be held accountable to ensure that these crimes never happen again? Among other recommendations for torture prevention and accountability, PHR is calling on President Barack Obama to work with the incoming Congress to authorise a federal commission of inquiry into the role of health professionals in designing, monitoring, and providing legal justification for the CIA’s torture programme. Such a commission should have subpoena powers and the ability to refer individuals for criminal investigation and prosecution to the US Department of Justice. |
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.jpg "Vincent Iacopino")
Down to Earth interviewed Vincent Iacopino, Adjunct Professor of Medicine at University of Minnesota Medical School and Senior Medical Advisor for Physicians for Human Rights. PHR has been instrumental in making the executive summary public .png)
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