What is this all about? In case you missed it, some concerned individuals leaked to the press a report that the International Red Cross made to our government about what has been going on with the 550 or so prisoners we are still holding in Guantanmo Bay Cuba. According to the New reports, "the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion 'tantamount to torture' on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba."
While not the worst forms of torture imaginable, the methods used have been classified as such. According to the Times, the Red Cross made these findings in June and that U.S. interrogators "had found a system devised to break the will of the prisoners at Guantánamo, who now number about 550, and make them wholly dependent on their interrogators through 'humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions.' Investigators said that the methods used were increasingly 'more refined and repressive' than learned about on previous visits."
Some of the tactics were mentioned in the report. "It said that in addition to the exposure to loud and persistent noise and music and to prolonged cold, detainees were subjected to "some beatings."
A final disheartening aspect of the report is that medical professionals seem to have been a part of the ill-treatment:
also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at Guantánamo were
participating in planning for interrogations, in what the report called "a flagrant violation of medical ethics."
Doctors and medical personnel conveyed information about prisoners' mental health and vulnerabilities to interrogators, the report said, sometimes directly, but usually through a group called the Behavioral Science Consultation Team, or B.S.C.T. The team, known informally as Biscuit, is composed of psychologists and psychological workers who advise the interrogators, the report said.
How can a society based on due process protections allow our government to do these things? Share your thoughts with me.
2 comments:
The Eighth Ammendment states clearly "no cruel and unusual punishment shall be inflicted." I recognize that Guantanamo Bay is not a state of the union and therefore the actons taken there by American Military are often forgotten and overlooked. However, that is wrong. America is better than sneaking around their dirty little infringements on Human Rights. In opposition one could say, its terorism. In light of war rights must be trampled on, for the good of the country. I disagee. The founders wrote into the constitution, the eighth Ammendment for a reason. I believe, their strong Judeo-Christian heritage had an impact. For example, Jesus preached about forgiving with love. I recognize we all fall short in any manner with this lesson, as individuals and as a country. However, when the tourture, is so blantant as humilitating acts or forcing people into positions? We can take a stand, and our founders, I believe, valued integrity and protecting those who have committed unlawful acts, because they knew HUMAN LIFE WAS LIFE. One last point, the detainee's haven't been even granted Habeus Corpus. We don't even know if the detainees are even guilty because the right to a fair trial has been denied. I am disgusted. -ABBY
The Bill of Rights to the Constitution clearly references people and persons, not citizens. It puzzling at best to see the actions of our government, which in essence go against the trend toward recognition of universal human rights. I mean, jeez, it was the struggle for rights in the colonies that helped to launch the popular revolutions of the 19th and 20th century.
Not only has the US apparently violated its own constituion, but has arguably violated the CAT (Convention Against Torture), which is an international treaty that the US ratified in 1996. The CAT provides that any ratifying nation should criminalize torture and extrajudicial killings. Congress implemented the treaty with the TVPA (Torture Victim Protection Act - 1994). The TVPA applies to government officials or to those that operate under "the color of the law." The TVPA allows individuals with a claim to sue for money damages. The TVPA defines torture in the following manner (28 USC Sec. 1350):
"(1) the term 'torture' means any act, directed against an individual in the offender's custody or physical control, by which severe pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering arising only from or inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions), whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on that individual for such purposes as obtaining from that individual or a third person information or a confession, punishing that individual for an act that individual or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, intimidating or coercing that individual or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind; and
"(2) mental pain or suffering refers to prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from--
"(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
"(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
"(C) the threat of imminent death; or
"(D) the threat that another individual will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality."
Those harmed could also sue under the ATCA (Alien Tort Claims Act). There are subtle differences between the two acts, including that the ATCA can only be used by aliens under circumstances involving a breach of international law and the TVPA can be utilized by citizens or aliens, but has a 10 year statute of limitations.
As to the doctor's involvement helping those detaining the prisoners, well....I read one article the pointed out the similarities between Orwell's '1984' and what the doctors were doing at Gitmo. In '1984', the interrogation of dissenters involved finding their utmost fears and weaknesses and then utilizing those to manipulate people. Looks like the doctors at Gitmo seemed to have placed nationalistic imperatives above the Hippocratic Oath.
Cato Jr.
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