Medical Personnel Present During Torture at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

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Stunning information from a 2007 International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) report reveals medical personnel's involvement during the torture of prisoners of war held at Guantanamo Bay, called detainees by the Bush administration, with the medical personnels' roles described as acting as support for those dispensing the torture.

Medical workers, working for the C.I.A., are reported to have monitored the vital signs of prisoners being 'waterboarded' to " .... make sure they did not drown", with the report saying the medical professionals had " .... condoned and particpated in ill treatment."  

The ICRC has stated it has deemed the actions documented by the agency in its report on Guantanamo were torture.

From Report Outlines Medical Workers' Role in Torture :

WASHINGTON — Medical personnel were deeply involved in the abusive interrogation of terrorist suspects held overseas by the Central Intelligence Agency, including torture, and their participation was a “gross breach of medical ethics,” a long-secret report by the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded.

Based on statements by 14 prisoners who belonged to Al Qaeda and were moved to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in late 2006, Red Cross investigators concluded that medical professionals working for the C.I.A. monitored prisoners undergoing waterboarding, apparently to make sure they did not drown. Medical workers were also present when guards confined prisoners in small boxes, shackled their arms to the ceiling, kept them in frigid cells and slammed them repeatedly into walls, the report said.

Facilitating such practices, which the Red Cross described as torture, was a violation of medical ethics even if the medical workers’ intentions had been to prevent death or permanent injury, the report said. But it found that the medical professionals’ role was primarily to support the interrogators, not to protect the prisoners, and that the professionals had “condoned and participated in ill treatment.”

Click here for the complete article.

Also at NowPublic :

Tales from Torture's Dark World 

The Guantanamo Testimonials Project

Ethical Concerns Surround Crafting of U.S. Torture Policy