|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
|
April 7th,
2009 - Red Cross: Gitmo Medical Personnel Violated Ethics |
|
Red Cross: Gitmo
Medical Personnel Violated Ethics From Associated Press April 7, 2009 Washington - Medical
professionals who monitored CIA interrogations at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
detention facility violated medical ethics, the International Committee of
the Red Cross says in a report. The 2007 report, based on
interviews with 14 "high value detainees" who were sent to
Guantanamo in September 2006, said the health personnel monitored detainees
as they were subjected to techniques such as waterboarding - which simulates
drowning - and prolonged stress positions. In some cases, the Red Cross
reported, medical staff recommended stopping the treatment; in others they
"recommended its continuation, but with adjustments." One detainee told the Red
Cross that prior to arriving at Guantanamo Bay, while still being held at a
secret site, "a health person threatened that medical care would be
conditional upon cooperation with the interrogators." The report said the health
personnel's "primary purpose appears to have been to serve the
interrogation process, and not the patient." "The interrogation
process is contrary to international law," the Red Cross said, "and
the participation in such a process is contrary to international standards of
medical ethics." The confidential 43-page
report was published Monday on the Web site of The New York Review of Books.
Journalist Mark Danner, who obtained the report, revealed some of its
findings last month in an article in the Review. The neutral, Swiss-based
ICRC is designated by the Geneva Conventions on warfare to visit prisoners of
war and other people detained by an occupying power, to ensure countries
respect their obligations under the 1949 accords. The ICRC was granted
private access by the Bush administration to the 14 prisoners after they were
moved from secret interrogation sites and prisons to the U.S. naval base at
Guantanamo Bay in 2006. The report was written
shortly after then-President George W. Bush publicly declared that the United
States does not and had not tortured detainees at secret CIA prisons known as
"black sites." The Obama administration has
ordered the sites closed and has restricted the CIA to using only those
interrogation methods approved for use by the U.S. military until a complete
review of the program is conducted. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iIRLqjwiDr2FiFi7V04eYFxV4rwgD97DP8000 |