Guantanamo: Medical files used
2005-06-23 15:21
Washington - Interrogators at the United States naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba were able to systematically access the medical records of detainees and exploiting the vulnerability of detainees, two jurists claimed in a report released on Wednesday.
Citing internal military documents, Gregg Bloche, a Georgetown University law professor, and Jonathan Marks, a barrister at Matrix Chambers in London published their findings in the July 7 edition of The New England journal of medicine.
According to their report, up until early 2003 and possibly even afterwards, interrogators personally were able to access medical records of US-held detainees.
Behavioral science consultants
It said: "Health information has been routinely available to behavioral science consultants and others who are responsible for crafting and carrying out interrogation strategies.
"Since late 2002, psychiatrists and psychologists have been part of a strategy that employs extreme stress, combined with behaviour-shaping rewards, to extract actionable intelligence from resistant captives."
They said a policy statement from the US Southern Command, in effect since August 6 2002, told health care providers that communications from "enemy persons under US control" at Guantanamo "are not confidential and are not subject to the assertion of privileges" by detainees.
The authors said general Geoffrey Miller, who took command of Guantanamo in late 2002, approved the appointment of the behavioural science consultation team.
Army medical command
The policy was confirmed in a May 24 2005 memo quoted by Bloche and Marks who came from the army medical command (AMC).
In the document, the AMC made recommendations to staff in charge of detainees that certain information contained in medical records might be useful in the interrogation process.
The information was found on the SouthCom website, in the personnel section.
Caregivers were required to provide clinical information to military and Central Intelligence Agency interrogation teams upon request.
Guantanamo's surveillance network
They were called upon to volunteer information that they believed might be of value, thereby making them "part of Guantanamo's surveillance network, dissolving the Pentagon's purported separation between intelligence gathering and patient care.
The study alleged: "Rather than being consistent with the presumption of confidentiality that applies to Americans even in prisons, the Guantanamo policy rejects this presumption."
It underlined that, "within military prisons, personal health information cannot be given to correctional or law-enforcement officials unless they deem it necessary for health, safety, or security reasons".
The study revealed: "Wholesale rejection of clinical confidentiality at Guantanamo also runs contrary to settled ethical precepts."
- AFP