Dead detainees: A national scandal
January 22nd, 2007
Dr. Scott Allen of Physicians for Human Rights and Dr. Stephen Xenakis have an Op Ed in todays’ Boston Globe describing the national scandal of over 100 detainees dead in US custody, including at least 43 homicides and 36 preventable deaths from enemy attacks. They also describe how the Bush administration has lowered the standards for medical care of detainees from previous standards requiring them to get care equal to that given US military personnel. The process of dehumanization and demonization characteristic of the “Global war on Terrorism” has proceeded in so many different ways:
Our duty to war detainees
By Scott Allen and Stephen Xenakis | January 22, 2007
AT LEAST 112 detainees have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2005, according to military documents and press reports. Many of these deaths appear to have been preventable. Given the public record of detainee abuses and history of weakened administration support of detainee rights, the possibility of preventable deaths in US custody warrants careful review.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates should promptly authorize an independent investigation of possible military negligence and take action to ensure that the United States is living up to its obligations under the Geneva Conventions.
No such wide-ranging and independent inquiry has occurred. Recently, one of us published the most comprehensive, peer-reviewed study of the reported causes of these fatalities in Medscape General Medicine, finding that the leading causes of detainee death were homicide (43 cases) and enemy mortar attacks (36 cases).
According to the study, at least 11 of the 43 homicide cases involved blunt trauma or asphyxiation. At least three of the homicides reported have resulted in murder charges. Another three have resulted in charges of voluntary manslaughter. The 36 deaths caused by enemy mortar attacks, many of which occurred at Abu Ghraib, suggest clear violations of Geneva prohibitions against placing detainees in range of enemy attack.
Also, the study identified 20 deaths that were attributed to natural causes, and nine were listed as having an unknown cause of death. A group of eight deaths due to natural causes occurred in Iraq in August 2003, raising urgent questions about the conditions of confinement and the adequacy and availability of medical care. Given the difficulty in getting information on the deaths of detainees in US custody, and given the sensitivity of the subject, we believe this review is incomplete.
As physicians, we believe that these findings cast doubt on whether our colleagues in the US military caring for detainees are receiving the direction and resources they need to do their job effectively. Health professionals have professional ethical obligations to preserve and protect the lives of their patients. Congress must ensure that our military medical professionals are equipped and supported to accomplish their mission honorably.
America’s military medical corps has long been regarded as the most professional and ethical military medical service in the world. As of five years ago, military regulations instructed all uniformed medical personnel to provide medical care to detainees of an equal standard as that received by US soldiers.
After Sept. 11, however, the Pentagon detached the standard of detainee medical care from the standard of care for US personnel deployed in combat theaters. Also, planning for the security and provision of healthcare for detainees taken into custody early on in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts was grossly inadequate, as is tragically evident from incidents at Abu Ghraib, Sheberghan prison in Afghanistan, and other US detention centers.
The responsibility for the conduct of the medics at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib rests with the senior leadership of the medical departments and the Pentagon. Since the onset of combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq, the leadership has faced difficult challenges regarding the appropriate conduct of medics in the treatment of detainees, the way medics handle casualties and deaths of prisoners, and the response to hunger strikes and other medical emergencies in the detention facilities.
The duty and authority for the relevant policies and practices can be neither deferred nor sidestepped. An independent inquiry into detainee deaths is the first step toward ensuring that commanders and policy makers are held accountable for how they treat detainees.
Dr. Scott Allen is a Medicine as Profession Fellow at Physicians for Human Rights. Dr. Stephen Xenakis, a practicing psychiatrist and retired brigadier general, is the former commander of the US Army’s Southeast Medical Command.
Entry Filed under: Guantanamo, International Law, Rights and Liberties, Terrorism, War Crimes
1 Comment Add your own
1. william Highland | April 9th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Remember this awful report by the Liberal Press! ?
Examples of abuse include individuals being forced to eat their own vomit, denied adequate food, being forced to lie in urine or faeces, being kicked, beaten and thrown to the ground,” investigator Gregory Kutz told a congressional education committee. One individual, Mr Kutz said, was “forced to use a toothbrush to clean a toilet, then forced to use that toothbrush on their own teeth”. Bob Bacon, speaking in front of photographs taken of an individual an hour before his death, told how the individual had been starved, his weight falling from 59kg to 49kg in three weeks. one individual’s “bloody and battered journal” contained “an unbelievable account of torture, abuse and neglect”, Mr Bacon said. another person died from an untreated perforated ulcer. and another had been beaten “from the top of his head to the tip of his toes” during his tenure at the camp, Mr Bacon said. The report said five of the 10 programs of correction where individuals had died, were still operating, sometimes under different names. Up to 20,000 individual arrived at the US camps every year. Meanwhile, in Panama City, Florida, the manslaughter trial opened against seven guards and a nurse over the camp’s death last year. Prosecutors say the guards, were captured on film during the beatings, which lasted for 30 minutes then they were seen kneeling on his limp body, suffocating this individual.
We should close this camp….dont you think?
We are very distraught and unforgiving when it comes to our military and their care of prisoners, or terrorist as we call them. Even if they did try to kill us and would even today if they were free to do so…..right?
one would be quick to write his or her congressman of the terrible manner in which the above individuals are being treated during their stay in this God Awful institution, We should be up in arms…….over this situation should we? …………think it Gitmo and our galent Military?
Then think again my friends……………..!!!!!
Investigators have catalogued the abuse of thousands of teenagers and the deaths of at least 10 minors at American boot camps. Their findings, compiled in a shocking report by the US Congress, are presented alongside harrowing testimony from parents of three teenagers who died at boot camps. The report was published as a court in Florida began a manslaughter trial into the death of a 14-year-old boy who was filmed being beaten by camp guards minutes before he died. [Update: They were acquitted]
The Government Accountability Office, the US Congress’s investigative arm, identified 1619 incidents of child abuse in 33 states in 2005.
Teen deaths in (Calif, Texas, Fla, & N.Y) combined have totaled more in just one year (2004 latest figures) than all the deaths combined of our troops in Iraq for the entire duration of this war. Don’t you think that our military’s unselfish acts of courage to America’s cause, is just a bit more worthy than the 4,000+ senseless
teen deaths in America in just one year?
Check it out yourself……….http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19635/martin-lee-anderson
Copy and paste……….into your browser…..
A harrowing look at out-of-control treatments for out-of-control teens National Mental Health Association Fact Sheet on Juvenile Boot Camps:
How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids It selected 10 deaths since 1990 for special investigation in boot camps and “wilderness programs”.
Parents send their children to the privately run camps, which undergo no federal oversight, in the hope that their strict regimes and outdoor pursuits will force discipline on the children.But the findings suggest instructors often go too far in trying to instil good behaviour. Forced to lie in faeces, urine. “Examples of abuse include youth being forced to eat their own vomit, denied adequate food, being forced to lie in urine or faeces, being kicked, beaten and thrown to the ground,” investigator Gregory Kutz told a congressional education committee. One teenager, Mr Kutz said, was “forced to use a toothbrush to clean a toilet, then forced to use that toothbrush on their own teeth”. Bob Bacon, speaking in front of photographs taken of his emaciated son Aaron an hour before his death, told how the boy had been starved, his weight falling from 59kg to 49kg in three weeks.He and his wife had sent Aaron to the Northstar Expeditions in Escalante, Utah, to get him away from the drugs he had started dabbling in at school.Made to eat lizards, scorpions Aaron’s “bloody and battered journal” contained “an unbelievable account of torture, abuse and neglect”, Mr Bacon said. His son had spent 14 of 20 days “without any food whatsoever” while having to hike 12-16km a day. When he was given food, it consisted of “undercooked lentils, lizards, scorpions, trail mix and a celebrated canned peach on the 13th day”.Aaron died from an untreated perforated ulcer.He had been beaten “from the top of his head to the tip of his toes” during his month at the camp, Mr Bacon said.“His mother and I will never escape our decision to send our gifted 16-year-old son to his death.”The report said five of the 10 programs where teenagers died were still operating, sometimes under different names.Up to 20,000 children attend the US camps every year.Some charge up to $US450 ($500) a day.Meanwhile, in Panama City, Florida, the manslaughter trial opened against seven guards and a nurse over the boot camp death last year of Martin Lee Anderson, 14.Prosecutors say the guards, who were captured on film beating Anderson for 30 minutes and kneeling on his limp body, suffocated the boy.
Why in the F— dont you start thinking about our own you simple minded idiots….
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