Psyche, Science, and Society

IGs initiate investigations of involuntary detainee drugging

June 10th, 2008

We have previously relayed the reports in CQ and the Washington Post on the involuntary drugging of detainees at Guantanamo and elsewhere. These reports led three key Senators to call for an investigation of these reports. Now we hear that both the Defense Department and CIA Inspectors General have launched investigations of the drugging reports. This is further evidence of beginning movement toward accountability for torture:

Feds to review if drugs used in interrogations

By Pamela Hess

The Pentagon’s internal watchdog is investigating whether the military forced terror suspects to take mind-altering drugs to ease interrogation.

The CIA is conducting a similar review, said Pentagon’s Assistant Inspector General John C. Crane in a letter to the Senate that was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The letter bore a stamp dated May 21.

While some former detainees have alleged they were drugged, the issue was raised anew with the release in April of a five-year old legal memo written by then-Office of Legal Counsel attorney John Yoo.

The March 14, 2003, memo interpreted the long-standing legal prohibition on the use of “mind-altering substances” against prisoners. Yoo wrote it would only be illegal and considered torture if the drugs substantially interfered with prisoners’ cognitive ability or fundamentally altered their personality, and was used with the specific intent to cause such harm.

The Yoo memo caused several senators to insist on a full investigation into whether drugs were used on prisoners in interrogations. The lawmakers included Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, the committee’s top Republican, and Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich.

The CIA and Pentagon have both denied using drugs in interrogations.

The CIA studied the use of drugs and chemicals, including LSD, for “unconventional interrogations” nearly 50 years ago, according to a 1975 CIA memorandum for the record that has been declassified.

Entry Filed under: CIA, Guantanamo, Interrogation, Law, Mental Health, Psychiatry, Psychological Torture, Torture, War Crimes