Guantánamo: holding the 'healers who harm' accountable

Guantánamo Bay lingers, hanging like an odious smell, but calls for professional accountability are breaking through. Medical personnel who took their place inside interrogation cells are now being questioned about their conduct. Whatever political cover existed under the torture-marred reign of the Bush/Rumsfeld/Blair triad has now gone. Last week, in an unprecedented move, the American Psychological Association supported an attempt to remove the licence of a psychologist accused of overseeing the torture of a CIA detainee. The APA has also issued a warning that psychologists found to have any involvement in the torturing of detainees in US custody will suffer a membership ban. Dr James Mitchell, a retired US Air Force psychologist, is alleged to have taken part in the interrogation and waterboarding of detainee Abu Zubaydah in Thailand, in 2002. The complaint, detailed in the 2008 Senate armed services committee report, has been filed with the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists. And he is not alone. Army psychologist Major John Leso is also facing allegations of professional misconduct . The San Francisco-based Centre for Justice & Accountability filed a complaint with the New York Office of the Professions. He led a behavioural science consultation team in Guantánamo and is accused of developing abusive interrogation techniques. Author and retired army Colonel Larry James was a superior to Leso. A further complaint against him has been filed, accusing him of observing interrogations without intervention. Harvard's International Human Rights Clinic investigated the claim, which states that James watched sexual humiliation techniques carried out on a half-naked detainee who was forced to wear women's underwear, and did not stop it. James, currently the dean of professional psychology at Wright State University, Dayton, wrote the book Fixing Hell , in which he describes being sent to Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib actually to clean up the abuse scandal. Speaking to the Dayton Daily News last year, James said that there was no probable cause and that no witnesses to support the allegations had come forward. The decision on these cases will be a trigger either way. At the very least, this highlights the need for a clearer understanding of what behaviour is acceptable professionally, in order to protect medical personnel from straying into territory where they may face the wrath of their professional bodies. If Mitchell loses his licence, it indicates that ethical codes of conduct for health workers are non-negotiable and adherence is paramount. If Mitchell retains his licence, his professional reputation will still have suffered. In general, we prefer our medical personnel not to carry torture accreditation. However, this should not be a witch hunt to make an example of a few, but should apply to all of those who have crossed professional boundaries. Guantánamo is the place where a variety of depraved acts were tried and tested in order to break detainees; where medical personnel removed name badges to conceal identities as they practised bad medicine. At least now, with unethical medical practices being highlighted, those still working in "hell" know they will accountable. Realistically, who wants to be treated by a medical professional with torture experience? Who wants to be seen by a doctor, nurse or psychologist known to have stood by and witnessed simulated drowning? Would you trust your loved ones with a doctor who had watched untrained, non-medical guards put blood- and bile-covered finger-width-sized nasogastric tubes down the nose of one hunger striker, after pulling it out from the force-fed stomach of another? All done without analgesia or sedation. And all done under the watchful eye of the head of the detainee hospital in Guantánamo. Physicians for Human Rights have submitted a report accusing the Bush administration of conducting illegal and unethical human experiments on prisoners in CIA custody-breaching elements of the Nuremberg code . Guantánamo medics, the Abu Ghraib doctors who broke patient confidentiality to assist interrogators, and countless other health professionals who assisted the CIA in mistreatment or experiments will all have their own place in history, just like other "healers who harm" before them. But for now, self-regulation within the medical profession and a clear mission statement of what constitutes unethical medical behaviour is a priority.