EFN

The International Committee of the Red Cross have reported that medical staff assisted with the interrogation of terrorist suspects, who were tortured at Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prisons. The examples of violation of medical ethics came to light during interviews held with prisoners in Guantanamo Bay in 2007.

The 40-page report, called “ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen ‘High Value’ Detainees in CIA Custody”, was released on the internet site of the New York Review of Books by writer, journalist and university professor Mark Danner, an expert on foreign affairs and international conflict. He has not said publicly how he came to have the report.

Based on interviews with 14 terrorist suspects, the Red Cross has discovered medics supervised prisoners’ vital signs to make certain they did not drown during waterboarding. which could result in thier direct involvement in the torture.

“The alleged participation of health personnel in the interrogation process and, either directly or indirectly, in the infliction of ill-treatment constituted a gross breach of medical ethics and, in some cases, amounted to participation in torture and/or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment.”

A paramedic involved in torturing one of the inmates told him, “I look after your body only because we need you for information,” the Guardian quoted the Red Cross document as saying.

While in shackles, prisoners were made “to urinate and defecate on themselves and remain standing in their own bodily fluids for periods of several days,” the report added.

A Red Cross spokesmanm Bernard Barrett refused to comment on the findings, stating: “We deplore that confidential material attributed to the ICRC was made public.”