All language subtitles for Doctors.Of.The.Dark.Side.2011.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

HIGH PITCHED NOTE

MUSIC

The Abu Grahib pictures
raised the question,

where were the doctors
while this was going on?

Either they directly
witnessed the abuse

or they witnessed the
consequences of it.

Why hadn't they protested?

MUSIC

Here doctors
weren't complicit.

They were a centrepiece
of torture.

They were enablers,
they were facilitators,

they were authorizers.

MUSIC

From Hippocrates to
now, the standard for

the healing professions
has been simple.

That the obligation
is first and foremost

to the patient's
interest and well being.

Torture shatters that covenant.

How have American physicians and

psychologists come to
sanction and implement

torture in our military prisons?

And why haven't they
been held accountable

for their actions?

FILM REEL ROLLING

On behalf of the Army
of the United States,

I accept your surrender.

You, your officers, and men will

be given treatment in
accordance with the principles

of the Geneva Convention.

PIANO

Sickened by the atrocities
of World War Two,

the United States and
its allies held trials in

Nuremberg, Germany
to determine who is

responsible for the heinous
acts that had occurred.

Doctors were among the
first to be convicted

and executed for
their war crimes.

Which included lethal medical
experiments on prisoners.

The trial of the doctors
lead to more rigorous codes

for medical care of captives.

In 1949, the Geneva
Convention also strengthened

the prohibitions against
using torture to

get information from
prisoners of war.

Despite these efforts,
many countries continued

to torture prisoners of war
for information and propaganda.

I was in a room that
was so small and I could

not lie down.

I was not familiar to
stand up to close my eyes,

I like to recline.

The experience
of American POW's

in Korea lead the United
States to develop a program

to train soldiers how to
survive torture if captured.

The program was called SERE.

At the same time, the CIA
supported secret research

on how experimental
drugs induced comas

and methods like sensory
deprivation alter the mind.

MUSIC

ELECTRICAL BUZZING

THUMPING

TELEPHONE RINGING

SCREAMING

TELEPHONE RINGING

The CIA learned from
mind control experiments

and tortures used by
totalitarian regimes

that several days of
sleep deprivation is

a powerful way to break
a prisoner down.

TELEPHONE RINGING

My reading is for
most people who've been

subjected to that, they will
have psychotic like thinking,

will be very disorganized,
and I think very unreliable

in terms of what they say.

And it really is kind
of very harsh and

very cruel to try and
keep people awake.

In 1975, a secret CIA
manual of abusive

interrogation techniques
was discovered and banned.

But in 1999, some of
these methods surfaced

during an espionage
case led by the

Naval Criminal Investigative
Service, or NCIS.

A psychologist played a key
role in the interrogation

of a US Naval Officer.

- Petty Officer King was
a, he's a cryptologist

who was stationed in
Guam in fall of 1999.

He had been given a new duty
assignment in the states.

And before he could
take that new job,

he had to have a polygraph.

He took his polygraph
and came up with

an indeterminate result.

- Well after they told me I
had failed the polygraph test,

I heard somebody say spy.

And from that time on, my life
became a living nightmare.

- They launched into a
full scale interrogation

of him in Guam.

That involved several days of

sleep deprivation essentially.

Excessive interrogation
and threats, it was almost

a full day without sleep.

Then they let him sleep,
hour or two hours,

but they would have the
phone ringing constantly.

So he would never get any
decent amount of sleep.

I got to the point
where I just gave them

everything they wanted,
just to try and get

out of there sir.

I was an emotional wreck.

I'm not proud of it.

- There was tapes of
him, audio tapes,

that we eventually got
where he's sobbing saying,

I don't know what you from me,

just tell me what
you want me to say

so we can stop this.

He would say, I don't
understand this.

I can't take this anymore.

And he had made
suicidal statements.

By the time he got back into
the Washington DC area,

he pleaded for help from a
psychologist or psychiatrist.

They brought in
NCIS psychologist

Dr. Michael Gelles to,

as far as Petty Officer
King knew, to help him.

- I want to be
able to recall stuff,

That, according
to the polygraph...

I have inside me.

- When a enlisted man is told
by NCIS, who are essentially

acting as his command, that
the polygraph is infallible,

he starts to believe it.

When I look, when I try to think
on this, I can't see it

and I was wondering if maybe
hypnosis or drugs could help me

if it's a suppressed memory
or something like that.

- We saw on the tape when
they finally gave it to us,

that Dr. Gelles kept
saying, "well you gotta

give 'em something.

Otherwise we can't, there's
nothing I can do for you."

This was Mike Gelles acting
in the role of a mental

health professional,
but in fact, acting as

an interrogator or with
an interrogation team,

against a person who was
medically debilitated.

Against all medical,
psychological ethics,

working for his
client, the NCIS.

Dr. Gelles characterized
himself as,

I'm not here interrogating
you, I'm just the doctor here.

I'm just here to help you.

I'm not one of the
interrogators.

We later find out that
they actually had evidence

that showed what he said
could not have happened.

And they knew it by
the time that the,

Dr. Gelles was there.

Within a couple days, he
grabbed a knife and went to

stab himself with it when
an NCIS officer intervened.

The positive thing
that came out of it

was they finally got
representation.

We were finally able to
get involved in the case.

The case against Petty
Officer Daniel King

was dismissed and he
was honourably discharged

after almost two
years in prison.

I love my country,
I love my baby.

I've never betrayed it and
I would never betray it.

The King case was a forerunner

of the indefinite
detention and psychological

tortures that would
be used extensively

on detainees after 9.11.

It also foreshadowed programs
established by the CIA

and Department of Defense.

In which doctors crossed
over from clinical services

to detainee interrogations.

Dr. Michael Gelles continued
as Chief Psychologist

of the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service.

After 9.11 he was assigned to
a special Pentagon Task Force

and consulted on
detainee interrogations

in Afghanistan,
Guantanamo, and Iraq.

Tonight we are a country
awakened to danger

and called to defend freedom.

Whether we bring our
enemies to justice

or bring justice to our
enemies, justice will be done.

APPLAUSE

EXPLOSION

Less than three weeks later,

US forces invaded
Afghanistan in retaliation

for the September 11th
terrorist attacks

on the United States.

MUSIC

In a radical new policy,
the Bush administration

declared Afghan prisoners
enemy combatants.

No longer protected by
the Geneva Convention.

Before 9.11, prisoners
of war were interrogated

according to the
army field manual

that followed the
Geneva Convention.

The new interrogation
methods involved torture.

We have no alternative,
but to meet the enemy

where he dwells.

We must and we will
use every means

at our disposal to
ensure the freedom

and security of the
American people.

In 2001, the CIA had few
agents who were expert

in legal methods of
interrogating detainees.

We had no interrogators.

The closest we came were
security officers who would

quiz you if your
lie detector test,

they didn't turn out
quite right, you know?

Or people would interview
people who wanted to

come on board.

- Two psychologists,
contracted by the CIA,

were among the first to
introduce abusive interrogation

techniques, doctors James
Mitchell and Bruce Jessen

were experts in SERE
survival training.

They adapted the SERE torture
regimen for use on detainees.

- Dr. Bruce Jessen was
the Chief of Psychology

of the Air Force's
survival school.

The psychologists were
there so that if someone

actually was having a
difficulty, some kind of

psychological breakdown,
that then we could stop,

do a timeout, and actually
bring in the psychologist

so they could talk
people through.

What we were doing,

in resistance
to interrogation training,

it was for the benefit
of our own forces.

Seeing that these people
actually were the architects

behind the torture program just

it made me physically ill.

DOGS BARKING

The brutal methods organized by

psychologists Mitchell and
Jessen for CIA interrogators

came to be called enhanced
interrogation techniques.

These techniques were soon
adopted by army interrogators

at Guantanamo with the
help of a psychiatrist

and a psychologist.

From there, they were
exported to Afghanistan

and Iraqi detention sites.

The program became so
widespread it was only

a matter of time before
the world knew that the

United States was
torturing detainees.

- As torture became more
and more controversial,

and the lawyers were more
and more under pressure

to find a justification
for these methods.

They turned to the
doctors for an opinion

on whether they
impose severe pain,

mental or physical
pain or suffering.

Which is the legal
definition of torture.

In 2009,
the special review of the

enhanced interrogation
program by the CIA

Office of Inspector
General was declassified

over the fierce objections
of the intelligence agency.

Special guidelines from the
CIA Office of Medical Services

were also declassified.

The critical role of
doctors in the enhanced

interrogation program can be
traced through these documents,

and the memos of the
office of legal counsel.

The CIA doctors and the
legal counsel lawyers

described the enhanced
techniques in such detail

that their instructions
could be the script

for a training video
for doctors assigned

to detainee interrogations.

ELEVATOR

Captured terrorists
may be subjected

to a wide range of legally
sanctioned techniques

designed to psychologically
dislocate the detainee,

maximize his feelings of
vulnerability and helplessness.

And reduce or eliminate his
will to resist our efforts

to obtain critical intelligence.

CHAINS RATTLING

FOOTSTEPS

STAMP

HEAVY BREATHING

They turned to the doctors.

They basically said, we
determine that severe pain

means it's very intense.

And of long duration.

And sometimes are violent.

Could you tell us
doc, does this method

meet that threshold?

And not once, according to
either the legal documents

or the medical memos,
not once did the doctors

ever say, "no you
can't do this."

Appropriate
medical and psychological

personnel must be on
site during all detainee

interrogations employing
enhanced techniques.

The use of each specific
enhanced technique

must be approved by
headquarters in advance.

In the
government memos,

enhanced interrogation
techniques fall roughly

into three groups.

Methods that involve
physical assault.

Those that can induce dangerous
levels of physical stress.

And those that can
psychologically debilitate

the prisoner.

Methods are combined to
increase the pressure.

This also increases the
severity of the abuse.

And one of the most
monstrous aspects

of the office of medical
services memos,

was the reference to
the Hippocratic Oath.

It says, remember you
must abide by your

obligation to do no
harm, it says that.

- The doctor is responsible for
keeping the detainee alive,

he checks that the blood
pressure and heart rate

are not dangerously high.

And measures the blood
oxygen level with

this pulse oximeter.

After prolonged
exposure to cold water,

he may check the
body temperature

in case of hypothermia.

When there are more
than 15 applications

of the waterboard in
a 24 hour period,

he has to do careful
medical assessments

after the later applications.

In the rare cases, when
a prisoner is difficult

to resuscitate, the
doctor has to perform

an emergency tracheotomy.

Physicians for Human
Rights believes that

the safety officer fallacy takes

physicians from being
healers to being

calibrators of harm.

They serve as a sort of
gasoline on the fire.

Because interrogators think
that they can go harder

because there's a health
professional there.

That they can push the
detainee closer to the edge

because there's a
safety net there

in the form of a health
professional to catch them.

- The CIA Office of Medical
Services instructs the

doctor to keep thorough
systematic records.

In order to best inform
future medical judgements

and recommendations, it
is important that every

application of the waterboard
be thoroughly documented.

How long each application and
the entire procedure lasted.

How much water was used.

Realizing that
much splashes off.

If the naso or
oropharynx was filled,

what sort of volume was
expelled and how the

subject looked between
each treatment.

- So to warp a person,
to warp a professional,

a doctor for example, into
doing this kind of thing

really is quite a trick.

The sad part about
it is it's so easy

with these group mentalities
and all the kinds of things

that you can manipulate
people into doing

against their better instincts.

For walling,
a flexible false

wall will be constructed.

SLAMMING

The idea is to create a
sound that will make

the impact seem far worse
than any injury that might

result from the action.

The CIA had
special equipment built

for the enhanced techniques.

The water board was built
so that the interrogators

could swing the detainee
upright in an emergency.

Cramped confinement boxes
came in small and large sizes.

You have informed us
that you would spend

at most two hours in this box.

You have informed us of the
purpose of using this box.

It's not to interfere with
his senses or his personality,

but to cause him physical
discomfort that will

encourage him to disclose
critical information.

SLAMS

SLAMS

We've had a lot of debate
about torture in this

country and whether
its ever justified,

I think it's never justified.

In part, because as we've
seen, that once you start

down the road of
torture, it never stops

and it gets worse and
worse and worse.

PULSE BEEPING

Keep going.

Most seriously,
for reasons of physical

fatigue or psychological
resignation,

the subject may simply give up.

Allowing excessive
filling of the airways

and loss of consciousness.

An unresponsive subject
should be righted immediately.

GROANING

Doctor!

Today, doctors are essential
to torturing regimes.

Half of all torture
survivors report seeing a doc

supervising their torture.

The doc keeps alive the
ones who are supposed

to be kept alive.

The doc devises methods
of torture, such as shock,

such as cold, such as isolation
or psychological stress,

that does not leave wounds
that can be interpreted

as evidence.

And the doc uses the
bureaucracy of the modern state

to conceal the medical
records, to falsify

medical records, and to
falsify death certificates.

It was clear that the abuse
had been quite extensive

and involved very large
numbers of prisoners.

And also involved really
extraordinary levels

of gratuitous violence.

I decided, given the
gravity of the issues,

to be extremely
conservative in my approach.

I wouldn't use witness accounts.

I wouldn't use
lawyer statements.

I wouldn't use press accounts.

I would only use first
source government documents.

As it happened, the ACLU
was conducting a gigantic

set of lawsuits under the
Freedom of Information Act

to obtain government records.

They put these documents
up on a website.

I read somewhere in
the neighbourhood of

60 to 80,000 pages.

Once you start getting
that many documents,

it's possible to
cross link events.

The story of the ice
man, for example.

That story resides in about
15 different documents.

And until you put
them all together,

you can't see the
extraordinary narrative.

Because this guy was
picked up at his home

by Navy Seals, there was
a huge fight at his home.

They took him to a Navy
Seals base, he was naked.

It was November.

He said, "I feel
like I'm gonna die."

And the interrogator said
to him, "You're gonna

wish you were dead."

A medic watched as
they worked him over

in something called
the Romper Room.

Then they took him
to Abu Ghraib.

He said, "I can't breathe"
to the entry people.

But was not given
a physical exam.

The Seals turned him
over to the CIA.

The CIA took him
into a shower room

and they had the guards tie
his hands behind his back

and they hoisted him up.

When you hang somebody
backwards by their wrists,

it prevents the lungs
from expanding.

And when you add to
that, broke ribs

and a sandbag over his
head, it makes breathing

even more difficult.

The final cause of death
was asphyxiation.

Then they called the
guards back in.

And the guards, the CIA
guy told the guards,

"Look, he's faking it.

He won't talk and he
keeps slumping down."

Well the guards tried to lift
him up, he was dead weight.

In fact, he was dead.

The CIA freaked out at
this guy being dead.

They called intelligence
commander Apus,

who came in and said, "I'm
not going down for this,

what'd you do to this guy?"

So they sent one of
their lieutenants off

to grab some ice.

And packed him in the body bag.

And then the guards had
their photo shoot.

The next thing that
happened was in the morning,

they had to get him out
of the shower room

and they had to take him
through the prison cell blocks.

So they called in a medic,
who put an IV in his arm,

and wheeled him out
saying he was sick.

The narrative of where
his autopsy was done,

who did it, and why
the death certificate

was suppressed is
still classified.

Although the
United States was obligated

to return his body to
the al Jamadi family,

he was buried in
an unmarked grave.

His family learned
what happened to him

through the Abu Ghraib photos.

The world knows Mr.
Jamadi as the body defiled

by Abu Ghraib guards.

The press focused
on who tortured him

and whether officers would
be prosecuted for his murder.

One fact is rarely noted.

Mr. Jamadi's fate was
sealed by two medics, a doctor,

and the medical command
responsible for his healthcare,

according to the third
Geneva Convention,

ratified by the United States.

The number of doctors involved
in detainee abuse is unknown.

But in declassified
government documents,

the al Jamadi case is
just one among many

involving medical complicity
and cover up of torture.

The pathologist
working for the

Armed Forces Institute
of Pathology collectively

and systematically and
uniformly suppressed

death reports in US prisons

in Afghanistan and Iraq.

To the extent that they
ever became aware of them

in the CIA rendition
presence as well.

There have been
detainees here since last July.

Nobody knows what cave
they are in.

Nobody can reach
the detainees.

The Americans dominate
the detainees.

They dragged them
out of bed naked.

Three of them were
released.

Two were kept.

One was taken to Basra.

Secret deaths in prisons
alienate populations profoundly.

And in fact, when you look
in Iraq and what happened

after the Abu Ghraib experience,

including the death
of Jamadi came out,

what happened was
that support for our

presence in Iraq dropped
from around 70 percent

to around 20 percent.

We lost the moral authority
that we had at Iraq.

We lost the Iraq people
in a way that radically

transformed the Iraq military
and political landscape.

And then of course, the
ultimate folly of all this was

that according to
military intelligence,

85 percent of the prisoners
at Abu Ghraib were

entirely innocent or
ignorant of any insurgency

activity whatsoever.

MUSIC

As a doctor who's been
evaluating in caring

for torture victims
from all over the world,

for over 15 years, individuals
that I examine who've been

detained at Abu Ghraib
or Guantanamo are among

the most traumatized,
scarred both

physically and psychologically
and for lack of a better

way at putting it, most
damaged individuals

that I've examined.

- Under pressure
to obtain useful intelligence,

the Department of Defense
established behavioural

science consultation teams.

Made up of both psychiatrists
and psychologists

to advice interrogators
on strategy

after observing interrogations
on TV monitors like this.

(indistinct speech)

- He said it's healthy.
I can't move my arm.

- I requested medical
for a long time.

They don't do anything about it.

- No, I mean they look like
they're healing well to me.

You know I'm not
a doctor but I think...

you're getting
good medical care.

- No I'm not.
You're not here.

The Behavioral
Science Consultation Teams,

or BSCTS, helped interrogators

exploit the physical
and emotional

vulnerabilities
of the detainees.

These doctors were pulled
out of clinical services

and thrust into the
role of consultants

without any experience
with interrogation.

- We like to think of
torture as mainly this

physical phenomenon,
that it's only torture

if you're beating
someone or hanging them

from their thumbs.

It's really important to
recognize and understand

that most, if not all
torture, has both physical

and psychological components.

According to
the Guantanamo standard

operating procedures,
on arrival each detainee

is isolated for four
weeks and allowed contact

only with interrogators and the

behavioral science consultants.

Step up.

Turn around.

Human beings are social,
we're creatures that

thrive on communication with
others, connection with others.

So when you deprive someone
of that, you automatically

start raising risk factors
for the kinds of reactions,

for reactions such
as depression,

anxiety, panic attacks,

suicidality, in sort
of more extreme cases

and psychosis even in
more extreme cases.

SCREAMING

SLAMMING

SLAMMING

Isolation
is often combined with

sleep deprivation to further
disorient the detainee.

- Soccer?

TEASING AND TAUNTING

SLAM

Stay the fuck awake, no
sleeping, no sleeping.

None, none.

SLAMMING

Investigative
journalists were among

the first to expose
some of the techniques

recommended by the behavioral
science consultants.

There was one plan in
particular that a detainee's

lawyer described
to me in which the

detainee was told that a
psychiatrist had monitored

the amount of toilet
paper he was allowed,

he was only allowed
seven squares a day.

And that was actually an
improvement over earlier

when the psychiatrist,
according to these sources,

had taken away all
of his toilet paper.

Each detainees had kind of
a psychological assessment

and a plan kind of
created for interrogating

him depending on his
weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

Another common form
of abuse that I heard

from almost every former
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo

detainee was these
horrific recountings

of sexual humiliations.

There was one individual,
for example,

who told me how he was
forced to be naked

in a room where it was made
very hot and very cold.

He was forced to stand
in uncomfortable

and painful positions.

But what was most devastating
to him about that experience,

was when he said, a
woman who was naked

came into the interrogation room

and touched herself
and then touched him

with what he believed
was menstrual blood.

It was this moment
when he was utterly

and completely helpless
and humiliated.

That was most
traumatizing to him.

That was when he hung
his head in shame.

Probably overwhelmingly,
most of the individuals

who were detained at
Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo

were not terrorists.

They were individuals who
were picked up and sweeped,

who were in the wrong
place at the wrong time,

got arrested, put through
this hell like no other,

that they or I could describe,
and then were released.

But really shells
of who they were.

Mohammed Jawad was one
of these detainees.

In 2002, he was arrested
in a crowded marketplace

in Kabul after a grenade
exploded injuring

three US servicemen.

Jawad did not have a
birth certificate and his

age at the time is uncertain.

But he was estimated to
be between 14 and 16.

After a short detention
in Afghanistan,

he was moved to Guantanamo Bay.

- Guantanamo Bay is sort
of supposed to be you know,

where you keep the worst
of the worst, you know,

the really bad people.

And you have a child
who's being accused of

throwing a hand grenade at
US soldiers being called

a war criminal, it just
didn't make sense.

During an interrogation
of Mohammed Jawad,

the interrogator became
alarmed when the youth

began talking to a wall.

He asked a psychologist
assigned to detainee

interrogations to
observe Jawad and check

his mental state.

Her response was reported
by another officer

in a sworn deposition.

He appears to be rather
frightened and it looks

as if he could break
easily if he were

isolated from his support
network and made

to rely solely on
the interrogator.

Make him as uncomfortable
as possible,

work him as hard as possible.

The psychologist
concluded that Jawad

was faking homesickness
and depression.

And recommended more
severe isolation to

induce his cooperation.

After a period in this extreme
isolation, Mohammed Jawad

attempted to kill himself
by banging his head

off metal structures
in his cell.

He survived and was
kept relatively isolated

for five more years,

when Dr. Katherine
Porterfield examined

him at the request of
Jawad's defense team.

Over the course of my
evaluation with Mr. Jawad,

it was clear he was suffering
with major depression.

He had intense
sadness and despair.

Difficulty sleeping, he
had severe sleep problems.

Appetite had been basically
profoundly impaired.

You know, he barely ate
very much and he had

almost, he said, no
taste for food anymore.

He was a very, very
depressed young man.

- When I went into
Jawad, I wanted to take

the initiative and you
know, get to the point

as quickly as possible.

And he basically stopped me.

And I was with an interpreter,
he doesn't speak English

or didn't at that time.

And he said, "I don't wanna
talk about who you are

or why you're doing
what you're doing

or anything, all I
wanna do is find out when

I can go see my mom."

All of a sudden, the
curtain got pulled back

and you know, there was
this boy sitting in a chair

asking for his mom.

And it really changed the way
that I approached that case.

- When I would ask him
to recount anything

about his time at
Guantanamo, he would become

very distressed, put
his head in his hands,

and just say, "I
can't, it's too hard."

I wrote a declaration
stating that I felt that

the conditions he was
in were not appropriate

or harming him.

And his lawyers
basically then argued,

to the authorities,
that he should be moved

out of a situation of isolation.

And that response did
not come for many months.

- He was never viewed as an
innocent person, you know,

within the system.

It was always, he's
guilty, so how do we get

to the conviction as
fast as possible?

Jawad's
lawyer, Eric Montalvo,

went to extraordinary
lengths for his client.

To get missing records
and depositions,

he travelled to Kabul.

An unarmed marine
without the protection

of US forces, he returned
with messages of support

from Jawad's family
and powerful evidence

that Mohammed Jawad
was innocent.

And I think that at
the end of the day,

it was such a mess of a case.

And it was so emblematic
of all the things wrong

with Guantanamo, that they
just got him out of there.

And tried to make it go away.

After
seven years in prison,

Mohammaed Jawad was
finally released.

Eric Montalvo kept his
promise to be in Kabul

when the young man arrived.

His mother couldn't
even recognize him

because he had physically
changed so much,

because he was just a boy.

And he apparently had a certain
shape to the back of his

head from either a
fall or what have you,

and she was in total
disbelief until she

felt the shape of his head.

And then at that point she knew
and collapsed on the floor.

In the case of involvement
of health professionals,

when does it rise to the
level of national scandal?

How many more revelations
about physician involvement,

about research, about
approval of interrogations

for people who are clearly
injured, to be injured again.

How much more?

The American
public does not hear much

about doctor involvement
in detainee abuse.

Since the Abu Ghraib
scandal, both administrations

have gone to great lengths
to present detainee

treatment as humane.

We are going to treat
them exactly right.

We're gonna treat
them humanely and

it will be appropriate
to their circumstance.

The press
is given tours of modern

medical facilities
in Guantanamo.

And army psychologists who
report on the condition

of detainees, make no mention
of symptoms of trauma.

The diagnosis we see,
are the same ones we've

seen in the states.

The main or most
prevalent diagnosis here

are personality disorders.

Do you see
any signs of desperation

by some detainees?

Uhh...

not really.

Well...

A few of 'em have maybe well...

Maybe a few of 'em.

I can't... I don't know really
any specific details though

where they have done anything

out of desperation.

Doctors at
detention sites are divided

between those who work
in treatment services

and those who work under
the intelligence command.

Although the two are
officially separate,

there are many reports of
doctors in the medical services

supporting the programs of
the intelligence command.

Released detainee
Adel al Gazzar.

One day I remember I was
crying terrible from the pain.

A doctor turned up with
pain killers but he said,

"I will give you the
medication, but first you need

to sign a confession that
you're a member of al Qaeda."

I told him I'm not a
member of al Qaeda

and cannot confess to a lie.

He put the medication in
his pocket and walked off.

What's interesting is
that the medical personnel

at Guantanamo never go
by their real names.

So they always rely
on pseudonyms.

You know, Doctor Scarlet,
you know, Doctor Geneva.

So it's very hard to
identify medical personnel.

MUSIC

There were doctors who
actually lived up

to their ethical obligations.

And the perception
among the prisoners

was that those doctors
were very quickly,

you know, shuffled
out of Guantanamo.

Or rotated out of their posts.

Were not renewed or
maintained in those positions.

Journalists
are not allowed to

interview detainees in
the detention sites.

Reports of how detainees
are force fed at Guantanamo

come from released prisoners
and their defense lawyers.

I represented Ahmed Zuhair,
who's a Saudi national

who was in US custody
from 2002 until 2009.

He was on hunger strike as
a form of peaceful protest

at sort of his unlawful
and indefinite

imprisonment away from his
family, away from his life,

and also in protest of the
torture that he had survived.

And he said, you know, he
would continue his hunger

strike until the United
States stopped referring

to him as an enemy combatant.

You know, over the
course of my two years

representing him and meeting
with him at Guantanamo,

his health fluctuated sharply.

You know, we had some meetings
where he was in a gurney.

There were some meetings
where he could not move

and where he was
in physical pain.

I saw him vomit repeatedly.

So it was a physically
traumatizing experience

for him, but somehow you
know, really almost magically

he remained lucid throughout.

You know, initially, force
feeding was done on a bed

in a relatively
unfettered position.

So the authorities went
from a protocol that

accommodated the
prisoners and made the

force feeding experience
more comfortable

and more tolerable,
to another protocol.

Which was designed
specifically to inflict

maximum pain and discomfort
so as to pressure

the hunger strikers to
suspend their hunger strikes.

The subsequent protocol
that my client described

involved what he referred
to as the Torture Chair.

Which was a chair, which
was a six point restraint

chair where prisoners were
restrained at the arms,

legs, torso, head, and neck.

They took away lubrication,
they took away

local aesthetics, they
took away soothing lozenges.

All to make the experience
as uncomfortable as possible.

SCREAMING

Some of the men
refused to come out.

Because they objected
to being force fed.

And in a brutal manner.

And so they wished to
remain in their cells.

And so what the medical
authorities at Guantanamo

do at that point, was to
order basically a riot squad,

six man teams in full riot gear,

with padding, shields,
sticks, helmets, visors, mace,

and they would basically
march into a cell block

as loudly as possible to
intimidate and terrorize

the prisoner population.

And then they would
go into the cell.

And drag them out to
the restraint chair.

And then one of the US
military medical personnel

would insert the
force feeding tubes.

And a single feeding
session would last,

you know, two to three hours.

Depending on how much nutrition
was to be administered.

That experience was so
traumatic that a lot of the

prisoners developed
inflamed nasal passages.

The medical personnel,
they would leave the tubes

in their noses for days on end.

But he was in a position
where that was the only

possible gesture of protest
that was left to him.

The people in Guantanamo
Bay, we have not

forgotten about you.

Even though I've been
released for over two years,

the burden of Guantanamo
is still there with me.

And until that place
is closed down,

I can never forget
what happened there.

We were able to get a
federal judge to order

the government to either

force feed Mr. Zuhair in
humane conditions, on a bed,

in a clinic, and not
in the restraint chair.

Or justify to the judge,
to the federal court,

why it was necessary
to force feed him

in that restraint chair.

But the other hunger
strikers who were not

subject to that order,
they were still being

force fed pursuant
to the old protocol.

And to my knowledge, that
force feeding protocol,

that's a protocol that is
still alive and that is

still being applied at
Guantanamo today in 2010.

Ahmed Zuhair
was released from Guantanamo

after being imprisoned for
seven years without charge.

But Shaker Amair, a leader
of the hunger strikes,

remains in isolation.

The only British resident
still detained at Guantanamo.

I'm dying here everyday,
mentally and physically.

I have got kidney problems
from the filthy yellow water.

I have lung problems
from the chemicals they

spread all over the floor.

I'm already arthritic
at 40 because I sleep

on a steel bed.

And they use freezing
air conditioning as part

of the interrogation process.

I have ruined eyes from
the permanent 24 hour

fluorescent lights.

I have been made paranoid
so I can trust nobody,

even my lawyer.

Because the Americans
play with my mind.

I would just like to
die quietly by myself.

I want no feeding,
no force tubes.

No help.

No intensive assisted feeding.

From everything we've
seen about how this policy

of torture was designed
and implemented,

that health professionals were
a critical cog in the wheel.

And that if you were to take
the health professionals out,

the system as we know it,
I believe would've come

to a grinding halt.

- Had the senior physicians
come out forcefully

and more or less unified,
that clinical practitioners

were not gonna
participate or condone

any of these practices, that
there could've very likely

been at least a
curtailment and a serious

limitation of their happening.

For the army, it would've
meant that the army

surgeon general would have said,

absolutely we are not
going to comply with this.

It violates all our ethical
principles, it is wrong.

And no medical people
will be involved

in these practices.

Doctor Kylie, who then
was a surgeon general,

had the opposite viewpoint.

That the military
mission of getting the

intelligence information
superseded what had

been the traditional medical
ethics and medical practice.

Some intelligence
and military officials

did protest the torture program.

- In simple words, your
own soldier's language,

how did this happen?

- Failure in leadership
sir from the brigade

commander on down.

Lack of discipline.

No training whatsoever.

General
Antonio Taguba was forced

into retirement for his
rigorous investigation

of the abuses.

The military command
severely punished

Sargent Sam Provance
for refusing to retract

his testimony about
tortures at Abu Ghraib.

I do know military doctors who

either directly indirectly
did resist cooperating,

voiced their dissent.

And they feel and I really

agree with them that
their careers one way

or another were hurt.

In contrast,
the officers who developed

and conducted the enhanced
techniques program

remain well protected.

The CIA has provided
doctors James Mitchell

and Bruce Jessen with
a five million dollar

legal defense fund in
case they are charged

with torturing detainees.

Now if we got professionals
who are trained in this

kind of work to get
information that'll

protect the American
people, and by the way,

we have gotten
information from these

high valued detainees,

that have helped protect you.

In 2006,
President Bush announced

that the enhanced
techniques provided

invaluable intelligence.

But by then, the program
was so widely condemned

that a high army
official could publicly

refute him without
getting punished.

No good intelligence is gonna
come from abusive practices.

I think history tells us that.

I think the empirical
evidence of the last

five years, hard
years, tell us that.

So and moreover, any
piece of intelligence

which is obtained under
duress, through the use

of abusive techniques, would
be of questionable credibility.

And additionally, it would
do more harm than good

when it inevitably
became known that abusive

practices were used.

- There's a guy speaking
truth to power.

Didn't deter Dick
Cheney or George Bush

from doing this anyway.

But Kimmons was laying
down the law saying look,

my army is not gonna do that.

If it's done that in the past,
it's gonna stop doing that.

Because they don't work.

In 2002, FBI and
other federal investigators

tried to stop abusive methods
that military interrogators

were adopting at Guantanamo.

Dr. Michael Gelles, who
had been involved in

the Daniel King espionage
case, was among those

who protested the brutality.

The federal investigators,
including Dr. Gelles,

proposed an alternative
way to interrogate

a high valued detainee.

It was rejected by the
military in favour

of more physical coercion.

The alternate plan remained
classified until 2009.

Well when we actually read
the plan, it was chilling.

It was not a model for
an ethical interrogation,

but it was based on
instilling complete

dependency and debility
over many months.

I think what we're
finding out is that what

Colonel Larry James, who
claims to have abolished

abuses at Guantanamo
in January of 2003,

what Larry James and Michael
Gelles felt was abusive

was only the most
extreme techniques.

The so called
physical techniques.

Slapping or banging
against a wall.

Not sleep deprivation
and isolation

and sensory deprivation.

Significant
but incomplete reform,

banning extreme physical
tortures but not some of the

psychological abuses,
can also be seen in 2006

revisions of the
army field manual.

Endorsed by the Obama
administration.

- Any interrogations
taking place are gonna

have to abide by the
army field manual.

We believe that the
army field manual

reflects the best
judgement of our military.

That we can abide by a rule

that says we don't torture.

- When President Obama
came into office,

he also indicated that
the interrogations

by the United States
forces, including the CIA,

should follow the
parameters laid down in the

current army field manual.

That's the same army
field manual that carries

appendix M, with all of
its different abusive

forms of interrogation.

It also is the same army
field manual that changed

the definition of the
use of fear up from the

previous army field
manual to allow for the

induction of new
phobias, new fears.

It changed the language of the
previous army field manual,

which had banned
sleep deprivation.

Now there was no such ban.

- My reading of the appendix
M of the field manual

was that it did open a
door to some of these

techniques that are
mostly being used

by the CIA.

The question
of detainee abuse

and the role that
doctors play in it,

is no longer limited
to the military or CIA

operations oversees.

Detainees awaiting trial
in the United States

may be subject to special
administrative measures,

or SAM's, that resemble the
isolation and deprivation

found in Guantanamo.

We're gathered here on
a very wet and damp day

outside of the Metropolitan
Correctional Center,

where for nearly three years,
Fahad Hashmi has been held

in severe solitary confinement.

- In 2006, Fahad
Hashmi, an American citizen,

was arrested for material
support for al Qaeda

and kept in highly
restricted lockdown.

His treatment raised an issue
rarely debated in public.

Prolonged isolation can
jeopardize a prisoner's health.

Do the special administrative
measures supersede

the orders of a
doctor responsible

for the detainee's care?

- So we say
tonight to Fahad

and to his family,
that we stand with you

and remain committed to
struggle alongside you

towards a light that
surely must come and emerge

from these dark days.

As we leave, I'd like
everyone to place

a flower, you're not allowed
to stand on the sidewalk

in front of the MCC,
but as you walk by,

please place a flower.

The detention
practices of the war

on terror have come home.

If extreme isolation
is harming a detainee,

can US prison doctors stop it?

Do doctors have the
authority to protect

the healthcare of the prisoner?

Although much is classified,
there is evidence

that decisions by doctors
treating detainees

may be countermanded by
government officials.

When I hear about
psychologists participating

in CIA black sites, in the
kidnapping of children,

I know that something
is wrong in the state

of psychology and how
psychology is being used.

APPLAUSE

Many human rights
and healthcare organisations

have protested the
role of doctors

in the torture program.

In 2005, Doctor
Steven Sharfstein,

the newly elected
president of the

American Psychiatric
Association wrote to

Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld,

raising concerns about
psychiatrists assisting

interrogations at Guantanamo.

Well what happened
was I didn't hear a word

in response to my letter.

And then in the beginning
of October I got a call,

"Would you like
to go next week?"

I guess that's the way
things work in the military.

And I said absolutely.

We landed and we went,
took a boat trip

across the bay, to the prison.

And then we had a
briefing on the prison,

very extensive one.

What we heard was
that there were these

Behavioral Science
Consultation Teams, BSCT teams,

they were never in the room
when interrogations took place.

They were in another room.

They were listening in.

They had direct way
to talk to the

interrogators and to
advise them about

what ways to proceed
and their role they

emphasized was to try to
establish rapport with

these detainees and not
really stress them in any way.

So they were trying
definitely to convince us

that what they were doing
was humane, ethical,

you know, on the up and up.

Doctor Sharfstein
and his colleagues

were not convinced that
psychiatrists should

assist in interrogations.

I didn't think
that psychiatrists

had any competency

to be doing this kind of work.

We're trained to
diagnose, treat.

Beyond the ethical
position of do no harm,

what training do we
have in interrogations

and police interrogations,
or any of those

kinds of issues?

- In 2006, after much
internal debate,

the American Psychiatric
Association passed

a resolution stating that
it was not appropriate

for psychiatrists
to directly assist

in the interrogation
of detainees.

The American Psychiatric
Association just drew

the line and said, no.

And actually many...

I was contacted by a number
of military psychiatrists

saying thank you, because
now we can say to superiors,

"I don't wanna go against
the policy, position,

and the ethical rules
of my association."

Though the standards
of the AMA and the

American Psychiatric Association
are as they should be,

strong unequivocal
prohibitions against direct

involvement in interrogation,
the fact remains

that neither of those
associations have taken

ethical action against
members who allegedly

were directly
involved in the abuse

of prisoners in US custody.

Only one
professional association

approved of its doctors
assisting interrogations,

the American Psychological
Association or APA.

In 2005, it followed
the recommendations

of its task force on
psychological ethics

and national security, or PENS.

So for us, the
question is not whether

psychologists may be
involved in these processes,

it's how psychologists
may be involved

in these activities
in an ethical manner.

We know from records
and accounts of what went

on at the task force
that there was never

a question, a discussion,
about whether

it was ethical for
psychologists to participate

in these interrogations.

That was assumed from
the very first moment.

The APA has never, except
when absolutely forced to

by the public record,
acknowledged that there are

even problems in the policy.

Psychology's profession
has been intimately

involved with the military
intelligence establishment,

something that's sort
of invisible to a large

number of practical
psychologists.

APA officials
appointed a task force

guaranteed to approve
psychologists involvement

in detainee interrogations.

Doctor Morgan Banks helped
to write the standard

operating procedures manual
for BSCT interrogation doctors.

Doctor Scott Shumate
attended the launch

of enhanced interrogation
procedures at a CIA black site.

Doctor Larry James was
the first psychologist

to advise on interrogations
at Abu Ghraib.

Doctor Bryce Lefever, another
member of the task force

majority, asserted that
a psychologist assisting

interrogations has
no responsibility

for detainee welfare.

Contradicting the most
basic ethical principles

of psychology practice.

- America happens
to be my client.

Americans are who I care about.

I have no fondness
for the enemy.

And I don't feel like
I need to take care

of their mental health needs.

Producing some pain
just seems to be,

you know at first blush,
something that would be wrong

because we do no harm,
but if it does the most

good for the most people,
it's entirely ethical.

And to do otherwise
would be unethical.

Doctor
Michael Gelles was the

psychologist involved in the
Daniel King espionage case.

In 2001, one of King's
lawyers found Gelles

treatment of King so
unethical that he submitted

a complaint to the
APA Ethics Committee.

The complaint was dismissed.

Four years later, the
Ethics Director helped

appoint psychologists
to the PENS task force,

including Michael Gelles.

APA officials stressed
the organisation's

strong resolutions
against torture.

And claimed that
psychologists keep the

interrogations safe,
ethical, and effective.

In 2008, thousands of
APA members effectively

rejected this claim
and voted down

the interrogation policy.

In spite of this referendum,
psychologists still

assist detainee
interrogations and their work

remains highly controversial.

Today, behavioral
science consultants and

research psychologists
have a prominent role

in the Obama
administration program for

interrogating high
valued detainees.

When people committed
these same acts,

we prosecuted them in the
past at places like Nuremberg.

And places like the
International Criminal Tribunal

for the former Yugoslavia.

What's different here?

The difference is, is that
we just don't care enough.

- There's been no
accountability at all.

No investigation
that we're aware of.

No attempt to question
the doctors about

what they did, reveal
what they did fully.

In fact, both the Bush
administration, the Obama

administration have
utterly refused and opposed

any attempt to investigate.

And the doctors have
completely escaped

any ethical or legal
responsibility

for what they've done.

The fight
for accountability

is now turning to
institutions separate

from the United States
government and military.

Doctors, including those
in the CIA and military,

must be licensed by
their state boards,

which are responsible
for disciplining any

involved in malpractice.

To my knowledge, to date,
there have been complaints

filed against health
professionals in California,

New York, Louisiana,
Alabama, Guam, and Ohio.

Before health professional
boards, licensing boards

in all of those states.

Not one of them to our
knowledge has even

investigated, officially
seriously investigated

any of the allegations.

Some boards have not bothered
to give written answers,

but over the phone
when consulted,

have said that they
don't have jurisdiction.

We don't believe that that's
true in any of the cases.

The Texas State
Board of Examiners

dismissed a complaint against
Doctor James Mitchell,

the psychologist who according
to government documents,

led the team that waterboarded
a detainee 83 times.

Until congress, until the
National Institutes of Health,

institutes of medicine,
realize that this

is arguably the single
greatest scandal

in the history of
American medical ethics,

and act that way,
we will be not even

knowing what we
don't know about.

Not even knowing the
questions to ask.

Hold it.

Okay.

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PIANO