American Psychologists Helped Design Torture Programs — Now They Want to End Them

Your premise is false. You say: "...allowing psychologists to work at Guantánamo gives ethical cover to an illegal detention site where detainees are still being tortured with painful forced feedings, solitary confinement, and the hopelessness induced by indefinite detention without charges." First, the detention facility is not illegal. If it were it would have closed a long time ago. In fact, the US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the finest such facility on earth. International Committee of the Red Cross physicians I worked with there and later in Iraq, told me that "No one does [detention operations] better than the US." In my memoir, "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay," I detail specific medical considerations, including psychological and psychiatric operations that were designed for the specific benefit of detainees. The Geneva Conventions require care given to enemy combatants be at least as good as that provided to US personnel. At Gitmo, it is above and beyond that given to US personnel. In my role as ranking US Army Medical Department officer with the Joint Detainee Operations Group, Joint Task Force 160, I helped manage and coordinate medical, preventive medical and environmental services for good guys and detainees. In fact, I was on the mission to repatriate the very first Gitmo detainee, Abdul Razaq, back in early 2002. Abdul was a cold turkey heroin addict and schizophrenic. Once diagnosed he was deemed no longer a threat to the US and of no further intelligence value. Without professional psychiatric and psychological services, Abdul would still be there. To date, 731 detainees have been RELEASED from Gitmo, and NONE have been beheaded, executed, blown up, hacked to death, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets, drowned or burned alive; all things our enemies have done to us and/or our allies. Gitmo is not perfect, but it certainly is no torture chamber or gulag. The professional military personnel who worked there are among the finest anywhere. Detainees are treated with dignity and respect, and are given FREE Qurans, prayer rugs/beads, directions to Mecca, services of US military Muslim chaplains, halal and special Muslim holy holiday meals, white robes, beards, world class health care, dental, vision services and medications; TV, DVD's, books, recreation and sports. The biggest complaint from the ICRC while I was there was that we sometimes took the candy from the detainee MRE's for behavior modification. As for "forced feeding" that was done to preserve life. There is no military medical regulation or policy that allows for the intentional harm to a detainee, including self-harm. I witnessed the very first intubation of a detainee at Gitmo, which was done humanely, gently and with professional care and oversight. No DoD personnel has ever been trained in nor has performed torture on any detainee. Only the CIA are trained in Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, which at the time they were performed on a handful of detainees to obtain valuable information which saved many lives, was legal and approved, including waterboarding, which still does not fit a specific definition of torture. Detention at Gitmo is not "indefinite." According to the Geneva Conventions and Law of Land Warfare, even lawful combatant POW's may be held without charge or trial, "until the end of hostilities." The US held over 400,000 lawful combatant mostly German POW's in the US during WWII, and none were afforded any extra legal privileges, so why are unlawful combatant Islamists who want to kill us different? They are not, sir. Your personal bias and anti-American attitude permeates your actions and words on this matter. Detainees held at Gitmo are in need of and deserve care and treatment from psychological and psychiatric professionals, military and civilian. You create a disservice to them and to your association through your selfish and unlearned actions. Sincerely, Montgomery J. Granger, Major, US Army, Retired. PS - Even the photo you choose for the article is misleading. Taken in January, 2002, this depicts detainees just brought to then Camp X-Ray for inprocessing from the Leeward airport. Detainees waited here before being taken for a shower, fresh clothes, a medical exam, meeting with the ICRC, a post card home, accommodations and then food. The impression you give your readers is that these were the day-t-day conditions of life at Gitmo. Dishonest, intellectually and ethically. If you didn't know this, you should have known. And the sensory deprivation items, darkened goggles, ear muffs, etc., is a technique to keep the detainee calm, which provides a safer environment for them and the guards. Shame on you.