Torture of Guantanamo Detainees with the Complicity of Medical Health Personnel: The Case for Accountability and Providing a Forum for Redress for These International Wrongs
![handle is hein.journals/usflr45 and id is 1013 raw text is: Torture of Guantanamo Detainees with
the Complicity of Medical Health
Personnel: The Case for Accountability
and Providing a Forum for Redress for
These International Wrongs
By DAVID BRENNAN*
I. Introduction
IN THE AFTERMATH OF 9/11, despite the United States' statutory
and international obligations prohibiting torture or inhumane treat-
ment for prisoners or detainees, the use of harsh interrogation tech-
niques was quickly envisioned by the Vice President, Secretary of
Defense Rumsfeld (Secretary Rumsfeld) and others. Considerable
planning and effort went into implementing these unusually harsh in-
terrogation practices in Guantdnamo and later at other detainee-
camp locations.' This action was pursued without careful considera-
tion of the consequences of engaging in torture as a matter of govern-
ment policy. The Government's early decision to bypass domestic and
international law obligations for the treatment of the detainees was
rationalized in legal memoranda from the Department ofJustice's Of-
fice of Legal Counsel (OLC) after the 9/11 attack. These opinions
would later be discredited because they were based on highly ques-
tionable reasoning and were subsequently found to lack coherence in
* Professor of Law in Residence at the University of San Diego Law School. I would
like to thank Professor David Frakt for opening my eyes to the true depths of what
occurred at Guantinamo. I would also like to thank my researcher, Ryan H. Bay, and the
editorial staff at the University of San Francisco Law Review, who have toiled with this
Article.
1. STEVEN H. MILES, OATH BETRAYED: TORTURE, MEDICAL COMPLICITY, AND THE WAR
ON TERROR 159-50 (Random House 2006); JAMEEL JAFFER & AMRrr SINGH, ADMINISTRATION
OF TORTURE: A DOCUMENTARY RECORD FROM WASHINGTON To ABu GHRAlB AND BEYOND 7
(2007); Memorandum from the Sec'y of Defense, to the Commander, U.S. Southern Com-
mand, Counter-Resistance Techniques in the War on Terrorism (Apr. 16, 2003) [hereinaf-
ter Rumsfeld Memo of Apr. 16, 2003], available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/nation/documents/041603rumsfeld.pdf.
1005](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/usflr45&div=35&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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