FEBRUARY 2012 : (PHR/”PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS” CRITICIZES COURT DECISION -— See GITMO, BLEEDINGHEARTATTACK)
Physicians for Human Rights Criticizes Court Decision to Allow Force-Feeding, Posted on February 11, 2014
Translator, News Release
Physicians for Human Rights
New York, NY – 02/11/2014 A federal court today declined to stop force-feeding of Guantánamo detainees, allowing the inhuman and degrading practice to continue.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to issue a preliminary injunction to halt force-feeding, a type of intervention that violates core medical ethics and constitutes ill-treatment.
“The rights of men being held in Guantánamo are being completely ignored, and the hunger strike is the only option they have left to protest their indefinite detention, which has lasted more than 11 years without charges for some of them,” said Dr. Vincent Iacopino, PHR’s senior medical advisor. “By allowing the cruel and degrading practice of force-feeding to continue, the court has essentially authorized the continuation of an abusive tactic that violates human rights and fundamental medical ethics.”
The detainees being forced-fed are being held in indefinite detention, which is in itself a violation of human rights. A preliminary injunction would have at least stopped force-feeding, which constitutes ill-treatment and could rise to the level of torture. A call for injunctive relief for ill-treatment or torture should be granted under both international standards and the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
While the court did not immediately stop force-feeding by issuing an injunction, two of the three judges said the detainees did have a right to challenge the practice in court, paving the way for a continuing legal battle over the issue. The judges also pointed that that “force-feeding is a painful and invasive process that raises serious ethical concerns.” The legal challenge was filed on behalf of three detainees.
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The allegations appeared in James Risen’s book:
NOVEMBER 2014 : (APA COMMISSIONS AN “INDEPENDENT REVIEW” AFTER RISEN’S ALLEGATIONS —— See BLEEDINGHEARTATTACK, GITMO, BOOK DEALS, FEINSTEIN, LEAHY, MCCAIN ) The APA commissioned an independent review by David Hoffman, a former federal prosecutor, in November 2014 after detailed allegations of complicity emerged in New York Times reporter James Risen’s book, “Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War.” The book documented secret coordination between APA and U.S. officials to support the spurious legal and ethical justification for the Bush administration’s torture program, which relied on health professional monitoring of abusive interrogations to claim that they were “safe, effective, and legal.”
Hoffman’s report, based on extensive interviews and review of internal emails and documents, found overwhelming evidence of criminal activity by APA staff and officials, including:
1) Colluding with the U.S. Department of Defense, the CIA, and other elements of the Bush administration to enable psychologists to design, implement, and defend the post-9/11 torture program;
2) Allowing military and intelligence personnel to write APA ethics policies regulating their own conduct to ensure they were “covered” for their roles in the torture program;
3) Engaging in a coordinated campaign to cover up the collusion and blocking attempts to oppose these policies within the APA; and
4) Obstructing and manipulating ethics investigations into psychologists involved in the torture program.
-——————For Immediate Release
Friday, July 10, 2015
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Physicians for Human Rights