The Nappy Cat Chronicles

Although the ratio of accurate to inaccurate intelligence gathered at the detention facilities governed by the United States and its coalition allies will never be known, it is easy to determine that the abusive interrogative procedures employed at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib were ineffective and likely failed to yield diagnostic intelligence. Rapport-based interrogative procedures, customarily employed in the United States, are more reliable (Kassin & Gudjonsson, 2004). After the investigations into treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, it is likely that BSCT medical personnel have received better training on how, when, and where to report abusive interrogation techniques. This assertion is slightly substantiated by Okie (2005) who reported that, during her visit, Major General Jay W. Hood stated that the abusive interrogation techniques that had once been used at Camp Delta had been replaced by an interrogative procedure that employs rapport-based techniques.

Lifton (2004) argued that, because medical professionals are “seen by others…as possessing special magic in connection with life and death” (p. 416), medical professionals should abide by the highest ethical standards whether they are considered behavioral scientists or are practicing within the traditional patient-provider framework. Similarly, Bloche and Marks (2005b) concluded that “physicianhood…encompass[es] technical skill, scientific understanding, a caring ethos, and cultural authority” (p. 5). Indeed, the best way that medical professionals can apply their “physicianhood” is constructively and caringly.