The Nappy Cat Chronicles

My Research: Medical Complicity in Interrogative Procedures at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib

Introduction: The BSCT Program

In a review of unclassified United States government data, Denbeaux et al. (2006) concluded that, of the 517 “unlawful combatants” detained at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp for more than four years, 55% had not been charged with engaging in hostilities against the United States or its coalition allies and 60% are detained for being “associated with” one or more terrorist organizations. Additionally, “[o]nly 8% of the detainees were characterized as al Qaeda fighters. Of the remaining detainees, 40% have no definitive connection with al Qaeda at all and 18%…have no definitive affiliation with either al Qaeda or the Taliban” (Denbeaux et al., 2006, p. 2).

In 2005, a small group of civilian medical professionals, which included New England Journal of Medicine contributing editor Dr. Susan Okie, visited the Camp Delta to be briefed by the commander of Guantánamo Bay, Major General Jay W. Hood, on the current state of the medical and mental health care provided to the detainees. Because of safety and privacy concerns, the group was not permitted to see or talk to the detainees (Okie, 2005). Of main concern to the group was the possible involvement of medical personnel in the mistreatment of the detainees. Specifically, the group was curious about the Behavior Science Consultation Team (BSCT, pronounced “Biscuit”) program.

The BSCT program began in 2002 and was approved for use at Guantánamo Bay by then commander Major General Geoffrey Miller to develop behavioral and psychological strategies that would expedite the gathering of intelligence from the “more than 100 detainees considered to have high intelligence value” (Okie, 2005, p. 2532). The BSCT at Guantánamo Bay included a psychiatrist and a psychologist who “prepared psychological profiles for use by interrogators [and]…sat in on some interrogations, observed other from behind one-way mirrors, and offered feedback to interrogator” (Bloche & Marks, 2005a, p. 7). The role of the BSCT medical personnel in the abuse of Mohammed al-Qahtani, a detainee determined to be of high intelligence value, is well documented (Miles, 2007).