PHR Library

Testimony by PHR's Vince Iacopino before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus

By Vincent Iacopino, M.D., Ph.D.
Physicians for Human Rights and
The Center for Victims of Torture

June 23, 2004

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Caucus and distinguished guests:

It is an honor to have the opportunity to speak to you today on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights and to join the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in honoring survivors of torture. Mr. Lantos and other members of this Caucus have been instrumental in establishing the Torture Victim's Relief Act and in supporting funding for rehabilitation services. Such support has made an enormous difference in the lives of individuals who have been deliberately harmed by government officials. Your support is deeply appreciated and must continue and expand to address the needs of survivors.

As you know, or have gathered from the other testimonies, no one here, today, should speak in support of survivors of torture without recognizing a painful irony; while the US government has taken critical steps to provide support for survivors of torture and criticize torture regimes, US military forces are in the process of creating more victims. Support for survivors or torture also means preventing future abuses and holding perpetrators accountable, and now that includes the United States.

Soon after those repulsive images of US military police torturing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib shocked the world, President Bush indicated that torture will not be tolerated and those responsible will be held accountable. But we all know, now, that the Abu Ghraib debacle is not simply the case of a few bad apples; it is the result of a policy of condoning abuse and official implementation of ill treatment practices, [euphemistically labeled stress and duress] in the course of military interrogations, and, to this day, failing to fully repudiate these crimes. Furthermore, the extent of torture and ill treatment by U.S. military forces will not be know until thorough, impartial and independent investigations have been completed and effective monitoring practices are in place in all detention facilities.

What we have learned in the past several months about US officials condoning torture and/or ill treatment is truly extraordinary.

• At a May 11, 2004 hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, a list of interrogation techniques used by the U.S. Army in detention facilities in Iraq was released that includes food, sleep and sensory deprivation, stress positions, and isolated confinement.
• The following day at a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he personally approved guidelines for interrogation techniques. Both he and General Richard B. Meyers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that interrogation methods used by U.S. interrogators in Iraq and elsewhere were in compliance with the Geneva Conventions.
• And just yesterday, a December 2002 Pentagon document was released in which Secretary Rumsfeld reportedly approved the use of death threats, removal of clothing, the presence of dogs, prolonged positioning, hooding, isolation, marathon (20 hour) interrogations, forced grooming, and yelling in military interrogations, and apparently water-boarding was neither, approved nor excluded as a future possible method.

You see, there is a connection between those terrible photographs and recent attempts to justify ill treatment in the war against terrorism. The photographs are the product of official authorization of abuse. In fact, the Abu Ghraib pictures of naked men in piles and military police making lewd poses in font naked men, or a naked, hooded man standing on a platform with wires dangling from his wrists, were, at one time, approved methods of interrogation. Although the methods of ill treatment approved in December 2002 were reportedly recinded in April 2003, current interrogation methods have not been released to the pubic.

The line that U.S officials have crossed is nothing less that the absolute prohibition against torture and ill treatment. The truth is that there is no legal distinction between torture and ill treatment. They are part of a spectrum of abuses and that is why they are equally prohibited by the Geneva Conventions, the UN Convention Against Torture, and American statutes. Moreover, The Geneva Conventions strictly prohibit any form of coercion among prisoners of war or insurgents as does U.S. military field manuals such as the Army's Field Manual FM 34-52 of September 1992.

Not only has the United Nations Committee Against Torture deemed the abuse in question to constitute ill treatment in a 1997 report on Israel, but the very practices deemed by the Secretary of Defense and others as in compliance with the Geneva Conventions are routinely identified as torture and/or ill treatment by the U.S. Department of State in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

Those who support ill treatment practices not only want us to believe that they can be legal, but that they are also benign and serve a useful purpose. Mr. Chairman, I have been documenting torture and caring for survivors for more than 13 years. It was my great honor to be the principal organizer of the United Nations Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Istanbul Protocol), which contains international standards for effective investigation and documentation of torture and ill treatment.

The forms of ill treatment that appear to be permitted in U.S. military interrogations are not benign. Individually and collectively they may cause severe physical and emotional pain and long-term disability, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression. Such psychological symptoms and disabilities can last many years or even a lifetime, and the psychological effects of ill treatment can be more traumatic than other, severe forms of physical torture.

Torture and ill treatment represent a brutal display of violence used to instill fear among individuals and populations. It does not provide accurate and reliable information as perpetrators would like us to believe. On the contrary, by inflicting physical and/or emotional pain, perpetrators reduce their victims to a point that precludes obtaining reliable information, and in so doing, victims frequently falsely confess to whatever they think interrogators want to hear.

As for hypothetical ticking bombs justifications for torture and ill treatment, it is a theory that has never had any support. And its reliance on a single case distorts the dynamics of torture. We know from our experience everywhere that the use of torture is never about getting information from a single individual in dire circumstances. There aren't instances of torture, but regimes of torture. Once license is given to torture anyone, everyone is tortured.

And torture by the U.S. will have a marked enabling effect on the practice elsewhere. Not only will it increase the possibility that U.S. soldiers will be tortured in custody, but it will fuel U.S. resentment and support for terrorists and, consequently, place U.S. citizens at increased risk.

Mr. Chairman, I respectfully suggest that in order to honor survivors of torture on this occasion that we must all commit ourselves to addressing this crisis. We ask that members of the Caucus work in their individual capacities and collectively to:

• Repudiate the use of ill treatment and ensure that guidelines for interrogations conform to the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention Against Torture
• Provide to the American public a full accounting of interrogation practices, including all records and documents relating to both the most recent violations and past allegations of abuse in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, the US and other countries where individuals have been sent.
• Identify all facilities where detainees are being held within the US and in other countries.
• Account for the whereabouts of all detainees and notify family members of their whereabouts. This includes information on the transfer of detainees.
• Prohibit the transfer of detainees to other countries that permit torture.
• Hold accountable those responsible for interrogation procedures that violate international human rights and humanitarian law.
• Provide independent human rights organizations access to facilities where detainees are being held.
• Appoint an independent ombudsman who has the authority to visit any place of detention with unrestricted.
• Respect the duty of health personnel not to participate in any way in torture and/or ill treatment.
• And, ensure education on torture and ill treatment for all personnel involved in the custody of detainees.

Thank you.