Non-Abuse
On the assumption that the Navy report can be trusted, I’m most pleased to hear that David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib weren’t abused at Guantanamo. John Howard’s suggestion, however, that we mustn’t forget that the allegations against them were “very serious” – training with al Qaeda and joining that group post-September 11 – don’t excuse their treatment or, indeed, have anything to do with whether they were abused, especially, in Mr. Habib’s case, including rendition to Egypt for torture outside U.S. jurisdiction. The reports in last week’s New Yorker, where the participation of health care professionals in “breaking” prisoners, using torture-resistance training methods, was presented with disturbing corroboration from within the military, suggests that the Navy report would only ever have reached the conclusion it did, howsoever “cynical” that may be. If the methods are official practice, then they are not abuse, are they? Nevertheless, we’ve gone on from there to Abu Ghraib, and the military’s physicians and psychologists may be exceeding their ethical boundaries under new directives. This makes the report rather less than reliable as the basis on which to judge the treatment of prisoners.