U.S. Injected Gitmo Detainees With 'Mind Altering' Drugs

U.S. Army soldiers inside a cell block at Camp Five at the Joint Task Force Guantanamo detention center on Nov. 14, 2006. Photo: Army

Prisoners inside the U.S. militarys detention center at Guantanamo Bay were forcibly given mind altering drugs, including being injected with a powerful anti-psychotic sedative used in psychiatric hospitals. Prisoners were often not told what medications they received, and were tricked into believing routine flu shots were truth serums. Its a serious violation of medical ethics, made worse by the fact that the military continued to interrogate prisoners while they were doped on psychoactive chemicals.

Thats according to a recently declassified report (.pdf) from the Pentagons inspector general, obtained by Truthout after a Freedom of Information Act Request. In it, the inspector general concludes that certain detainees, diagnosed as having serious mental health conditions being treated with psychoactive medications on a continuing basis, were interrogated. The report does not conclude, though, that anti-psychotic drugs were used specificallyfor interrogation purposes.

The only drug explicitly named in the report was Haldol, first marketed in the 1960s and still used today as a relatively cheap and hard-boiled anti-psychotic sedative in psychiatric hospitals (more commonly in emergency rooms). Haldol has declined since the widespread introduction of newer anti-psychiatric drugs in the 1990s.

Its side effects are not great. A full list would be too long to reproduce here, but they include depression, muscle contractions and suicidal behavior. A patient on Haldol can develop long-term movement disorders and life-threatening neurological disorders. Theres a possibility (though not common) of heart problems that can lead to sudden death.

Haldols main effect, though, is that it makes you really groggy. Now combine that with sleep deprivation and intense, fearful questioning. Brent Mickum, an attorney for detainee Abu Zubaydah, said Zubaydah was routinely overdosed with the drug, Truthout notes. (Zubaydah was also waterboarded 83 times in one month.)

The inspector general report also notes that former Guantanamo prisoner and former Saudi policeman namedAdel al-Nusairi, was never given Haldol shots during interrogations, but was forced to take monthly injections as he was diagnosed asschizophrenic and psychotic with borderline personality disorder. Otheruncooperative detainees were also forced to take injections.

An unnamed detainee told the inspector general he was given unidentified red and blue pills while traveling to Guantanamo from Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, in 2002.At the time they said it was some candy, he said. After eating the candy, the prisoner said he felt like in a state of delusion for several days.

At least one detainee, so-called dirty bomber Jose Padilla was tricked into believing he was injected with a truth serum during an interrogation, possibly a form of LSD or PCP. In reality, it was a flu shot. Still, its a serious breach of medical ethics, Georgetown University law professor and health policy specialist Gregg Bloche told Truthout. It undermines trust in military physicians and its an unfair insult to the integrity of the vast majority of military doctors, who quite rightly believe that this sort of thing is contrary to their professional obligation, Bloche said.

The militarys response has been muted. A Pentagon spokesman refused to comment to Truthout as doing so might not only compromise security, but added that the militarys operating procedures are living documents, subject to regular change and updating. The inspector general report noted comments from Guantanamos former medical commander that drugs were giving to help control serious mental illnesses, and that the practice was approved by an ethics committee.

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U.S. Injected Gitmo Detainees With 'Mind Altering' Drugs