[Ppnews] A Nightmare World of Torture and Prison Guard Suicides

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/

February 26, 2008


A CounterPunch Exclusive


A Nightmare World of Torture and Prison Guard Suicides


Confessions of a Gitmo Guard

By DEBBIE NATHAN

A psychiatrist who has treated former military 
personnel at Guantánamo prison camp is telling a 
story of prisoner torture and guard suicide 
there, recounted to him by a National Guardsman 
who worked at Guantánamo just after it opened.

Dr. John R. Smith, 75, is a Oklahoma City 
psychiatrist who has done worked at military 
posts during the past few years. He is also a 
consultant for the University of Oklahoma's 
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Services, 
and is affiliated with the Veteran's Affairs 
Administration Hospital in Oklahoma City. The 
court-appointed psychiatric examination of 
Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Murrah Federal 
Building in 1995, was conducted by Smith. A few 
years ago, he became a contract physician, 
treating active duty members of the US military in need of psychotherapy.

Smith spoke on February 22, 2008, at the annual 
meeting of the American Academy of Forensic 
Sciences, held in Washington DC. His presentation 
dealt with the psychological impact on guards of 
working at Guantánamo . He focused on a chilling 
case history, of a patient he called "Mr. H."
.
Smith described Mr. H as a blue-collar Latino in 
his 40s who had done routine service in the 
National Guard for years before being called up 
to Kuwait. Then, shortly after 9/11, he was 
diverted from Kuwait to Guantánamo . The 
detention camp had just opened. Mr. H was deployed there to work as a guard.

Untrained for the job, Mr. H was taken aback by 
the detainees. They threw feces and urine on him, 
said Smith, and tried to get him to sneak letters 
out, telling him that if he didn't, "they would 
see to it that his family suffered the 
consequences." The prisoners also mocked Mr. H, 
that his being in the military made him "a 
traitor" to Latinos and other minorities. Mr. H was confused and terrified.

Meanwhile, according to Smith, "this good 
Catholic man with a family who had pretty much 
always followed the rules" was called on to 
participate in torture. One of his jobs was "to 
take detainees to certain places and see that 
they were handcuffed in difficult positions, 
usually naked, in anticipation of interrogation." 
Mr. H often watched the questioning. He saw 
prisoners pushed until they fell down, then cut. 
They responded to the torture with "defecation, 
vomiting, urinating," and "psychotic reactions: bizarre screaming and crying."

Smith noted that Mr. H said he was "required to 
handcuff and push to the ground detainees who 
were naked." The prisoners were also made to 
"remain on sharp stones on their knees." 
Detainees, Mr. H told Smith, would try to avoid 
interrogation by rubbing their knees until they 
bled in order be taken to the prison hospital.

According to Smith, Mr. H's comment about these 
events "was poignant and simple: 'It was wrong 
what we did.'" While still at Guantánamo , he 
responded to being a participant in torture "with 
guilt, crying and tears. But of course it was 
forbidden to talk with anyone about what he was 
experiencing." He "became more and more 
depressed." Apparently, so did other military 
personnel. Smith said Mr. H told him that in the 
first month he was at Guantánamo , two guards committed suicide.

Smith said that by the time he saw Mr. H, he "had 
become very ill. He was suicidal, terribly 
depressed, anxious," and "riddled with insomnia 
and horrible dreams and flashbacks." He had 
already seen two military therapists and not 
improved. But those therapists "were active duty 
and he didn't dare tell them" what had happened 
at Guantánamo . Smith was not active duty, and 
after two or three sessions Mr. H opened up. With 
medication and psychotherapy, he became less 
suicidal but was still too sick to do any more military service.

Three years later after treating Mr. H, Smith got 
three new patients who were guards at Guantánamo 
on later tours. They said conditions were much 
improved --"they loved it at Guantánamo and went 
swimming in the Caribbean." Still, one guard was 
having problems directly related to his work 
there. He "described having to cut down a 
detainee" who tried to hang himself after chewing 
through an artery in his own arm. There was blood 
everywhere. When the guard left Guantánamo , he 
was suffering from "anxiety attacks, panic attacks."

Smith said his presentation at the American 
Academy of Forensic Sciences meeting was the 
first time he'd ever spoken publicly about his 
Guantánamo patients. He decided to talk, he said, 
because he is concerned that veterans are 
generally ineligible for PTSD (post-traumatic 
stress disorder) disability benefits if the 
condition is not caused by combat. He considers 
the guards of Guantánamo "an overlooked group of 
victims." But in making that case, Smith stepped 
into a unique role. Heretofore, almost all 
accounts of torture at Guantánamo have come from 
non-governmental human rights groups or detainees 
and their defense lawyers. The FBI accounts in 
2004 were contradictory. Smith, a prestigious 
physician, relayed accounts from inside the military.

Debbie Nathan is a New York City-based journalist 
who writes frequently for CounterPunch. She can 
be reached at <mailto:naess2 at gmail.com>naess2 at gmail.com




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