By Steve Hynd
Prompted by a remark made by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R) of Oklahoma that alleged many of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay were obese and eating better than they ever had, the folks at Seton Hall Law started digging into detainee's medical records. Their report comes out tomorrow but Michael Ricciardelli from Seton Hall Law tells me that they have found a disturbing pattern.
Although the detainee population at Gitmo have an overall obesity rate of 16% - about half that of Inhofe's own state - their actual weights from month to month fluctuate wildly. In an email, Michael quoted two members of the Seton Hall Law team on their findings (emphasis mine):
Senior Fellow Paul W. Taylor noted, �As important as obesity is, a different and far more disturbing picture was revealed by the government medical data. There are wild fluctuations in the weight of individual detainees in very short periods of time. Even after accounting for possible recording errors, it�s not uncommon for detainees to gain in excess of 40 pounds in a month. And it�s not uncommon for detainees to lose in excess of 40 pounds in a month. In fact, these two things often happen in quick succession.�
Professor Denbeaux concluded, �The most compelling question is how can the detainees� weight swing from obese to under nourished when the medical staff is in complete control of all food intake.�
That's a very, very good question. The SetonHall Law findings suggest, to me, that food intake is being used as a lever - so that by giving detainees periods of an abundance of food followed by periods of starvation the staff at Gitmo are creating deliberate psychological stress as an "enhanced interrogation" technique. I wonder what the Red Cross will say that is? In 1942, Gestapo chief Heinrich Mueller authorized starvation as one of his infamous "sharpened interrogation" techniques.
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