The Drugging of Detainees for Interrogation

Summary - EXCLUSIVE: Department of Defense Declassifies Report on Alleged Drugging of Detainees by Jeffrey Kaye & Jason Leopold at Truthout.org Wed., July 11, 2012

1. Detainees in custody of the US military were interrogated while drugged with powerful antipsychotic and other medications that "could impair an individual's ability to provide accurate information." I would add that for those detainees in current habeas proceedings, the burden lies on them to prove that their statements made under the influence of drugs were not accurate.

2. Some detainees were subjected to "chemical restraints." DoD also admits to use of forced injections on some detainees, ostensibly for mental health purposes.

3.  In what the Inspector General called a "deliberate ruse" by interrogators, Jose Padilla was the subject of a "deliberate ruse" in which his interrogator led him to believe he was given an injection of "truth serum." Other detainees and DoD made similar charges.

4. The Behavioral Science Consultation Teams, which aided interrogators at Guantanamo and other DoD sites, kept a separate "restricted" medical database on detainees. These records were not referenced in the IG investigation.


5. DoD says it cannot substantiate any of the allegations by current and former detainees that, as a matter of government policy, they were given mind-altering drugs "to facilitate interrogation." However, the IG only interviewed two detainees, and none of the released detainees who have claimed to have been drugged.

6. A former Guantanamo guard reports, ""The medics walked around with little white cups that had pills in it a couple of times a day," and if detainees would not take the medications, Immediate Reaction Force teams would administer the drugs by force.

7. The former Interrogation Control Element (ICE) Chief at Guantanamo proposed to Donald Rumsfeld's Working Group on interrogations that "truth drugs" be used on detainees for their "effectiveness," having heard rumors another government agency was already using them.