In his memoir James claims to have had special responsibility for juveniles detained at Guantanamo. Yet, during his deployment there, young Mohammed Jawad [evidently between 12 and 16 when incarcerated there] was subjected to the mandatory four weeks isolation upon his arrival in February 2003. Later that year Jawad was subjected to further isolation and other abuse on the recommendation of a BSCT psychologist; James declined to condemn this abuse to a Newsweek reporter, implying that there were extenuating circumstances. Later, in May 2004, Jawad was also subjected to extended sleep deprivation in the so-called "frequent flyer program" in which, in the words of his military JAG attorney:
"Mohammad Jawad's arms and legs were " shackled in preparation for the first of 112 moves up and down the hall of L Block, every 3 hours for the next 14 days."
Also while James was deployed at Guantanamo, adolescent Omar Khadr reported being used as a human mop "because he had urinated on himself during a bout of shackled isolation." The claim was investigated by the military, which has refused to release any information regarding the investigation. Records released by the Canadian government show that Khadr, like Jawad, was subjected to the "frequent flyer" sleep deprivation program in 2004. Despite his professed concern for the decent treatment of juvenile detainees, other than his Newsweek comment, James nowhere describes his relationship to the Jawad or Khadr cases or comments on the documented abuse these young boys suffered at Guantanamo during and after his deployment.
Does James believe that no investigation of his actions at Guantanamo is warranted as his actions there "were deemed legal and acceptable by that sitting administration"? In other words, was he just following orders?
Due to the secrecy surrounding Guantanamo, we do not know James's actual conduct at Guantanamo. With his call to stop investigations of detainee abuses, James seems to desire that we never know. If he is innocent of participation in abuses, only an investigation will clear his name. If, however, he did participate in abuses, no defense that "at the time of the interrogations they were deemed legal and acceptable by that sitting administration" should be allowed to obscure the truth, and no claims of damage to the morale of the intelligence community should be allowed to impede an investigation and appropriate criminal and/or professional penalties.
Only the full truth can allow the abused detainees, the nation, and the profession of psychology, to "turn the page and move on." In the absence of the truth we will be forever looking over our shoulders, wondering just who did what and what did happen during this sorry chapter in our nation's recent history.
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