For Immediate Release
Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Contact:    Rev. Richard Killmer, NRCAT, (202) 547-1920, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
                Alanna Sobel, NRCAT, (202) 265-3000, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

WASHINGTON – The Obama Administration must fully investigate allegations of forced medical experimentation on post-9/11 detainees in U.S. custody in the same way that President Obama pledged to uncover how American doctors intentionally infected nearly 700 Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) said today.

NRCAT believes that the report released in June by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) detailing how the Bush Administration’s “enhanced” interrogation program included illegal and unethical human subject research on detainees merits the same commitment to a full investigation as the Guatemalan case. The PHR report uncovered and documented evidence of the involvement of U.S. military and intelligence health professionals in performing medical experiments with respect to various torture techniques on post 9/11 detainees in the custody of the U.S.

"The Administration did the right thing in calling for a full and open investigation into the unethical medical experimentation on Guatemalans in the 1940s," said Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. "Now they must fully investigate the allegations of forced medical experimentation involving torture on post 9/11 detainees. Medical experimentation without consent is wrong wherever it occurs."

Through the leadership of NRCAT, twenty national faith groups have asked for the federal government to investigate the allegations contained in the PHR report. Unfortunately, both the Department of Health and Human Services and the CIA refused to look into PHR's findings on their own. Neither Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius nor any other senior Administration official offered any public comment on the matter.

The response to the Guatemalan medical experiments is also in contrast to the response of the Obama Administration to the torture practices of the U.S. government since 9/11. 

"We have to look forward, not backward," President Obama has said, yet he and his Administration know when it comes to human rights abuses like torture we cannot move forward without first learning from the past. 

Since June 2009, NRCAT has urged Congress and the President to establish a Commission of Inquiry to fully describe the scope and depth of the use of torture by the U.S., and to recommend safeguards that will ensure that U.S.-sponsored torture never happens again.

Yet the Administration refuses to create a Commission of Inquiry.

"We hope that the spirit that led to the helpful response of the Administration to the Guatemalan medical experiments moves the Administration to take the needed steps to learn from past interrogation policies and practices and put this nation on the road to assuring the permanent end to U.S.-sponsored torture," said Killmer.

NRCAT released a video Accounting for Torture: Being Faithful to our Values during the summer when PHR released its new report. In the video, religious leaders ask Congress and the President to establish a Commission of Inquiry to assure that torture never happens again.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a growing membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January 2006, more than 290 religious groups have joined NRCAT, including representatives from the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Sikh communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and local congregations.