CIA rectal torture in Guantánamo Bay condemned by doctor

Mr. Nashiri claimed that in 2013, he was subjected to 'rectal feeding' and sodomized with a broom handle by prison staff.

DEMONSTRATORS IN prison jumpsuits and black hoods call for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in a protest near the White House in January.  (photo credit: MIKE THEILER/REUTERS)
DEMONSTRATORS IN prison jumpsuits and black hoods call for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in a protest near the White House in January.
(photo credit: MIKE THEILER/REUTERS)

Dr. Sondra S. Crosby appeared in court to condemn the ‘rectal feeding’ torture method used by the United State’s CIA in Guantanamo Bay.  

Crosby appeared in court for the trial of Abd Al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is accused of participating in the planning of the bombing of the USS Cole. His lawyers are claiming that any confessions he made were under the duress of torture. 

The bombing of the USS Cole by al-Qaeda is an attack that took the lives of 17 US sailors in October 2000.

Mr. Nashiri claims that in 2013, prison staff used ‘rectal feeding’ to torture him. Dr Crosby testified that “he experienced it as a violent rape, sexual assault” and that the experience “was a very, very distressing painful, shameful stigmatizing event” according to The New York Times.

Mr. Nashiri also claims that he had been sodomized by the end of a broom by prison staff. 

The exterior of Camp Delta is seen at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, March 6, 2013. The facility is operated by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo and holds prisoners who have been captured in the war in Afghanistan and elsewhere since the September 11, 2001 attacks.  (credit: REUTERS)
The exterior of Camp Delta is seen at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, March 6, 2013. The facility is operated by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo and holds prisoners who have been captured in the war in Afghanistan and elsewhere since the September 11, 2001 attacks. (credit: REUTERS)

Rectal feeding  

Crosby explained that rectal feeding is a method in which CIA prison staff would take a tube, designed to be placed in the windpipe, and place it in a prisoner’s anus. Then, the staff would use a syringe to inject a nutritional shake into the anus. In Mr. Nashiri’s case, Crosby claims that the tube was left in for an additional 30 minutes. 

At the time, the CIA defended rectal feeding as a ‘medical procedure’, according to the Times.

However, Physicians for Human Rights condemned the practice as “sexual assault masquerading as medical treatment.” The group of medical practitioners said that there are oral and intravenous alternatives, which is why rectal feeding is not used in a medical context.

Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo Bay is an American overseas prison based in Cuba. 


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In 2014, the Obama administration released a 500-page document that detailed some of the CIA’s ‘black site’ program.  The document confirms that rectal feeding is a method of torture used by prison staff.  

Human Rights Watch claims that 780 men have been secretly detained in the prison since 2002 and at least 39 of those men were tortured. The organization also claims that 39 men are still being detained at this prison, and 27 of them have not received any criminal charges.  

“Around the world, Guantánamo remains one of the most enduring symbols of the injustice, abuse, and disregard for the rule of law that the US unleashed in response to the 9/11 attacks,” said Letta Tayler, an associate Crisis and Conflict director at Human Rights Watch.

The United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner reported that “In 2003, the facility was holding 700 prisoners. Twenty years later, 39 detainees remain but only nine of them have been charged with or convicted of crimes, 13 have been cleared for transfer. Between 2002 and 2021 nine detainees died in custody, two from natural causes and seven reportedly committed suicide. None had been charged or convicted of a crime.”