The report said that medical professionals were used to advise interrogators on how to exploit detainee vulnerabilities, even as they were required to be present in order to protect detainees from severe harm. And the report said that even today reporting requirements for health professionals who witness abuse are unclear.
CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said the report "contains serious inaccuracies and erroneous conclusions," adding that the CIA has no detainees in custody and that the interrogation program was ended by President Barack Obama in 2009. He said the CIA's medical staff upholds "the highest standards of their profession in the work they perform,"
The ongoing debate over force-feeding hunger strikers, particularly at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was also targeted in the report. The task force said that force-feeding and the use of restraints should be prohibited and that health professionals should be trained in how to ethically handle hunger strikes.
Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman, said the allegations in the report involving military doctors have been subject to a number of investigations over the years and have never been substantiated. He also said the force-feeding of detainees is legal and "medically sound," and is largely the same as procedures used in U.S. prisons and nursing homes.
Currently there are 14 detainees at Guantanamo who are refusing to eat and on the list for force-feeding, although some may drink supplements and don't always have to go through the process. The men are protesting their indefinite detention.
U.S. courts have so far rejected challenges to the force-feeding at Guantanamo, with officials arguing that without the feeding the detainees would die.