GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A Navy commander has chosen not to
court-martial a nurse who refused to conduct forced feedings of hunger
strikers this summer and has instead asked a board to determine whether
the nurse should be allowed to stay in the U.S. Navy.
The
nurse, a Navy lieutenant whose name has never been made public,
reportedly turned conscientious objector before the Fourth of July after
handling months of nasogastric feedings of prisoners shackled to a
restraint chair.
He has insufficient years in
service as an officer to qualify for retirement. At issue is whether
what he did should end his Navy career.
“I can
tell you right now that, after reviewing the investigation that was
conducted, in Guantanamo, I recommended that the officer be required to
show cause for retention in the Navy. I chose not to do the
court-martial route,” his commander, Navy Capt. Maureen Pennington, said
Monday from Newport, R.I.
Pennington is
commanding officer of the Naval Health Clinic New England, which has
more than 100 nurses working in a series of facilities in the region,
including the man who made headlines by refusing to participate in the
forced feedings.
Here, the prison has 139 Navy
doctors, nurses and corpsmen assigned to care for Guantanamo’s 149
detainees - a staff that was increased more than a year ago in response
to the prison’s long-running hunger strike.
The
administrative review, also known as a Board of Inquiry, keeps the
circumstances of that episode secret. A military trial could have put a
very public spotlight on both Guantanamo’s hunger strike policy and how
the military manages medical-ethics issues.
“It’s
kind of out of my hands now; ultimately the Secretary of the Navy will
have the final say on this,” said Pennington. The review, which could
last about nine months, entitles the nurse to get an attorney and call
witnesses to a closed hearing to argue why he should be allowed to
remain in the service.
So far, the only
description of how the refusal occurred has come from an attorney for a
detainee who said the nurse willingly took part in the process for
several months but became disenchanted.
The prison spokesman confirmed there had been a refusal but gave no details.
One
question the board might have to tackle is whether a medical
professional should lose his or her career for disagreeing with
Guantanamo’s hunger strike policy. Retired Army Brig. Gen. Stephen
Xenakis, a psychiatrist, has said that private talks with the Pentagon’s
medical leadership had produced promises that there would be no
consequence for refusal - just like military doctors in the past could
decline to conduct abortions for personal ethical reasons.
Last
summer, as the hunger strike drew participation by more than 100
detainees, Xenakis, in testimony at the U.S. Senate, called Guantanamo
forced feedings “cruel and degrading” and a violation of medical ethics.
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