THE RULE OF LAW ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Stephen N. Xenakis
Psychiatrist; Brigadier General, U.S. Army, Retired

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An interview of Stephen N. Xenakis conducted January 22 and March 12, 2013 by Ghislaine Boulanger for the Columbia Center for Oral History, Rule of Law Oral History Project.

It was only when Stephen Xenakis interviewed for the position of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health in 2004 that he discovered the extent to which physicians, psychologists, and other medical staff were being used in the Bush administration’s interrogations of terror suspects. General Xenakis went on to be a leading voice in Physicians for Human Rights' anti-torture campaigns and other protests against the use of medical personnel in military interrogations. Highlights of this interview include discussions of General Xenakis’s visits to Guantánamo Bay, his experiences as the psychiatrist expert witness and physician for Guantánamo detainee Omar Khadr, the role of clinicians and military officers in detainee trials, the 2013 Guantánamo hunger strike, inadequate and ignored medical care at Guantánamo, and detainment as a means of radicalization.

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