Doctors Tortured Detainees in the War on Terror

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/doctors-were-complicit-torture-detainees



Health professionals in the military and the Central Intelligence Agency directly participated in cruel and inhuman treatment and the torture of detainees. An independent panel supported by the Open Society Foundation and the Institute on Medicine as a Profession made the findings in a comprehensive report titled, Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror.

The report found that health professionals were directed to take part in the torture of detainees after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The complicity of medical professionals in torture runs counter to accepted ethical principles and medical standards, the panel stated.

The CIA tortured prisoners captured on the battlefields of the war on terror in “black sites,” while the military tortured those at Guantanamo Bay. The report states that medical professionals working for the CIA and military partook in practices that included “ designing, participating in, and enabling torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.”

“The American public has a right to know that the covenant with its physicians to follow professional ethical expectations is firm regardless of where they serve,” said Dr. Gerald Thomson, a Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Columbia University and a member of the task force, in a statement. It’s clear that in the name of national security the military trumped that covenant, and physicians were transformed into agents of the military and performed acts that were contrary to medical ethics and practice. We have a responsibility to make sure this never happens again.”

[Fumesucker]

1. Mengele 2.0 n/t

[idwiyo]

2. +1

[secondwind]

3. i have no words

[ReRe]

5. I make a motion...

... to burn their "license to practice" at the stake. Can I get a second?

[PADemD]

9. Seconded

And send them to the Hague.

[malaise]

6. Everyone of them should lose their license

[grahamhgreen]

7. Directed from the very top.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Shocking, not surprising.

And so very, very sad.

[sulphurdunn]

10. Aside from the illegality

and inhumanity of it, I still can't figure what our intelligence agencies wanted these people to tell them, or what the point was. I would assume that any "enhanced interrogation techniques" used for information about Al Qaeda would have been inflicted upon the Saudi ruling class.

[Dustlawyer]

11. Cheney enjoyed it, that's why they did it!

[sabrina 1]

15. And Rumsfeld, who sat in on at least one 'session' it was reported at the time.

Too bad we 'moved forward' from prosecuting these monsters. At least we could have shown the world that these monstrous policies were not approved of by the general population here, that they were an aberration. We tried, on the Left, but were shouted down and told we were 'naive'.

I just hope history records that not ALL Americans were willing to look the other way but the truth is we are a shameful nation at this point until and unless we start prosecuting these criminals.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. "I still can't figure what our intelligence agencies wanted these people to tell them"

Torture is never used for intelligence gathering. It's used to obtain false confessions.

In this case, they wanted cab drivers to confess that there was a link between Iraq and 9/11.

[sabrina 1]

16. Exactly. Democrats used to care about this stuff.

In fact back in Bush years these were huge issues for the Left. Now, not so much sadly.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. The Right has tried to paint all of this as "Liberal" since Obama won....

The real problem is the Democrats just ASSUME the American Public is smart enough to see that's a pantload.

They don't realize how many CHURCHES are telling their flock this crap. Being a Right Winger is being a blind follower and defending the Lord Above.

In this case, these people DESERVE to be tortured because they're working for SATAN. (Anything that's not about Jesus is Satan worship, don'tcha know)

[uponit7771]

17. Sadistic monsters

[marmar]

13. k/r

[lonestarnot]

14. Know this and hopefully be creeped out by it.