Study: CIA doctors 'gave green light to torture'

Study: CIA doctors 'gave green light to torture'

rawstory.com

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that physicians with the CIA's Office of Medical Services (OMS) played an even greater role in facilitating the torture of detainees than was previously recognized...

This advisory function came in addition to the physicians' previous involvement in the torture of detainees through performing medical evaluations before and after interrogation, monitoring waterboarding sessions, and collecting information on the effectivene

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This is very disturbing news, though only tells us what many of us assumed anyway. With this new information, I hope that we can prosecute some of these doctors, though I'm certainly not going to hold my breath. If anything, I think they should at least lose their license to practise, however if recent history has tought us anything, they will only be rewarded with promotions or medals instead.

This truly is sickening, seeing how all doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, a histoical pledge to practice medicine ethically.

The Hippocratic Oath:

"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given to me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help."

--airspoon

rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 5-8-2010 by airspoon]

CIA

Cheat
Ignore
Attack

reply to post by airspoon


I hope those doctors rot - they went completely against what doctors are suppose to do!

Google Video Link

If we are going to be the new Nazi's dont you think we should get some cooler uniforms?

I mean, I have given up hoping the American people will realize its WRONG to torture people, attack countries for nothing and in violation of the worlds rules of war, randomly slaughter innocent men women and children, etc., etc., etc.

We just really dont care, as a people. For any of you who wonder how the German people could have just stood by and allowed Hitler and the Nazis to do what they did, look no further than the mirror.

But all that aside, the Nazi's were some evil bastards, but they were totally working the style thing. We are just evil, with no flair. If we are going to be the dark side, I just think we could try harder to look the part.

airspoon, is this confirming what was rumored a few years ago? Or simply more information about it? I seem to remember this story. I believe they said the doctors were there to make sure the tortured didn't die

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


lol - don't even jest about such things...


In all seriousness though - sure we know this, now what?! What are the repercussions going to be for this?


Bush should be in jail/gaol for war crimes!

damn you, but thanx.

this is the type of news that is convincing me i may just go live in a wilderness cave.

reply to post by rubbertramp

I think we're going to need a lot of caves.

Here's a related story from 2007...(Re)Call the Doctor: Physicians Involved in CIA Interrogations?

reply to post by ~Lucidity


once again,
damn you too, but thanx.

oh boo hoo for the poor terrorist devils that got water boarded. While these sick islamic punks are cutting heads off on U tube, we get mad if we through water on there faces. I dont think we have done enough maybe the best way to shut down gitmo would be to bring in a film crew with a hatchet and show those devils that we mean business.

Hmm white collars approving the atrocity for the sake of progress, truth & greater good...

*Thinking out loud* where did i see this again, hmm i'm sure i...

reply to post by humbleseeker

Wow...how many heads being cut off have you seen on YouTube?

Just wondering about that very strong reaction is all. It seems to have effected you very deeply.

If I'm not mistaken, one round of head cutting off happened as a direct result of the news of us torturing leaked out. Anyone else remember that? Point being...there are codes that govern this, and they were violated. And the codes are in place for some very good reasons.

so THAT is the oath all doctors take? I daresay two thirds of the doctors I have seen in my lifetime forgot it as soon as they got their credentials framed. The good docs really do live up to that oath, though.

I'm very ashamed to say at one time I was ok with torturing the terrorists. I can't even tell you what my frame of mind was then. I was definitely a Hannitized Sheeple in those days. I do believe it's something I will hear about when I meet my maker someday. I think my awakening started sometime around the time I visited the Holocaust museum in Washington DC. That is a visit I don't want to repeat. It was profound.

These days when my knee-jerk reaction is to want to just get rid of the Muslims or the illegals or the enemy du jour, when I get mad over some anecdote or even a personal situation, I pinch myself and remind myself of just two words that echoed through that museum: never again.

Oh and for the people who bash the Jews and say they only whine about themselves and don't acknowledge the suffering of non Jews at the hands of Nazis, that is not true. The museum embraces all the victims in its many displays.

reply to post by humbleseeker

hmmm

maybe you should join the war? That will get that rage out!

reply to post by humbleseeker
EDIT: "sound" at end of post should be "spend". Autocomplete has shredded yet another sentence on me and lack of scroll capability prevents a proper edit, sorry.

Humbleseeker don't you see it's not just about water boarding a bunch of savages. Don't you see it turns us into them? I have read interviews with some of the people involved in carrying out those "interrogations". Some seem okay with it but others come away from it clearly disturbed in their soul. I come away disturbed in MY soul for having this done in my name and with my tax money and by representation I voted in...at one time. Caring about the terrorists is ancillary. I care about turning into evil by proxy in condoning this. Also not that anyone would applaud me on this but I'm a Christian. It is hypocrisy to say I follow the teachings of Jesus and condone this being done to my enemy. But that's just me. I don't know what faith system you follow, if any, so I refer you back to simple human ethics.

What information does this torture really yield and is it even accurate? Can it not be gotten other ways that don't compromise the higher moral and ethical position we tell the rest of the world we come from? We sound billions on intelligence and you mean to tell me we have to resort to torture to get the intel we want?

[edit on 5-8-2010 by SheeplFlavoredAgain]

i found this during a google. more involved that the 'raw story' link. lots of links inside.

link to harpers article.

More on the CIA’s Torture Doctors By Scott Horton The current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association carries an important new study (sub only) by Len Rubenstein and Brigadier General Stephen Xenakis, probing more deeply into the role that physicians working for the CIA played in torturing and abusing prisoners. The evidence that CIA doctors were engaged in the torture process was marshaled in a prior report by Physicians for Human Rights. Evidence subsequently emerged suggesting that they had criminally experimented on human subjects, as they sought to calibrate torture sessions to the guidelines established by Jay Bybee, John Yoo, and Stephen Bradbury–guidelines since rescinded and acknowledged by the Justice Department to constitute torture practices. But Rubenstein and Xenakis focus on a document released (PDF) by the Obama Administration, which shows that the CIA’s Office of Medical Services (“OMS”) provided guidance that facilitated torture and mistreatment.

reply to post by humbleseeker


Yeah, it would be all fine and dandy (though not IMO) if we new the parties tortured were actually guilty of terrorism. In fact, our government wants us to trust them about 9/11 without giving us any evidence of their guilt so I'm not even so sure that those pinned are really guilty of terrorism at all.

Furthermore, there has already been numerous occasions where innocent people were thrown into the dingeon, to even include children. Now, it's hard for me to believe that every Afghani who picks up a rifle in defense of his own homeland is a terrorist. Would you not do the same if some foreign government invaded your country on the basis of something for which they ask you to "trust them"?

--airspoon

reply to post by SheeplFlavoredAgain

So true. My dad told a story of how they got information out of captured German officers during WWII by playing chess and cards with them. Oh and drinking with them. I've since seen this very thing written about. I believe at the height of the torture scandal. They got more information that way than they ever would have by torturing. People will say anything to get torture to stop.

(He also later, at the beginning of the cold war, did a similar thing at the southern Soviet border, by sneaking across to drink with them, but that was more of the spying thing.)