Did physicians and psychologists help the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency develop a new research protocol to assess and refine the use of waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques?
This is the question being raised in a new report by a leading human rights organization. The group says that, if confirmed, it would likely constitute a “new, previously unknown category of ethical violations committed by CIA physicians and psychologists.”
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) charges that “The extent to which American physicians and psychologists violated human rights and betrayed the ethical standards of their professions by designing, implementing, and legitimizing a worldwide torture program is greater than previously known.”
A team of PHR doctors authored the new white paper, Aiding Torture: Health Professionals’ Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the May 2004 Inspector General’s Report. The report details how the CIA relied on medical expertise to rationalize and carry out abusive and unlawful interrogations. It also refers to aggregate collection of data on detainees’ reaction to interrogation methods.
“PHR is concerned that this data collection and analysis may amount to human experimentation,” the report says.
“Medical doctors and psychologists colluded with the CIA to keep observational records about waterboarding, which approaches unethical and unlawful human experimentation,” says PHR Medical Advisor and lead report author Scott Allen, MD.
For example, the report says, “Interrogators would place a cloth over a detainee’s face to block breathing and induce feelings of fear, helplessness, and a loss of control. A doctor would stand by to monitor and calibrate this physically and psychologically harmful act, which amounts to torture. It is profoundly unsettling to learn of the central role of health professionals in laying a foundation for US government lawyers to rationalize the CIA’s illegal torture program.”
Frank Donaghue, PHR’s Chief Executive Officer, told us, “Health professionals violated ethical duties by participating in the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody. PHR has long demanded a full investigation into the role health professionals played in detainee treatment. PHR again calls upon health professional associations to support a non-partisan commission of inquiry.”
“It is time for the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and others to demand a nonpartisan commission to investigate these crimes,” he said. “The associations must sanction any of their membership found to have violated their professional ethics.”
These and other professional organizations have condemned participation by their members in detainee interrogations.
The Inspector General’s report documents some practices — previously unknown or unconfirmed — that were used to bring about excruciating pain, terror, humiliation, and shame for months on end.
These practices included: Mock executions; brandishing guns and power drills; threats to sexually assault family members and murder children; walling” – repeatedly slamming an unresponsive detainee’s head against a cell wall; and confinement in a box.
“These unlawful, unethical, and ineffective interrogation tactics cause significant bodily and mental harm,” said co-author and PHR Senior Medical Advisor Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD. “The CIA Inspector General’s report confirms that torture escalates in severity and torturers frequently go beyond approved techniques.”
“The required presence of health professionals did not make interrogation methods safer, but sanitized their use, escalated abuse, and placed doctors and psychologists in the untenable position of calibrating harm rather than serving as protectors and healers. The fact that psychologists went beyond monitoring, and actually designed and implemented these abuses – while simultaneously serving as ‘safety monitors’ – reveals the ethical bankruptcy of the entire program,” said co-author Steven Reisner, PhD, PHR’s Psychological Ethics Advisor.
“That health professionals who swear to oaths of healing so abused the sacred trust society places in us by instigating, legitimizing and participating in torture, is an abomination,” states co-author Allen Keller, MD, Director of the Bellevue Medical Center/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture.
“Health professionals who aided torture must be held accountable by professional associations, by state licensing boards, and by society. Accountability is essential to maintain trust in our professions and to end torture, which scars bodies and minds, leaving survivors to endure debilitating injuries, humiliating memories and haunting nightmares,” Keller said.
PHR has called for full investigation and remedies, including accountability for war crimes, and reparation, such as compensation, medical care and psycho-social services. PHR also calls for health professionals who have violated ethical standards or the law to be held accountable through criminal prosecution, loss of license and loss of professional society membership where appropriate.
The report by the CIA’s now-retired Inspector General, John Helgerson, was prepared in 2004. In response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a heavily redacted version of the report was released earlier. But because many pages of it were totally blacked out and unreadable, the ACLU asked a federal judge to order the CIA to release a less-redacted version. That version, with some sections still blacked out, was released last month.
Its publication sparked a firestorm of controversy, with key figures such as former vice-president Dick Cheney defending the CIA’s interrogation practices and accusing the Obama Administration of aiding terrorists by making the report public. It has reportedly also resulted in heated arguments between Attorney General Eric Holder and Leon Panetta, head of the CIA. Both are recent Obama appointments.
Holder has since appointed a special prosecutor to conduct a preliminary investigation to determine whether criminal charges should be pursued against CIA operatives who exceeded the guidelines provided to them by lawyers in the Justice Department during the administration of former President George W. Bush.
The CIA’s interrogation methods were declared legal by the Justice Department under President Bush. Recently released memoranda asserting their legality have been attacked by many legal scholars and human rights advocates.
I am the SINGLE PAYER , Victime of the conspiration. Tortured to death , now shortened of life if I don’t get a medical care immediately . I am an Iranian young lady , I was born in 1962 , didn’t have any health issue at all , could do sport for several hours , I have only an Iranian paasport , my permanent residence have always been in Iran . I was caught in the middle of the night in my house in Tehran when I was sleeping by shocks of electric origin in Feb. 2010 , it was the beginning. I started hearing an active speech which sometimes is telling me they call irt a research , I haven’t sign anything , though . Nobody does . even my mother of 85 years old and my brother affected by Down syndrom were exposed and are suffering . I have a M.D degree , have participated in a few Harvard Medical School Dubai center conferences ( the last one was the Intensive care and Emergency Medicine held on 31 Oct-1 Nov 2008,) .I can give the concerned Human rights group a thorough explanation which proves without help of Medical professional and psychologists it would be impossible to torture and to damage a body . I haven’t sign anything . This is not a research . It has to be stopped , even my family such as my 85 years old mother and my lovely brother affected by Down syndrom were under attack . we live in Iran . for me it still continues in UAE, too.I need the best appropriate medical care , immediately in a safe enviroment .I
I am the single payer at Harvard medical school cDubai center confereces , the last one I participated was the Critical Care and Emergency Medicine held on 31Oct-1Nov. I am a young Iranian lady , was born in 1962 , I had no health issue before , could do sport for several hours , good appearance . It all started in Feb. 2010 while I was sleeping in my house , I was awaken in the middle of night by vibrations of electrical origin and so on…it continued harshly , I was defenseless. Now I have several injeries . I was tortured to death for no reason at all . I am an innocent ordinary civilian . The conspiracy is huge . my mother of 85 years old and my be loved brother affected by Down Syndrom were exposed too. I can give the concerned Human Rights group a thorough explanation of what I have gone through to show that without the help of Medical professionals and Psychologist the tortures I went through is impossible.I need real appropriate immediate medical care for me and my family in the best medical center in the world in a safe , peaceful enviroment and protection. There was no research at all , i didn’t know anything about it . it is a murder plan.
Listing of the events:
1/ November 2009 :Thrombovar injection suggested by vascular surgeon to treat superficial variceal veins in my legs for esthetic reasons, the surgeon made inappropriate injections in dorsalis pedis veines which were normal . My normal vasculature is somehow tortuous without being variceal it has made my left foot ischemic . there was another inappropriate injection in the left ant ankle which lead to thrombophlebitis , before the injection the surgeon said , ‘Kourosh sleep calmly we are awake’ seemed to be referring to previous imperial regime.
2/ I had phone calls inviting me to conferences in Dubai which is not a normal procedure for a simple participant , it might have been protective but it was too indirect , so there was something wrong , I went to visit a Nanotechnology public exhibition instead in Tehran just in the area I live .
3 / A few days later I was affected by a very atypical Flu , upper airways , mild fever , extremely bad general conditions for 2 days so bad that I couldn’t sleep and felt about to death , heavy coughs , headache specially in occipital area. I got better but the cough remained for 1-2 months . I asked whether I had to be tested for H1N1or bird flu , although I felt good was it important epidemiologically . Well only patients who needed to be hospitalized went through the test . So I wasn’t tested. Further on when i started to have eye , ear problems I asked the ministry of health whether it could be a long term complication of a meningoencephalitis related to swine flu , the answer was no , we haven’t had any report . I asked an internist practicing in the same area as I live , he said it was kind of endemia but the ones who had the opprtunity to be tested for swine flu , the result was negative.
Before this Flu , I saw kind of dust inside my house at night , repeated several days sometimes of a yellowish color.
4 / Gynecologic check up in around December 2009,was said to be normal , but I felt my gynecologist felt sorry first , then he suggested me to go for a HRT as I didn’t have any clinical symptoms of menopause and the BMD was good compared to Iranian ladies standard and we have discussed the issue before ; I didn’t need HRT , I was surprised he talked about it again .Test, sonography was normal just a myoma which was there before.
5 / Last week ( Aug 2010) in Dubai , I felt vibrations of high intensity specifically in the left part of my body abdomino-pelvic region. Did it originated from the myoma? Is there anything inside , I don’t know .
6 / About 2-3 weeks later after the check-up in Tehran ,I did a routine lab test check up , I wasn’t NPO enough for FBS& Lipid profile , this is a laboratory i always use , the second time to test my blood sugar and lipid profile , so I went to the lab for a second time but this time I was a little tbit oo much respected , they called my name and title with loud voice , it was respectful not too inappropriate but I felt there was something .
7 / There was a vaccination program for Swine Flu sent by French embassy for French citizens in a hospital in Tehran. After work the nurses showed me 3 big syringes offering them for me and my family’s vaccination . I was thinking I might have been already exposed as I was not tested so I couldn’t go for the vaccine. WHERE THEY REALLY THE VACCINE ? There was a call to my driver when I was on my way to the hospital to be reassured I would be there , it was strange . But there was kind of fear when the 2 surgeon talked , they discretely discouraged me .There was something.
8 / Once I heard in my house a soft shy voice telling me ‘ telling me you hve a medical condition’ I was surprised because I was feeling good. it was in January 2010.
9 / I started to receive one after another anounces about exciting conferences related to innovations such as stem cell and technology related fields such as laser. I participated in the stem cell conference the 21st Jan and in laser conference the 28 th . In laser conference I saw someone I haven’t seen for years , then there were 2 other authorities , they were frightened but didn’t say anything to me.I felt a young lady doctor with a position in laser department said this woman (me) is too tired now . I didn’t know her at all and I wasn’t tired at all .She had the first name of my elder sister ( the speech either fakes the name or try to use similar names of people who might have done this to me to pretend that my entourage are doing this to me , CONFUSION technique , lack of information which is a torture , too and can damage my personal relationships )
TORTURE:
10/ one week after the laser conference , almost at the same time when the Iranian Satellite was launched ( may be true , may be set-up to show it as an internal problem or pre-arranged ..pretending it was a technical problem or …I really can not know ) In the middle of the night , while I was sleeping in my house , I was awakend by vibrations specially in the head & neck area and I felt dangerous elecrical field around me . I changed my room it continued, the potential was there . It was repeated several nights and once I felt something of electromagnetic nature was pushed inside , under the influence of the currents ,from the left part of my neck into the middle part of my cBrain.
After the first nights I found the number of an emergency physician on the internet in U.S , thinking that they are back in . He was in Harvard Medical school Dubai center conference in end Oct..He was out of states.
11/ The active speech after the vibrations became permanent , I was hearing in two levels , I called it acoustic dissociation for audiologist and hyperacusia for physicians .
12/ I couldn’t sleep nowhere in my house changing my room , bed , sofa , on the earth, the threat was everywhere
13/ after a while I felt vibrations all around my body ,then kind of radiations , my general conditions worsened , I e-mailed two distinguish French speaking professor in EUROPE . One of them was a professor in Radiotherapy and a lady specialist in Nuclear Medicine , they recommended me to do the tests . I tried . But a sthee were emergencies everyday and the disease changed everytime alongside with harasening speech I couldn’t follow a continuous regular medical diagnostic procedure.
It is a long list , to be continued.