Doctors, Psychologists and Psychiatrists as Torturers in Bush’s “War on Terror”
Andy Worthington: New Report Condemns Role of Doctors, Psychologists and Psychiatrists as Torturers in Bush’s “War on Terror” ■ The report was published on November 5, and, as a press release explained, the task force of experts “charged that US military and intelligence agencies directed doctors and psychologists working in US military detention centers to violate standard ethical principles and medical standards to avoid infliction of harm.” Particular criticism was directed at the CIA’s Office of Medical Services, who, as the task force explained, “played a critical role in reviewing and approving forms of torture, including waterboarding, as well as in advising the Department of Justice that ‘enhanced interrogation’ methods, such as extended sleep deprivation and waterboarding that are recognized as forms of torture, were medically acceptable.” The task force added, importantly, that CIA medical personnel “were present during [the] administration of waterboarding,” which is true, but the even more alarming fact is that all the torture and abuse that was so widespread in the “war on terror” needed medical personnel to be present to make sure — or to try and make sure — that no one died.