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Red Cross: Med Workers Complicit in Gitmo Torture

Professionals told CIA interrogators to stop, go

By Gabriel Winant,  Newser User

Posted Apr 7, 2009 7:31 AM CDT
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(Newser) – The Red Cross is accusing medical personnel of deep involvement in CIA torture at Guantanamo, calling it “a gross breach of medical ethics,” the New York Times reports. Medical professionals monitored procedures such as waterboarding, telling interrogators to “continue, to adjust, or stop particular methods,” finds a Red Cross report. The document, obtained and examined by Mark Danner in the New York Review of Books, claims that medical professionals “condoned and participated in ill treatment.”

A CIA spokesman wouldn’t comment on the report, but said that President Obama has banned all interrogation techniques not sanctioned by the Army Field Manual, and that Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, is enforcing that order. Panetta has also made clear, however, that no one will be investigated for interrogations during the Bush administration.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, top, and Walid bin Attash, center in this courtroom drawing, say that medical professionals were present while they were tortured.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, top, and Walid bin Attash, center in this courtroom drawing, say that medical professionals were present while they were tortured.   (AP Photo/Janet Hamlin, Pool)
In this image reviewed by the US military, a Guantanamo detainee sleeps on a mattress on the floor of his cell, at Camp 5 detention facility, at the US Naval Base, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In this image reviewed by the US military, a Guantanamo detainee sleeps on a mattress on the floor of his cell, at Camp 5 detention facility, at the US Naval Base, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.   (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
CIA Director Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden testifies, Feb. 5, 2008. The Senate has joined the House in voting to prohibit the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods.
CIA Director Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden testifies, Feb. 5, 2008. The Senate has joined the House in voting to prohibit the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods.   (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
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A disturbing confirmation of our worst fears about medical professionals’ involvement in directing and modulating cruel treatment and torture. - M. Gregg Bloche, Georgetown Law Professor

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 5 comments
sailor86
Apr 7, 2009 5:27 AM CDT
I smell the faint odor of hypocrisy going on here. And yes, it's coming from us. Oh yeah we're so big on nailing other naions about "human rights" but we all but officially have a major skeleton in the closet. I know the right's gonna say,"but terrorists aren't human." If you don't see the flawed logic of that, then I doubt you got past 3rd grade.
Mad
Apr 7, 2009 4:21 AM CDT
Let me ask this... how do you know the information you get is genuine? At what point do you decide you got the 'real' truth? Do you just keep torturing one individual after another till you find THE guy with THE info? Are our intelligence agencies incapable of collecting information otherwise? Wouldn't you say anything to get someone to stop trying to kill you? Have you any humanity? Doesn't being American mean anything to you?
myvoice
Apr 7, 2009 3:15 AM CDT
Let me ask this...if torturing one person to get information that could save thousands of lives, is it worth it?

Strip them of their licenses
The Atlantic

 
torture • Khalid Sheikh Mohammed • International Committee of the Red Cross • Guantanamo prisoners • waterboarding • medical ethics

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