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CIA Docs Accused of 'Human Experimentation'

Report from ethics groups says docs in interrogation program guilty of war crimes

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 3, 2009 4:34 AM CDT

(Newser) – CIA doctors who monitored the agency's "enhanced interrogation" of terror suspects may be guilty of war crimes linked to human experimentation, according to a new report from a medical ethics group. The report from Physicians for Human Rights accuses the doctors and psychologists of being involved at every stage of the interrogation, the Guardian reports. It labels their recording of information on the effectiveness of the techniques as human experimentation, outlawed after the prosecution of Nazi doctors at Nuremberg.

"They were experimenting and keeping records of the results," the report's co-author writes. "That is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions." Officials from the American Medical Association say they in discussions with the Obama administration over the role of doctors in the CIA's program. "The participation of physicians in torture and interrogation is a violation of core ethical values," the group said in a statement.

Medical staffers were present during the waterboading of suspects, and were believed to have used a pulse oxymeter in at least one case, placed on the prisoner's finger to monitor his oxygen levels.
Medical staffers were present during the waterboading of suspects, and were believed to have used a pulse oxymeter in at least one case, placed on the prisoner's finger to monitor his oxygen levels.   (Shutter Stock)
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Doctors are certainly guilty of war crimes for permitting torture to go forward and overseeing it while they had the authority to stop it. - Steven Reisner, co-author of the Physicans for Human Rights report

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 11 comments
Doctor-Zaius
Sep 3, 2009 12:44 PM CDT
So, how bad does it have to get before the apologists just admit they were wrong?
Thinker
Sep 3, 2009 11:46 AM CDT
I was physically ill after reading this report. and cornelison, you are right. The CIA has refused to release many more details ... what can be worse than this??? I am so ashamed. If we don't investigate this completely and punish those responsible, we are worse than the German people who turned away from the atrocities of the Nazis. We should have learned from the past. This is just sickening.
cornelison
Sep 3, 2009 10:37 AM CDT
It will always be the tip of the ice berg.

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