Tuesday, April 07, 2009

The Awful Legacy Of The Last Eight Years Continues

Bu$hCo did a lot of damage to institutions, among many other things, during his reign. I hope the medical professionals (& I use that term very loosely) who helped torture understand exactly what they did. I looks like the schools that trained these criminals had better examine their ethics courses, if they even have them.
Medical personnel were deeply involved in the abusive interrogation of terrorist suspects held overseas by the Central Intelligence Agency, including torture, and their participation was a “gross breach of medical ethics,” a long-secret report by the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded.

*****
...the medical professionals’ role was primarily to support the interrogators, not to protect the prisoners, and that the professionals had “condoned and participated in ill treatment.”

*****

Mr. Mansfield added, however, that Mr. Panetta “has stated repeatedly that no one who took actions based on legal guidance from the Department of Justice at the time should be investigated, let alone punished.” The C.I.A.’s interrogation methods were declared legal by the Justice Department under President George W. Bush. (So much for change, or honor, or decency, the rule of law. - ed.)

*****

Another critic of medical involvement in harsh interrogation, Dr. Steven H. Miles, a physician at the Center for Bioethics of the University of Minnesota, said he had counted about 70 cases worldwide after World War II in which physicians were punished for participating in torture or related crimes. Most were in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, he said. None have been in the United States.  (Surprise, surprise. - ed.)
My emphases.

No comments: