The New Torquemada - Doctors and Torture 2

I put Colin Powell up next to Torquemada because I still hold him partially responsible for the breakdown in government that led to our torturing of prisoners. I put Torquemada up there because he was an official in the Roman Catholic Church who eventually became the Grand Inquisitor. He is a prime example of a man who thinks he is doing the right thing when, in actuality, he is doing evil. (they also look alike)

I was able to get a copy of the Washington Post article on Doctors and Torture that I mentioned yesterday. It is reviewed here.

Medical Experts Debate Role In Facilitating Interrogations
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 14, 2005; Page A19

On Oct. 19, leaders of several medical organizations flew to the U.S. Navy detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After meeting with officials and two psychologists who served as consultants during interrogations with detainees, a vigorous debate sprang up among the experts over the ethics of physicians and caregivers participating in the debriefing of prisoners.

The debate, which participants said was conducted in earnest over a lengthy dinner at Andrews Air Force Base after they returned from Cuba, explored concerns that medical experts in general, and psychiatrists and psychologists in particular, have aided U.S. government interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, often by applying their insights into human behavior to break the will of prisoners. (emphasis added)

Although the Bush administration has asserted that it does not condone or practice torture, articles in prominent medical forums such as the New England Journal of Medicine have said that doctors and behavioral scientists have violated ethical norms while interrogating terrorism suspects at the behest of the U.S. government and become "complicit in torture."

I do not condone torture in any form for any reason. The fact that medical personnel are involved in this activity, again, is beyond comprehension. I think that most physicians feel the way we do:

.....the American Psychiatric Association came to the conclusion that psychiatrists should never participate in coercive interrogations, or even lend advice to government officials carrying out interrogations that involve sleep deprivation, threats, humiliation, sensory deprivation or the use of prolonged stress positions, according to the group's president, Steven S. Sharfstein.

...snip....

The psychiatrists' policy effectively says that numerous techniques practiced by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere are unethical for psychiatrists to be involved with

The problem is, we can't erase this blot on our national eschutcheon. We need a moral revival in politics, and not from the Christian Right. A friend of mine referred me to Jimmy Carter's take on this.

In recent years, I have become increasingly concerned by a host of radical government policies that now threaten many basic principles espoused by all previous administrations, Democratic and Republican.

These include the rudimentary American commitment to peace, economic and social justice, civil liberties, our environment and human rights.

Also endangered are our historic commitments to providing citizens with truthful information, treating dissenting voices and beliefs with respect, state and local autonomy and fiscal responsibility.

At the same time, our political leaders have declared independence from the restraints of international organizations and have disavowed long-standing global agreements - including agreements on nuclear arms, control of biological weapons and the international system of justice.

And, more to the point:

Of even greater concern is that the US has repudiated the Geneva accords and espoused the use of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, and secretly through proxy regimes elsewhere with the so-called extraordinary rendition program. It is embarrassing to see the president and vice president insisting that the CIA should be free to perpetrate "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment" on people in US custody.

Again, I am not angry. Sarcastic, yes. But I am beyond anger. I am seeking for a way to change things. Let me know if you have any ideas.