We were told about doctors and torture in Iraq back in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009. Not new.

[madfloridian]

All over the news this last week or so there are a lot of articles about doctors and the use of torture on detainees during the war on terror.

The news that doctors were aware of or took part in torture in Iraq is nothing really new. Or at least not if we were paying attention. See the recent NBC News report. It is called "'Big, striking horror:' US military doctors allowed torture of detainees, new study claims"

Medical personnel watching as pain is inflicted....a Rumsfeld legacy?

LISA MILLAR: The Red Cross has slammed medical personnel who allegedly supervised interrogations and the torture of terror suspects by the CIA. Based on interviews with 14 terror suspects, the Red Cross has found medics monitored prisoners' vital signs to make sure they didn't drown during waterboarding. And it says that may amount to direct participation in torture.

EMILY BOURKE: The individual testimonies of 14 so-called 'high value' terror suspects detail a litany of torture techniques used during interrogations at secret locations and at Guantanamo Bay. They describe confinement in a box, exposure to extreme cold, sleep deprivation and waterboarding. But the Red Cross also found health professionals gave instructions to CIA interrogators to continue, adjust, or to stop particular methods.

That was from 2009.

This was from 2006. Time Magazine.

How Doctors Got Into the Torture Business

Soldiers are trained to kill and doctors to heal. At least that's how we usually understand those two professions. But wars can often distort reality, and the war on terrorism has turned into a test case. An inspiring example is that of Colonel Kelly Faucette, M.D. He recently wrote about caring for a new patient at the intensive-care unit of the 47th Combat Support Hospital in Mosul, Iraq. The patient was a terrorist insurgent, a man who planted hidden roadside bombs to murder civilians and Faucette's fellow soldiers. Faucette wrote in his local paper: "Something inside me wants to walk up to this guy ... and just clobber him." But Faucette didn't. Instead he healed him before sending him to a jail, and by that act of healing he helped heal Iraq.

That's the America I know and love. But it is not, alas, the only face of America in this war. One of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's first instructions for military interrogations outside the Geneva Conventions was that military doctors should be involved in monitoring torture. It was a fateful decision, and we learn much more about its consequences in a new book based on 35,000 pages of government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The book is called Oath Betrayed (to be published June 27) by medical ethicist Dr. Stephen Miles, and it is a harrowing documentation of how the military medical profession has been corrupted by the Bush-Rumsfeld interrogation rules.

From 2004. The New England Journal of Medicine

Doctors and Torture

There is increasing evidence that U.S. doctors, nurses, and medics have been complicit in torture and other illegal procedures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. Such medical complicity suggests still another disturbing dimension of this broadening scandal.

We know that medical personnel have failed to report to higher authorities wounds that were clearly caused by torture and that they have neglected to take steps to interrupt this torture. In addition, they have turned over prisoners' medical records to interrogators who could use them to exploit the prisoners' weaknesses or vulnerabilities. We have not yet learned the extent of medical involvement in delaying and possibly falsifying the death certificates of prisoners who have been killed by torturers.

A May 22 article on Abu Ghraib in the New York Times states that "much of the evidence of abuse at the prison came from medical documents" and that records and statements "showed doctors and medics reporting to the area of the prison where the abuse occurred several times to stitch wounds, tend to collapsed prisoners or see patients with bruised or reddened genitals."1 According to the article, two doctors who gave a painkiller to a prisoner for a dislocated shoulder and sent him to an outside hospital recognized that the injury was caused by his arms being handcuffed and held over his head for "a long period," but they did not report any suspicions of abuse. A staff sergeant's medic who had seen the prisoner in that position later told investigators that he had instructed a military policeman to free the man but that he did not do so. A nurse, when called to attend to a prisoner who was having a panic attack, saw naked Iraqis in a human pyramid with sandbags over their heads but did not report it until an investigation was held several months later.

And finally from 2003 there are the shocking pictures from a Norwegian newspaper of Iraqi detainees being walked naked through the streets at gunpoint. This report does not mention doctors, but it was most definitely a warning sign to keep our eyes wide open. It was so obvious that all involved had to have known. Taking away one's humanity is a sure sign that worse is on the way.

We saw pictures from Iraq from a paper in Norway in 2003. We knew we were tormenting them then.

It was a shock to see the picture from the Norwegian paper, Dagbladet. The article is still there today, and so are the pictures. I remember that day in April when I called Senator John Warren's office and sent them a link to the website while I was on the phone. They claimed ignorance of course. I called Senator Bill Nelson's office and did the same. They knew nothing either.

The articles from Amnesty International and Dagbladet. If you follow the links the pictures are still there at Dagbladet.

Amnesty International expressed concern today at the disturbing article and images portrayed in the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet which show American soldiers escorting naked Iraqi men through a park in Baghdad. The pictures reveal that someone has written the words Ali Baba - Haram(i) (which means Ali Baba - thief) in Arabic on the prisoners' chests.

The article quotes a US military officer as saying that this treatment is an effective method of deterring thieves from entering the park and is a method which will be used again; another US military officer is quoted as saying that US soldiers are not allowed to treat prisoners inhumanely.

..."Whatever the reason for their detention, these men must at all times be treated humanely. The US authorities must investigate this incident and publicly release their findings."

Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly states that "Protected persons are entitled in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manner and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity".

The NBC News report just out makes it sound like this is just now being discovered. Instead I would say eyes have simply been shut and facts ignored.

I am not sure if knowing all this for so long should be blamed on our pathetic corporate media system, or if it goes to the prevalent attitude of people not wanting to know...in a country in which many are in denial.

[OnyxCollie]

1. This is old news

brought up by hair-on-fire hyperbolists and attention-seeking Paulbot libertarians who suffer from racially-motivated Obama Derangement Syndrome.

Let it sink.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

2. it's called regurgitating old news for new outrage. the for-profit media doesn't give a shit

it just wants to keep an evenly scored "game" in politics so the ratings will continue to be there. I, like you, remember when this was the case back during Bush years re: doctors and torture.

THere is a whole new crop of citizens (Bush supporters/Obama supporters) to outrage with this "news" because they were too busy sticking their heads in the sand not admitting the guy they voted for was absolutely the worst president ever and quite possibly a war criminal.

[Fumesucker]

4. This piece certainly wasn't looking forward

And we all know that pondering the mistakes of the past is the biggest mistake of all.

[madfloridian]

6. "regurgitating old news for new outrage" wow

Is that what I'm doing? I don't think so.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

7. not you. NBC. the worst happened under Bush. it has stopped. now with "false equivalence"

being the order of the day....Obama feeding those who are on hunger strike is tantamount to having German Shepherds barking and lunging at naked Iraqis' balls and waterboarding and vicious beating of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo under Bush.

If we aren't going to fucking ARREST THE MOTHER FUCKERS WHO ORDERED THIS SHIT UNDER BUSH then what is the point? It is just highlighting what a fucked up multi-tiered justice system we live in.

[madfloridian]

9. Yes, the worst began and happened under GWB. The media is at its worst this week.

In every area. We had a victory on our side with the shutdown averted, so then the media was compelled to double down on the attacks on our side.

They are so obvious, it is sickening.

[G_j]

8. not really

as noted, this is about a recently released report.
http://imapny.org/medicine_as_a_profession/interrogationtorture-and-dual-loyalty

[sabrina 1]

22. Is it? Would you prefer that we forget what so enraged us, rightfully, when it was

first revealed?

Are ethics dependent on who is in power?

IF this administration had begun investigations into allegations of War Crimes, which those of us who worked so hard to get them elected, expected, the actual criminals would be the ones to have to answer for these crimes.

But our leadership told us to STFU about applying the rule of law.

This would have been part of the investigations as it was widely covered during the Bush years and it was shameful, then. And it is still shameful.

But if you don't want to be implicated in other people's crimes, then you don't protect them from the consequences of those crimes.

Dems had that opportunity to expose the Criminals, they chose not to, they chose to protect them when other jurisdictions were prepared to prosecute some of them.

The crime is still a crime, as outrageous as it was when we first heard about it. And since Dems reneged on their duty to look into it and separate themselves from the crimes, I don't understand the whining that now they find themselves linked to those crimes. WE TOLD THEM SO.

[uponit7771]

3. This seems to be a reoccurring theme with the "liberal" media... drudging up old emote headlines

[G_j]

5. the report was just released:

http://imapny.org/medicine_as_a_profession/interrogationtorture-and-dual-loyalty

http://imapny.org/File%20Library/Documents/IMAP-EthicsTextFinal2.pdf

"New York, NY — An independent panel of military, ethics, medical, public health, and legal experts today charged that U.S. military and intelligence agencies directed doctors and psychologists working in U.S. military detention centers to violate standard ethical principles and medical standards to avoid infliction of harm. The Task Force on Preserving Medical Professionalism in National Security Detention Centers (see attached) concludes that since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DoD) and CIA improperly demanded that U.S. military and intelligence agency health professionals collaborate in intelligence gathering and security practices in a way that inflicted severe harm on detainees in U.S. custody."

<snip>

The Task Force report, supported by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession and the Open Society Foundations, calls on the DoD and CIA to follow medical professional standards of conduct to enable doctors and psychologists to adhere to their ethical principles so that in the future they be used to heal, not injure, detainees they encounter. The Task Force also urges professional medical associations and the American Psychological Association to strengthen ethical standards related to interrogation and detention of detainees.

The report, Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror, is based on two years of review of records in the public domain by a 19-member task force. The report details how DoD and CIA policies institutionalized a variety of interventions by military and intelligence agency doctors and psychologists that breach ethical standards to promote well-being and avoid harm."

.. More...

[madfloridian]

10. This paragraph really stands out from that report.

"Shining a Spotlight on Ethical Breaches
According to the Task Force, the DoD specifically:

• Excused violations of ethical standards by inappropriately characterizing health professionals engaged in interrogation as “safety officers,” masking one of their key functions;
• Implemented rules that permitted medical and psychological information obtained by health professionals to be used in interrogations;
• Required physicians and nurses to forgo their independent medical judgment and counseling roles, as well as to force-feed competent detainees engaged in hunger strikes even though this is forbidden by the World Medical Association and the American Medical Association;
• Improperly designated licensed health professionals to use their professional skills to interrogate detainees as military combatants, a status incompatible with licensing; and
• Failed to uphold recommendations by the Army Surgeon General to adopt international standards for medical reporting of abuse against detainees.

Thanks for the link.

[G_j]

14. it is of great concern that any American excepts this behavior

and that people would rather not hear about it at all. This particular story was not concocted by the media. What would be upsetting would be if they DIDN'T report it.

[madfloridian]

18. Agreed.

[Starry Messenger]

11. k&r

[johnnyreb]

12. k&r

New report or otherwise, I'll always kick this shit to keep it in the faces of the willfully ignorant.

[jsr]

13. Yep.

[FloriTexan]

15. K&R because it wasn't old news to me

[madfloridian]

16. Thanks for the rec.

Hope all is well.

[Mc Mike]

17. Thanks for all the work that went into this compilation, Mad.

It's an important subject. And there has to be some propagandic reason for the media to pretend like it has just been discovered, instead of saying 'we've covered this for a long time, and we demand changes and justice, now.'

[Uncle Joe]

19. NBC is promoting the old news to protect the DOD and CIA while putting the blame more on the doctors

This is the heading from the NBC Report on your link.

'Big, striking horror:' US military doctors allowed torture of detainees, new study claims

The thrust of the two year study which just ended has the medical profession blaming the DOD and CIA for coercing those doctors and psychologists in to betraying their code of ethics and doing it.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/04/cia-doctors-torture-suspected-terrorists-9-11

CIA made doctors torture suspected terrorists after 9/11, taskforce finds

The two-year review by the 19-member taskforce, Ethics Abandoned: Medical Professionalism and Detainee Abuse in the War on Terror, supported by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP) and the Open Society Foundations, says that the DoD termed those involved in interrogation "safety officers" rather than doctors. Doctors and nurses were required to participate in the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike, against the rules of the World Medical Association and the American Medical Association. Doctors and psychologists working for the DoD were required to breach patient confidentiality and share what they knew of the prisoner's physical and psychological condition with interrogators and were used as interrogators themselves. They also failed to comply with recommendations from the army surgeon general on reporting abuse of detainees.

The CIA's office of medical services played a critical role in advising the justice department that "enhanced interrogation" methods, such as extended sleep deprivation and waterboarding, which are recognised as forms of torture, were medically acceptable. CIA medical personnel were present when waterboarding was taking place, the taskforce says.

(snip)

He added: "It's clear that in the name of national security the military trumped that covenant, and physicians were transformed into agents of the military and performed acts that were contrary to medical ethics and practice. We have a responsibility to make sure this never happens again."The taskforce says that unethical practices by medical personnel, required by the military, continue today. The DoD "continues to follow policies that undermine standards of professional conduct" for interrogation, hunger strikes, and reporting abuse. Protocols have been issued requiring doctors and nurses to participate in the force-feeding of detainees, including forced extensive bodily restraints for up to two hours twice a day.

"Putting on a uniform does not and should not abrogate the fundamental principles of medical professionalism," said IMAP president David Rothman. "'Do no harm' and 'put patient interest first' must apply to all physicians regardless of where they practise."The taskforce wants a full investigation into the involvement of the medical profession in detention centres. It is also calling for publication of the Senate intelligence committee's inquiry into CIA practices and wants rules to ensure doctors and psychiatrists working for the military are allowed to abide by the ethical obligations of their profession; they should be prohibited from taking part in interrogation, sharing information from detainees' medical records with interrogators, or participating in force-feeding, and they should be required to report abuse of detainees.

This isn't to take blame away from the doctors and psychologists participating in these atrocities but to explain NBC's reasoning for their "old news report."

GE owns NBC

On a thread by Fantastic Anarchist, more on the link.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023976131

10 Corporations Control Nearly Everything You Buy, 6 Media Corporations Control Nearly Everything...
... you watch.

Thanks for the thread, madfloridian.

[madfloridian]

20. I find I can not listen to the news anymore. It's so fake.

I can watch The Ed Show and a little of the others on MSNBC's nightly line-up....but even then I have to turn it off when the talking points start.

We have no real news, just propaganda.

[slipslidingaway]

21. knr madfloridian ...

we've had our differences, most notably over HC. I hope my most docs, including my daughter, would be appalled at what has taken place.

[DevonRex]

23. There's a pattern to this which fits other recent

revelations. There is a tarring going on. Hoping that whatever is finally discussed will stick. If you get my drift. People have also turned a blind eye to other things that are in the news now which have been well known.

I believe someone is hoping to pile some of this stench in with the other current events and maybe clean up their own image slightly. It's their last chance. And it depends on people's faulty memories, not really paying attention. It's why the GOP would not allow Guantanamo to be closed. Hard to shift the blame if it's gone.

What it means is that things are much, much worse than most people realize.