U.S. Use of Truth Drug Revealed (New Evidence All Gitmo Detainees Given Involuntarily)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Sun-Herald (Australia)

US use of truth drug revealed

Natalie O'Brien September 30, 2012

New evidence has emerged that all Guantanamo Bay detainees, including David Hicks, were drugged involuntarily with a substance that has a long history as a truth serum.

Recently declassified US documents revealing medical procedures have shown that scopolamine was administered to all detainees taken to the Cuban detention centre.

The documents, which were standard operating procedures for nursing staff, were obtained by the independent US news outlet Truthout, and reveal that the rationale for the drug's use on all detainees was to prevent motion sickness.

- snip -

The Sun-Herald revealed this month that Mr Hicks and other detainees were drugged against their will with unknown substances and that detainees' medical records were incomplete, with the names and dosages of drugs removed.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/us-use-of-truth-drug-revealed-20120929-26sja.html

[Jumping John]

1. So does that mean that rendition, torture plus water boarding was just for fun? nt

[xocet]

2. How much is enough? When will the evidence be enough to prosecute Bush et al...? n/t

[Raster]

3. I say we give cheney* a double dose and ask him a few questions...

...let's start with 9/11.

[drynberg]

6. YES, THEN MOVE ON TO IRAQ AND SAY, ELECTIONS OF A PRESIDENTIAL NATURE

Then W can be nabbed when he visits the Caymen Islands 5 days before the Nov. elections. Operation Truth-Out, or something catchy like that would be just fine .

[blkmusclmachine]

7. Or Operation Northwoods.

Operation Northwoods

[Thinkingabout]

4. Could you imagine Romney on the truth drug?

[Raster]

5. Rmoney + truth drug = oxymoron

Emphasis on the "moran."

[daleo]

8. We might find out the truth about his taxes

Though it would be wrong to do so in this way.

[leveymg]

9. There are dozens of these incidents of involuntary druggings of detainees documented here:

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=torture,_rendition,_and_other_abuses_against_captives_in_iraq,_afghanistan,_and_elsewhere&hr_types_of_abuses_performed_by_americans=hr_involuntaryDrugs

[OnyxCollie]

10. It doesn't matter.

Gitmo detainees can't vote.

Now stop talking about this. Do you want President Romney?


Unnnnh...

Damn. The groupthink around here is affecting me more and more.

[kas125]

12. Lol, they do always say things like that to you. And, personally,

I find it pretty sickening. Your post that got hidden the other day was nothing but the truth and it makes me sad that so many people are unwilling to even HEAR the truth.

[Solly Mack]

11. K&R

[Igel]

13. The timing's interesting.

Who knew that the CIA or the military did so much of its interrogation during the initial flight to Gitmo?

That is, of course, the implication arrived at by most. It was given just before the flight and since scopolamine's use in this case can't be anticholinergic but used as a "truth drug" that doesn't act long term we must conclude that the CIA or the military did a lot of interrogation on the plane.

Of course, since they typically transported prisoners with bags over their heads, had they not given the prisoners an anticholinergic there'd be those accusing the military of allowing the some prisoners to voluntarily puke-board themselves.

[xocet]

14. If drugging the transportees is necessary because of the bags, maybe the bags are the problem.

Imagine if the local police came to arrest you, administered drugs to you so you would not get "car-sick", head-bagged you and took you down to the station.

That would be reprehensible behavior and such behavior would need to be called out and prosecuted all the way up the chain of command to the point where the policy originated and was condoned.

If you don't see any of the above treatment as a problem, maybe you should reconsider your values. Also, the military does not deserve a free pass for carrying out orders.

Here is an example from WWII:

Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Count I: Indicted Not Guilty
Count II:
Count III: Indicted Guilty
Count IV: Indicted Guilty

Sentenced to: Death by hanging

By 1935 Kaltenbrunner was the leader of the Austrian branch of the SS and parts of the Gestapo. He was part of the plans to end the rein of the Austrian government, but he did not appear to be a part of the general plans for war. Rather, Kaltenbrunner was involved with the crimes against humanity. He issued orders against Jewish people, prisoners of war, and slave laborers. He took a leading role in the “final solution”. People under Kaltenbrunner’s command killed over four million Jewish people in concentration camps.

Kaltenbrunner’s defense was that he was under orders involving foreign intelligence and never assumed control of the activities of the SS police. He claims he did not know of the overall plan. This defense only convinced the tribunal that Kaltenbrunner was not part of the plans to wage war.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/NurembergIndictments.html

[Electric Monk]

15. but we're the good guys, so it must be ok

[Comrade Grumpy]

16. Sound like something out of the Soviet gulag. Stay classy, America.

[cbayer]

17. Scopolamine? You know those patches you see behind people's ears on cruises

or ships? That's scopolamine. I don't understand how they can say it's not used for motion sickness. It's widely used for that.

Anything that makes a person drowsy could conceivably be used as a "truth serum", but it would be entirely dose dependent and this is not a medication often used for that, imo.

There are some significant problems with this story.

[AntiFascist]

18. Check this out...

the use of mefloquine at Guantamo is even more disturbing. Side effects include psychosis:

http://www.remingtonnevin.com/tmih.pdf

This analysis suggests the troubling possibility that the use of mefloquine at Guantanamo may have been motivated in part by knowledge of the drug’s adverse effects, and points to a critical need for further investigation to resolve unanswered questions regarding the drug’s potentially inappropriate use.

GUANTANAMO Bay detainees, including David Hicks, were forced to take high dosages of anti-malaria drug mefloquine despite showing no signs of the disease, a practice likened to ''pharmacological waterboarding'' by a US military doctor.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/hicks-forced-to-take-high-drug-doses-in-guantanamo-20120915-25zcv.html#ixzz27z8wtFWk