When Doctors Go to War

 

Politics

“Our own inquiry into medical involvement in military intelligence gathering in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay has revealed a more troublesome picture. Recently released documents and interviews with military sources point to a pattern of such involvement, including participation in interrogation procedures that violate the laws of war. Not only did caregivers pass health information to military intelligence personnel; physicians assisted in the design of interrogation strategies, including sleep deprivation and other coercive methods tailored to detainees’ medical conditions. Medical personnel also coached interrogators on questioning technique.” - full story from The New England Journal of Medicine

And while you’re at it, this article is also quite sobering: “Alberto Gonzales, the lawyer who sponsored a regime of torture for his President, will soon become the nation’s attorney general. Perhaps it’s fitting. Then the Justice Department can enter the same world of twisted names as Camp Justice, saved from the tsunami’s surprise impact by a special Pentagon warning.”