Nat Hentoff
Times and Democrat
September 21, 2009

The fearlessly independent Physicians for Human Rights — founded in 1986 and sharer of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 — has once again exposed the shameful role of doctors and psychologists throughout the CIA’s torture interrogations, banned by the international Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as in the Geneva Conventions and our own statues.

Despite all the attention and furor when the former CIA Inspector General’s 2004 report was finally released through an ACLU lawsuit — to the rage of objectors Dick Cheney and CIA Director Leon Panetta — the continuing debate has yet to focus on, and deal with, the Physicians for Human Rights Aug. 31 report:

“Aiding Torture: Health Professionals’ Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the May 2004 Inspector General’s Report” — with additional incriminating details that “CIA Health Professionals’ Role in Torture Worse Than Previously Known.”

The startling indictment is that “health professionals were involved at every stage in the development, implementation and legitimization of this torture program.” They were as disgracefully complicit as John Yoo and the other Justice Department lawyers who provided torturously manipulated “legal” cover to the CIA and its bosses in the Defense department and the Oval Office.

Read entire article: http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/articles/2009/09/21/opinion/doc4ab472d350295030200859.txt