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You are here: Home / Politics / Torture / American Mengele

American Mengele

by DougJ|  June 7, 20107:21 am| 34 Comments

This post is in: Torture

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This is nowhere near as bad as what Paul McCartney did, obviously:

In the course of trying to prove that its “enhanced” interrogation program was legal, the Bush administration may have broken the law, according to a new report (PDF) by Physicians for Human Rights. The watchdog group claims that in an attempt to establish that brutal interrogation tactics did not constitute torture, the administration ended up effectively experimenting on terrorism detainees. This research, PHR alleges, violated an array of regulations and treaties, including international guidelines on human testing put in place after the Holocaust.

According to the report, which draws on numerous declassified government documents, “medical professionals working for and on behalf of the CIA” frequently monitored detainee interrogations, gathering data on the effectiveness of various interrogation techniques and the pain threshholds of detainees. This information was then used to “enhance” future interrogations, PHR contends.

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Reader Interactions

34Comments

  1. 1.

    c u n d gulag

    June 7, 2010 at 7:32 am

    Paging Dr. Mengele!
    Dr. Mengele…
    Paging Dr. Mengele!
    Dr. Mengele?

  2. 2.

    arguingwithsignposts

    June 7, 2010 at 7:33 am

    Man, the government IRB board is going to be pissed.

  3. 3.

    bkny

    June 7, 2010 at 7:37 am

    from the wapo piece on what a million-dollar boondoggle gitmo is. oh yeah. the pentagon is soooo concerned about patient rights:

    The Pentagon spent $18.2 million on a prison hospital and $2.9 million on a psychiatric ward next door. The ward has 12 beds housed inside an elongated metal trailer-like building with reflective-glass windows and a small sign that reads “Behavioral Health Unit.” The military would not permit Post reporters to look inside the facility, citing patient confidentiality.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/06/AR2010060604093_pf.html

  4. 4.

    cleek

    June 7, 2010 at 7:53 am

    maybe Obama will put together a study group to look into the possibility of investigating the prudence of convening a board to look into the likelihood of talking to Bush administration officials in order to get their opinion on these matters. in secret. sometime in 2017.

  5. 5.

    Michael

    June 7, 2010 at 8:00 am

    “Ah’m proud to be ‘Murkan, where at least Ah know Ah’m fraeeeeeeee……”

    {breaks out foam finger}

    “USA! USA! USA! USA!”

    And for anybody wonders, I want to jam that fucking song down rednecks’ throats on these sorts of stories – I want Lee Greenwood to hang himself from the rafters out of shame for having contributed to this climate, his suicide note saying “I’m sorry, world, for having written that piece of shit”…..

  6. 6.

    Legalize

    June 7, 2010 at 8:03 am

    BEST health care system in the world, bitches.

  7. 7.

    The Raven

    June 7, 2010 at 8:20 am

    Croak!

  8. 8.

    Luthe

    June 7, 2010 at 8:22 am

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    You win the thread. Where do you want your internet delivered?

  9. 9.

    Brandon

    June 7, 2010 at 8:23 am

    But so what? They’re MOOSLIM!

    Islamofascism and Wolverines FTW!

  10. 10.

    tofubo

    June 7, 2010 at 8:37 am

    why are you harping on things that happened in the past, what is done is done, no need to look backward, LOOK FORWARD !! on, to the future, where life is beautiful all the time and i’ll be happy to see the nice young men in their fine white coats….

    (‘cus really, if there was anything wrong, our fine atty g. would be prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law, that prohibition on torture and shit that was ratified by the senate and signed into law and all…)

  11. 11.

    David

    June 7, 2010 at 8:44 am

    In Wingnut world — Elton John hot, Paul McCartney not:

    Rush Limbaugh Weds for 4th Time, and Elton John Sings

    http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20391620,00.html

  12. 12.

    electricgrendel

    June 7, 2010 at 8:47 am

    “the Bush administration may have broken the law”

    No shit, Sherlock. But no one gives a fuck. Now- let’s all sit back and enjoy imagining how thorough a Republican Congress in 2016 will investigate every little decision of the Obama administration.

  13. 13.

    fucen tarmal

    June 7, 2010 at 8:55 am

    well, because obama didn’t do anything about this on january 20th 2009, i don’t see how we can possibly blame george bush for this. at some point obama has to be held accountable for bush’s actions. why is the press giving him a pass?

  14. 14.

    Linda Featheringill

    June 7, 2010 at 8:56 am

    What was that line from T-2?

    “We aren’t going to make it, are we? People I mean.”

  15. 15.

    russell

    June 7, 2010 at 8:59 am

    Get John Yoo to crush their kids’ balls and see how they like monitoring that.

  16. 16.

    elmo

    June 7, 2010 at 9:15 am

    Ha! How do you like your so-called “scientific method” now, liberals?

  17. 17.

    HeartlandLiberal

    June 7, 2010 at 9:20 am

    I posted a snark diary on DailyKos this morning, rewriting selections from this as if it were a pre-Nuremberg trial report after WWII. So far, I am not sure anyone gets it.

    Nuermberg Diary, A Historical Review and Assurance of American Ethic

    Where the h*ll is the outrage in this nation? Have we totally lost and abandoned any sense of morality, ethics, decency, and commitment to the rule of law and humane action?

    Just rhetorical questions, I fear, as the answer is all to clear.

    We have.

  18. 18.

    JohnR

    June 7, 2010 at 9:33 am

    @HeartlandLiberal:

    Where the h*ll is the outrage in this nation?

    Well, obviously it would be different if these were actually people, you know, like you and me.
    This is the traditional method – probably been used as soon as proto-humans were able to think at all abstractly:
    The leaders demonize the opponents, usually in “we=human, they=sub-human” terms.
    The mass of the people come to believe this, especially as it is loudly and often repeated, and particularly if they don’t know or know much about the demonized opponents (makes it easier to believe the lies).
    Eventually the leaders even come to believe their own lies, which releases them from all pangs of conscience and frees them to take the next step as desired.
    As to why there’s no outrage here for what we did rather than who we did it to? I suspect it’s a combination of “we’re pure, so our actions are pure”, and the fact that history as a topic of study doesn’t really exist in the US except in a heavily “purified” form. The more you read good histories, especially eye-witness ones, the more you come to understand that human behavior is full of patterns. We’ve been doing this crap for as far back as anyone has kept records. But few seem to know or care that we’ve had this horrible argument over and over and over throughout human history. We keep our heads down and our eyes tight shut.

  19. 19.

    Fern

    June 7, 2010 at 10:01 am

    @David: Gag.

  20. 20.

    JohnR

    June 7, 2010 at 10:09 am

    @David:

    “I can’t believe Liberace Elton John was is gay. I mean, women loved him! I didn’t see that one coming.”

    I guess some folks can overlook the insidious evilality of Gays for as long as it takes to have them perform. I hope Mr. Limbaugh didn’t actually shake John’s hand or anything though. Those Gay Cooties don’t wash off.

  21. 21.

    JGabriel

    June 7, 2010 at 10:18 am

    This research, PHR alleges, violated an array of regulations and treaties, including international guidelines on human testing put in place after the Holocaust.

    I don’t know why any country would sign a treaty with the US anymore. If we’re going to abrogate them at will, and do nothing to prosecute the leaders who break treaties even when they’re no longer in office, then any treaty with the US is a one way street which the non-US signatories will be held to, but not America. So why bother?

    The GOP and our upper classes disgust me.

    .

  22. 22.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    June 7, 2010 at 10:46 am

    @JGabriel:

    I don’t know why any country would sign a treaty with the US anymore. If we’re going to abrogate them at will, and do nothing to prosecute the leaders who break treaties even when they’re no longer in office, then any treaty with the US is a one way street which the non-US signatories will be held to, but not America. So why bother?

    Native Americans want to know, what took you so long to figure this out? ..as long as the sun shines and the grass grows.., etc.

  23. 23.

    Citizen_X

    June 7, 2010 at 10:47 am

    @Linda Featheringill: And what was Ahnold’s reply to that? I believe it was, “You haf a remarkable capacity for self-destruction.”

    That’s stuck with me, too. News like this doesn’t exactly disprove the point.

  24. 24.

    Maude

    June 7, 2010 at 10:55 am

    If it isn’t on tv, it doesn’t exist.
    Any investigation that’s done right is silent until charges are brought.

  25. 25.

    Jared

    June 7, 2010 at 10:56 am

    Oh God. Have any of these doctors been named? A Dr. Martin (?) Seligman, is behind the whole concept of “learned helplessness,” but I’m not sure if he was directly involved in this (I couldn’t get a clear picture of that from Mayer’s book and her New Yorker work that followed.). I’m asking because he teaches at the same school from which I got a Masters.

    (Shudder)

  26. 26.

    Deb T

    June 7, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    Okay, what did McCartney do besides sing to Michele Obama? Are the wingnuts saying that was a bad thing? I missed this latest outrage?????

  27. 27.

    frankdawg

    June 7, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    The worst days for people being tortured are the days the doctor visits. They know the doctors job is to patch you up just enough & to estimate how much more you can take before you die. They usually ratchet up the abuse on the days after the visit.

    Is it ok to say I don’t like my country very much at this moment?

  28. 28.

    frankdawg

    June 7, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    @Deb T:

    Yes, he had the audacity to suggest that Boy Blunder was not very bright & didn’t read much

    bastard should be hung for that of course . . . as they used to say in the old Soviet Union “for revealing state secrets”

  29. 29.

    Ella in NM

    June 7, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    Milliseconds after reading this, a commercial popped up on the teevee which seems to me to have been divinely timed:

    “I’m taking an antidepressant. Why do I still feel depressed?”

  30. 30.

    frankdawg

    June 7, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    @Ella in NM:

    that made me laugh, a lot. Some days its only my sick sense of humor that keeps me from crying & taking a long drive in my garage.

  31. 31.

    wengler

    June 7, 2010 at 1:51 pm

    Guantanamo, Bagram, Abu Gharib.

    And so many other black holes that remain nameless in Eastern Europe or the Middle East or some small island in the Pacific.

    When we get attacked next time around, is anyone going to really be so ignorant to ask why they hate us?

  32. 32.

    JGabriel

    June 7, 2010 at 3:18 pm

    Of course not. Everyone knows they hate us for our “freedoms”!

    .

  33. 33.

    Bernard

    June 7, 2010 at 9:02 pm

    watching the Republicans go after Obama is going to be a treat!.

  34. 34.

    Bill Murray

    June 8, 2010 at 12:24 am

    @JGabriel: they, of course, being the Republicans

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