Physicians for Human Rights has just released a White Paper entitled, "Experiments in Torture: Evidence of Human Subject Research and Experimentation in the 'Enhanced' Interrogation Program." Here is a passage from the Executive Summary:Investigation and analysis of US government documents by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) provides evidence indicating that the Bush administration, in the period after Sept. 11, conducted human research and experimentation on prisoners in US custody as part of this monitoring role. Health professionals working for and on behalf of the CIA monitored the interrogations of detainees, collected and analyzed the results of those interrogations, and sought to derive generalizable inferences to be applied to subsequent interrogations. Such acts may be seen as the conduct of research and experimentation by health professionals on prisoners, which could violate accepted standards of medical ethics, as well as domestic and international law. These practices could, in some cases, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.The whole report can be found here.Because many of the documents that would be necessary fully to make the case are classified, the evidence for the indictment is somewhat circumstantial. Nevertheless, there is enough here to warrant outrage. Particularly troubling is the way that the lawyers used the doctors to justify particular methods of interrogation, while the doctors justified their participation by virtue of the fact that the lawyers said it was legal.

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