The Journal of American Medical Association: CIA Physicians ’Professionalize’ Torture

Local Editor

CIA physicians have provided guidelines to interrogators and documented the effects of the enhanced interrogation techniques, a report says.

This week, The Journal of American Medical Association published a report entitled "Roles of CIA Physicians in Enhanced Interrogation and Torture of Detainees," which states that the CIA doctors, irrespective of medical ethical standards, performed on-site medical evaluations of detainees before and during interrogation.

The CIA Office of Medical Services said that the methods did not amount to torture, while recognizing that abusive techniques created serious medical risks.

Isolation, loud music, continuous light or darkness, extreme cold, food deprivation and water boarding were just some of the abusive techniques to name.

In June, Physicians for Human Rights accused the Bush administration of turning the prisoners in CIA custody into research subjects.

The international non-governmental organization detailed how medical professionals conducted illegal "enhanced interrogation" techniques on the detainees and later collected data in order to study and refine the techniques.