New Yorker‘s Atul Gawande Condemns CIA Doctors Who ‘Made Torture Possible’

The New Yorker’s Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon and a prominent health reporter, angrily took the medical professionals of the CIA to task for enabling years of torture.

“The torture could not proceed w/o medical supervision,” he tweeted. “The medical profession was deeply embedded in this inhumanity.”

Buried in the CIA torture report is the revelation that the agency paid two psychologists, neither of them having any expertise in interrogation, terrorism, or any other relevant subjects, $81 million to run their enhanced interrogation programs. The report also details numerous instances of doctors and psychologists assisting in interrogations, forced feedings, and mental torture.

“The worst for me is to see the details of how doctors, psychologists, and others sworn to aid human beings made the torture possible,” he added.

Gawande, who began reporting on medical issues as a staff writer for The New Yorker in 1998, is also an endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a professor at both the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.

The entire statement is below:

1/The Senate CIA Torture Report reveals savage, immoral, utterly despicable practices by our govt. http://t.co/qZWUNtJSeU

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

2/But the worst for me is to see the details of how doctors, psychologists, and others sworn to aid human beings made the torture possible.

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

3/The torture could not proceed w/o medical supervision. The medical profession was deeply embedded in this inhumanity.

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

4/It was doctors who devised the rectal infusions “as a means of behavior control.” (p100)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

5/Doctors suggested the water temperature for waterboarding and use of saline instead of free water to avoid water intoxication. (p86, 419)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

6/Doctors watched as stress positions inflicted pain, lacerations, and only stopped them when producing, e.g., shoulder dislocation (70)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

7/Psychologists, who were supposed to stop damaging interrogation, actually served as interrogators. (72)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

8/The Office of Medical Services provided consultation on when fractures and wounds were healed enough to resume torture. (p113)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

9/The Office of Medical Services wrote guidelines approving up to 3 waterboard sessions in 24 hours per prisoner. (p87)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

10/When torture caused Abu Zubaydah’s eyes to deteriorate, MDs only intervened to insure ability to see was saved to aid interrogation.(112)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

11/Doctors found prisoners with broken feet and still approved putting them into standing positions for up to 52 hours (p112)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

12/Doctors were long the medical conscience of the military. The worst occurred because gov't medical leaders abdicated that role. (p87)

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) December 10, 2014

[h/t Al-Jazeera]

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