A new book catalogues how the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld torture policies ineluctably drew in medical professionals. My review is now up at Time.com. Money quote:
In one of the few actual logs we have of a high-level interrogation, that of Mohammed al-Qhatani (first reported in TIME), doctors were present during the long process of constant sleep deprivation over 55 days, and they induced hypothermia and the use of threatening dogs, among other techniques. According to Miles, Medics had to administer three bags of medical saline to Qhatani ‚Äî while he was strapped to a chair ‚Äî and aggressively treat him for hypothermia in the hospital. They then returned him to his interrogators. Elsewhere in Guant√°namo, one prisoner had a gunshot wound that was left to fester during three days of interrogation before treatment, and two others were denied antibiotics for wounds. In Iraq, according to the Army surgeon general as reported by Miles, "an anesthesiologist repeatedly dropped a 2-lb. bag of intravenous fluid on a patient; a nurse deliberately delayed giving pain medication, and medical staff fed pork to Muslim patients." Doctors were also tasked at Abu Ghraib with "Dietary Manip (monitored by med)," in other words, using someone’s food intake to weaken or manipulate them.
I saw the movie "Death and the Maiden" the other night. If you think sexual humiliation isn’t torture, it’s worth watching. If you think that doctors cannot be induced to betray everything they are supposed to stand for, rent the movie or read the book.
The Dish 