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The Charleston Gazette's August 20, 2008, op/ed piece Torture
Psychologists Help posed some interesting questions about the ethics of torture regarding the American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association, who prohibit their members from participating in torturing prisoners, and a different professional group, the American Psychological Association, who, according to the piece,
"still lets its members oversee some forms of prisoner interrogation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and U.S. military detention centers around the world."
While the article is very interesting and provides much insight, it skips over the most basic of questions, like why does the U.S. torture in the first place?
I know the answer to that question. And so does John McCain.
Since the Gazette limits its comments to 1000 characters, I had to keep it simple and straightforward.
A British Medical Journal recently revealed that up to half of all torture survivors report that a doctor oversaw their abuse, and that more doctors abet torture than treat the millions of victims.
How many doctors' ethics have been compromised via Cheney's "defense" contracts, we'll likely never know. Yet top interrogation experts have sworn to Congress and in our courts that torture NEVER PRODUCES RELIABLE INFORMATION.
So why torture?
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, an al-Qaeda prisoner captured after 9/11 was tortured into providing false information that Iraq had trained al-Qaeda to use WMD. The CIA knew the information was false in 2002. Still, Colin Powell presented that info to the UN as evidence of Iraqi WMD programs in Feb. 2003.
Sen. John McCain, who admits to "confessing" war crimes to the VietCong, condones the use of torture by our CIA. Even though it is only reliable for producing lies.
Is he backing torture because HE wants to produce false justification for war?
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