minor jive

One of the more disturbing appendices to the 2004 CIA inspector general’s report on torture comes from the Office of Medical Services. On September 4, 2003, the office in the CIA responsible for “assessing and monitoring the health of all Agency detainees subject to ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques” issued its set of guidelines for what was acceptable treatment. For instance, there’s a long discussion of what constitutes an “uncomfortably cool environment” — an embraced technique — based on “core body temperature” and “increased metabolic rate.” After all, these are medical professionals. But instead of pledging to do no harm, OMS instructs that if the temperature falls too low and the detainee is endangered, the detainees “should be monitored and the actual temperatures documented.” If there’s any instruction that the doctors should help the detainee, it’s redacted.

Medical professionals, in other words, were acting as “calibrators of harm,” says Nathaniel Raymond, director of Physicians for Human Rights’ anti-torture project. That’s a violation of the law and professional ethics.

On waterboarding, the CIA’s Office of Medical Services enters especially dangerous territory. The guidelines are clear that “a rigid guide to medically approved use of the waterboard in essentially healthy individuals is not possible, as safety will depend on how the water is applied and the specific response each time it is used.” Indeed, the program lacks “hard data to quantify” the “cumulative risk” of an “aggressive program” of waterboarding. The guidelines come very close to advocating experimentation on detainees, a dubious ethical and legal practice…