Great article in Salon about the
Red Cross report on Gitmo. One of the things that caught my eye was the following:
Q:The Red Cross suggested doctors were either tipping interrogators off to thresholds of pain for specific detainees or letting them know what ailed the detainees to help them in their interrogation process.
A:That's exactly right. We don't have a copy of the report so it's hard to know exactly what's in there. But it sounds like doctors are opening up their files and allowing the interrogators to look at the files and then consulting with them. It's clearly a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions to engage in medical experimentation. And some of these techniques may rise to that level. It's quite a serious offense against the laws and customs of war.
</understatement>
Why do this? The claim that useful information is still being gained at Gitmo is absurd? Or maybe the situation is
much worse- I can think of only one way that this could be true...
And it is too shocking for words- Gitmo is a lab, just like the ones used by Raid (tm) or Orkin (tm) to test out new pesticides. One thing that characterizes the neo-cons is their amoral fascination with manipulating other humans through technology (
does this remind anyone of another political movement that engaged in Medical Experiments? Or the Soviet understanding of psychology?). Combine this with the redefinition of Islamofascists as some sort of subhuman vermin (IMHO, they are human vermin- big difference) and it shouldn't be surprising that Bushco would turn its collection of "terrorists" into a labratory for finding out how to combat "terrorism". The "information" they are getting at this point is probably along the lines of "Average acceleration of the efficacy of sleep deprivation behavior modification techniques in the presence of distonic sound over 110 DB". Probably trying to build a Manchurian candidate while they are at it.
This was my conclusion about what is up at Gitmo, and once I reached that conclusion, another worry hit me when I reconsidered this:
The Red Cross suggested doctors were... letting [U.S. interrogators] know what ailed the detainees to help them in their interrogation process.
Remember a couple years ago when you went to the doctor's office? And you had to sign that new medical privacy form required as a result of the the new privacy rules promulgated by the Bush administration under the 1996 HIPPA Act? "
In March 2002, the Bush administration amended the medical privacy rule so that doctors and hospitals do not have to obtain written consent from patients before using or disclosing medical information for treatment, the payment of claims or any of a long list of health care operations such as setting insurance premiums and measuring physician competence." Well there was one other nugget in there which allows for no ask no tell disclosures of medical info:
Section 164.512(k)(2)-National security and intelligence activities. A covered entity may disclose protected health information to authorized federal officials for the conduct of lawful intelligence, counter-intelligence, and other national security activities authorized by the National Security Act (50 U.S.C. 401, et seq.)
and implementing authority (e.g., Executive Order 12333).
That's right, as the Bush administration understands things, per AG nominee Gonzalez, the President- in his sole and untrammel discretion- can secretly request the medical records of any American and use them for National Security purposes in the war on Terror.
Basically, this legalizes what was done to Daniel Ellsburg. If Chimpy decides your criticism of his regime is undermining the war on Terra, you might find yourself with a choice between shutting up or having your therapists files used against you. Or you might suddenly die after your rare allergy to guavas is somehow triggered by opening your mail.
RRRRGH!!