3
2
2
Last summer Physicians for Human Rights suggested that materials in the then released CIA Inspector General's report on the "enhanced interrogation" program suggested that the CIA had an systematic program of research. Such research is patently illegal and violates the rules that have governed human research since the Nuremberg Trials convicted German doctors for illegal research. This CIA research also violates rules of the US government regulating all research on people.
Similarly, bioethicist Steven Miles argued in an appendix to the second edition of his classic Oath Betrayed: America's Torture Doctors that the detailed interrogation log of Mohammed al-Qahtan only made sense as the notes for a research protocol.
This new evidence on the torture of Binyan Mohamed adds to the considerable evidence that, as part of its torture program, the CIA also had a program to systematically study the effectiveness of torture techniques. Last summer, Physicians for Human Rights called for an independent investigation of this potential CIA research. The new evidence suggesting that Binyan Mohamed may have been an unwitting research subject only adds to the urgency of an investigation.
In addition to the usual human rights advocates, all those who conduct research on people -- psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and biomedical researchers among others -- should join the call for an investigation. For torture effectiveness research violates all the principles that guide our work, that our efforts should improve human welfare rather than degrade and destroy. We cannot allow the possibility that our society will remain one where inhumane research can be conducted with total impunity.
1 | 2
