Health Professionals: Take action to demand accountability for torture
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A hard copy of this letter was sent to the Attorney General and Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees on June 23, 2009. The letter is still open for signatures and may be resent with an updated signature list later this year.
Attorney General of the United States
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Dear Mr. Attorney General:
We, the undersigned health professionals, write to share our concerns that your office’s decision to conduct only a limited investigation of the torture of detainees in U.S. custody—one that appears to ignore and entirely overlook potential crimes by former senior officials—is endangering our nation’s stated fundamental values and our credibility as a nation that values and defends human rights. We are encouraged by your decision to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate crimes related to torture, as well as by recent calls from Americans from all walks of life, including veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, for the disclosure of all evidence of torture--including photos reportedly depicting rape that remain secret.
The full investigation of potential crimes, as others have shown, holds profound implications for our nation’s international legitimacy and future opportunities to credibly promote human rights. It also holds immense importance for the future historical record, as well as the necessary policy debates addressing detention, surveillance, and other violations of civil liberties under the Obama administration going forward.
Our concern here is more specific, reflecting our particular expertise as health professionals. Some mental health professionals and physicians abandoned our profession’s ethical commitment to “do no harm” and instead facilitated the abuse and torture of detainees in U.S. custody.
For example, when detainees were waterboarded, or shackled by their hands and feet to induce sleep deprivation, medical personnel and psychologists calibrated the intensity of abuse to ensure that it could continue. In addition, some military and intelligence psychologists helped design, conduct, and teach abusive interrogation techniques used by the CIA and Department of Defense.
Our professions’ participation in these abuses is an appalling affront to not only our ethical code, but also the law. Efforts within our professions to hold our members accountable for their role in torture are part of the solution, but do not complete it. Nor can those efforts reach other officials outside our professions who also enabled or conducted detainee abuse. Until our nation investigates and prosecutes those responsible for torturing detainees, the future use of torture will remain a risk facing our nation, our professions, and their respective values.
We urge you, in your capacity as our nation’s senior prosecutor, to restore the rule of law by ensuring its equal application to all.
Respectfully submitted,
The undersigned health professionals
cc: The Honorable David Ogden, Deputy Attorney General
The Honorable Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein, Chairperson, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Christopher S. Bond, Vice Chairman, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable John D. Rockefeller IV, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Orrin Hatch, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Ron Wyden, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Olympia J. Snowe, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Evan Bayh, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Saxby Chambliss, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Barbara A. Mikulski, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Richard Burr, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Russell D. Feingold, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Tom Coburn, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Bill Nelson, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable James Risch, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
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| Number | Date | Name | Organization | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 149 | Fri Jan 29 19:16:49 EST 2010 | thomas hall | none | bellingham, WA | |
| 148 | Thu Jan 28 20:38:46 EST 2010 | Anonymous | Boca Raton, FL | ||
| 147 | Thu Jan 28 11:45:50 EST 2010 | Diane Massey-Todd | CITIZEN of the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | Sebastopol, CA | |
| 146 | Wed Jan 27 15:31:37 EST 2010 | Leo Whitney | Cut Off, LA | We need a national government that is restrained by RULE OF LAW as set forth in the principles of our Constitution. Otherwise the idealistic vision of the founders that has guided us to be a great ... | |
| 145 | Wed Jan 27 14:53:36 EST 2010 | Jeannie Finlay-Kochanowski | Toledo, OH | ||
| 144 | Tue Jan 26 10:54:52 EST 2010 | ml Johnston | New Fairfield, CT | ||
| 143 | Sun Jan 24 13:10:10 EST 2010 | HOSEA MCADOO | SHERWOOD, AR | ||
| 142 | Thu Jan 21 16:32:47 EST 2010 | Joel Fears, Jr. | Daytona Beach, FL | ||
| 141 | Tue Dec 15 16:43:36 EST 2009 | Robin Davidson | Kelseyville, CA | If I, as a critical-care RN, employed the tactics that those attorneys and governmental officials recommend, in my ICU, upon my patients, I would be jailed for life. I am also a veteran, and those ... | |
| 140 | Wed Nov 25 07:08:02 EST 2009 | Eleanor Schwank | Matagorda, TX | ||
| 139 | Fri Oct 30 11:29:04 EDT 2009 | Pairote Jaroonwanichkul | Branson Oncology | Redlands, CA | |
| 138 | Fri Oct 30 11:28:15 EDT 2009 | Pairote Jaroonwanichkul | Branson Oncology | Redlands, CA | |
| 137 | Wed Oct 28 17:36:12 EDT 2009 | Rolf Stuber | Männedorf, ot | ||
| 136 | Sat Sep 19 15:30:17 EDT 2009 | Anonymous | Honolulu, HI | ||
| 135 | Fri Sep 18 11:40:56 EDT 2009 | MEGAN O'DELL | DALLAS, TX | ||
| 134 | Fri Sep 18 00:29:39 EDT 2009 | sarah Mulcahy | ibew | Dickinson, TX | |
| 133 | Thu Sep 17 22:58:21 EDT 2009 | AltheA Schoen | Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War | Edison, NJ | |
| 132 | Thu Sep 17 19:27:53 EDT 2009 | Jay Gold | Madison, WI | ||
| 131 | Thu Sep 17 19:19:47 EDT 2009 | Fred Bischoff | Loma Linda, CA | ||
| 130 | Thu Sep 17 19:02:39 EDT 2009 | Jeannie Finlay-Kochanowski | Toledo, OH | ||
| 129 | Thu Sep 17 18:39:17 EDT 2009 | Jesse Landis | Port Charlotte, FL | ||
| 128 | Thu Sep 17 17:20:16 EDT 2009 | Wendy Greenberg | Bainbridge Island, WA | ||
| 127 | Fri Aug 21 07:56:15 EDT 2009 | Patricia O'Malley | Pearl River, NY | There must be accountability or there is no stopping this from happening again. | |
| 126 | Sun Aug 16 20:27:16 EDT 2009 | Shelly Stelzer | Clarksville, MD | ||
| 125 | Mon Aug 10 11:52:39 EDT 2009 | Louis Chappell | Bluffton, OH | I believe torture is UnAmerican, immoral and counter productive. It is illegal and thouse who authorize it should be prosecuted.
L. Terry Chappell |