(Cross posted from http://liberatasblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/because-signing-internet-petitions-isnt.html.)
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Because signing Internet petitions isn't enough
Been so busy at work all week that I haven’t had time to unpack and share my impressions of last weekend’s Close Guantánamo events in D.C.
Friday, January 10. I took a vacation day so that I could attend the screening of Doctors of the Dark Side, Martha Davis’ documentary on the complicity of psychiatrists, psychologists, and medical personnel in the “enhanced interrogation” techniques used by the CIA. I especially wanted to attend the screening because it was going to be followed by a panel discussion by British journalist, blogger, and author of the Guantanámo Files, Andy Worthington. I had the pleasure of meeting and saying a few words to him before the film.
Doctors of the Dark Side was disturbing, to say the least. Subjecting any human being to physical or psychological torture for any reason is always illegal and immoral. Period. (Never mind the fact that torture is ineffective.) No matter what they may have done or what information they supposedly possess. The fact that White House attorneys agreed to walling, stress positions, enclosing prisoners in a small box with an insect (who thinks up this stuff anyway?), and of course, the pièce de résistance, waterboarding, is absolutely repugnant. It is even more shocking and sad to learn that medical and psychological professionals, whose sword duty it is to safeguard individuals in their care, collaborated instead in their torture. I have to agree with Nathaniel Raymond ofPhysicians for Human Rights that these acts of complicity constitute “the single greatest scandal in the history of American medical ethics.”
Friday, January 10. I took a vacation day so that I could attend the screening of Doctors of the Dark Side, Martha Davis’ documentary on the complicity of psychiatrists, psychologists, and medical personnel in the “enhanced interrogation” techniques used by the CIA. I especially wanted to attend the screening because it was going to be followed by a panel discussion by British journalist, blogger, and author of the Guantanámo Files, Andy Worthington. I had the pleasure of meeting and saying a few words to him before the film.
Doctors of the Dark Side was disturbing, to say the least. Subjecting any human being to physical or psychological torture for any reason is always illegal and immoral. Period. (Never mind the fact that torture is ineffective.) No matter what they may have done or what information they supposedly possess. The fact that White House attorneys agreed to walling, stress positions, enclosing prisoners in a small box with an insect (who thinks up this stuff anyway?), and of course, the pièce de résistance, waterboarding, is absolutely repugnant. It is even more shocking and sad to learn that medical and psychological professionals, whose sword duty it is to safeguard individuals in their care, collaborated instead in their torture. I have to agree with Nathaniel Raymond ofPhysicians for Human Rights that these acts of complicity constitute “the single greatest scandal in the history of American medical ethics.”
Yoo has appealed to history, pointing out that Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. Pierce, however, asserts that the Geneva Convention supersedes any sort of war powers that would allow the president to suspend habeas corpus or authorize torture.
Another panel member, retired Judge Advocate General, Maj. Todd E. Pierce, offered some interesting remarks on the legality of rulings handed down by White House attorneys John Yoo and others.
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| Panel members: Maj. Pierce, Andy Worthington, Stephanie Rugoff |
Also participating in the discussion following the film were retired CIA officer Ray McGovern and Stephanie Rugoff of World Can’t Wait.
Saturday, January 11. Well, I can say that I’ve taken part in vigils and marches in Washington, D.C. in falling snow, in withering heat, and now in drenching rain. Still, I was proud to join with members of National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Amnesty International USA, Code Pink (who lent me an orange t-shirt), Witness Against Torture, World Can’t Wait, Center for Constitutional Rights, Veterans for Peace and others in marching from the White House to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I parted with the group and headed home at that point. However, dedicated members of Witness Against Torture entered the museum and conducted a living exhibit, urging us all to work to Make Guantánamo History. View their courageous action:
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