{"id":59718,"date":"2015-06-22T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=59718"},"modified":"2015-06-16T15:46:59","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T14:46:59","slug":"cia-torture-appears-to-have-broken-spy-agency-rule-on-human-experimentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/06\/cia-torture-appears-to-have-broken-spy-agency-rule-on-human-experimentation\/","title":{"rendered":"CIA Torture Appears to Have Broken Spy Agency Rule on Human Experimentation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Exclusive:<\/strong> <em>Watchdogs shocked at \u2018disconnect\u2019 between doctors who oversaw interrogation and guidelines that gave CIA director power over medical ethics.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Read the document: <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/law\/ng-interactive\/2015\/jun\/15\/human-experimentation-cia-document\" >\u2018Human experimentation\u2019 and the CIA<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_59719\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59719\" class=\"size-full wp-image-59719\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa.jpeg\" alt=\"CIA director George Tenet approved waterboarding and ordered medical staff to be present. Experts say the agency and its doctors violated its own limits on \u2018human subject research\u2019. Photograph: Guardian\" width=\"620\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa-300x180.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-59719\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CIA director George Tenet approved waterboarding and ordered medical staff to be present. Experts say the agency and its doctors violated its own limits on \u2018human subject research\u2019. Photograph: Guardian<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>15 Jun 2015 &#8211; <\/em>The Central Intelligence Agency had explicit guidelines for \u201chuman experimentation\u201d \u2013 before, during and after its post-9\/11 torture of terrorism detainees \u2013 that raise new questions about the limits on the agency\u2019s in-house and contracted medical research.<\/p>\n<p>Sections of a previously classified CIA document, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/law\/ng-interactive\/2015\/jun\/15\/human-experimentation-cia-document\" >made public by the Guardian on Monday<\/a>, empower the agency\u2019s director to \u201capprove, modify, or disapprove all proposals pertaining to human subject research\u201d. The leeway provides the director, who has never in the agency\u2019s history been a medical doctor, with significant influence over limitations the US government sets to preserve safe, humane and ethical procedures on people.<\/p>\n<p>CIA director George Tenet approved abusive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, designed by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/cia\" >CIA<\/a> contractor psychologists. He further instructed the agency\u2019s health personnel to oversee the brutal interrogations \u2013 the beginning of years of controversy, still ongoing, about US torture as a violation of medical ethics.<\/p>\n<p>But the revelation of the guidelines has prompted critics of CIA torture to question how the agency could have ever implemented what it calls \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d \u2013 despite apparently having rules against \u201cresearch on human subjects\u201d without their informed consent.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, despite the lurid name, doctors, human-rights workers and intelligence experts consulted by the Guardian said the agency\u2019s human-experimentation rules were consistent with responsible medical practices. The CIA, however, redacted one of the four subsections on human experimentation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more words you have, the more you can twist them, but it\u2019s not a bad definition,\u201d said Scott Allen, an internist and medical adviser to Physicians for Human Rights.<\/p>\n<p>The agency confirmed to the Guardian that the document was still in effect during the lifespan of the controversial rendition, detention and interrogation program.<\/p>\n<p>After reviewing the document, one watchdog said the timeline suggested the CIA manipulated basic definitions of human experimentation to ensure the torture program proceeded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCrime one was torture. The second crime was research without consent in order to say it wasn\u2019t torture,\u201d said Nathaniel Raymond, a former war-crimes investigator with Physicians for Human Rights and now a researcher with Harvard University\u2019s Humanitarian Initiative.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Informed consent, the director and his \u2018human subject research\u2019 panel<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_59720\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa2.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59720\" class=\"wp-image-59720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa2.jpeg\" alt=\"The CIA\u2019s internal guidelines for human experimentation, published here for the first time Composite: Guardian \/ via ACLU\" width=\"700\" height=\"219\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa2.jpeg 860w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa2-300x94.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-59720\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The CIA\u2019s internal guidelines for human experimentation, published here for the first time Composite: Guardian \/ via ACLU<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_59721\" style=\"width: 390px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa3.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59721\" class=\"size-full wp-image-59721\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa3.jpeg\" alt=\"The CIA director\u2019s powers over \u2018human subject research\u2019 have not been previously disclosed. Photograph: Guardian \/ via ACLU\" width=\"380\" height=\"757\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa3.jpeg 380w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa3-151x300.jpeg 151w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-59721\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The CIA director\u2019s powers over \u2018human subject research\u2019 have not been previously disclosed. Photograph: Guardian \/ via ACLU<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The document containing the guidelines, dated 1987 but updated over the years and still in effect at the CIA, was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the ACLU and shared with the Guardian, which is <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/law\/ng-interactive\/2015\/jun\/15\/human-experimentation-cia-document\" >publishing it for the first time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The relevant section of the CIA document, \u201cLaw and Policy Governing the Conduct of Intelligence Agencies\u201d, instructs that the agency \u201cshall not sponsor, contract for, or conduct research on human subjects\u201d outside of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/ohrp\/humansubjects\/guidance\/\" >instructions on responsible and humane medical practices<\/a> set for the entire US government by its Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n<p>A keystone of those instructions, the document notes, is the \u201csubject\u2019s informed consent\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>That language echoes the public, if obscure, language of Executive Order 12333 \u2013 the seminal, Reagan-era document spelling out the powers and limitations of the intelligence agencies, including rules <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2014\/jul\/23\/nsa-surveillance-reform-reagan-order\" >governing surveillance by the National Security Agency<\/a>. But the discretion given to the CIA director to \u201capprove, modify, or disapprove all proposals pertaining to human subject research\u201d has not previously been public.<\/p>\n<p>The entire 41-page CIA document exists to instruct the agency on what Executive Order 12333 permits and prohibits, after legislative action in the 1970s curbed intelligence powers in response to perceived abuses \u2013 including the CIA\u2019s old practice of experimenting on human beings through programs like <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar_case?q=471+U.S.+159&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=2,33&amp;case=16297847318525168348&amp;scilh=0\" >the infamous MK-Ultra project<\/a>, which, among other things, dosed unwitting participants with LSD as an experiment.<\/p>\n<p>The previously unknown section of the guidelines empower the CIA director and an advisory board on \u201chuman subject research\u201d to \u201cevaluate all documentation and certifications pertaining to human research sponsored by, contracted for, or conducted by the CIA\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CIA doctors, waterboarding and blurred lines of policy<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_59722\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa4.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59722\" class=\"wp-image-59722 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa4-300x180.jpeg\" alt=\"CIA doctors helped revive Abu Zubaydah, the first terrorism detainee known to be waterboarded in CIA custody. Photograph: AP\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa4-300x180.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa4.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-59722\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CIA doctors helped revive Abu Zubaydah, the first terrorism detainee known to be waterboarded in CIA custody. Photograph: AP<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Experts assessing the document for the Guardian said the human-experimentation guidelines were critical to understanding the CIA\u2019s baseline view of the limits of its medical research \u2013 limits they said the agency and its medical personnel violated during its interrogations, detentions and renditions program after 9\/11.<\/p>\n<p>The presence of medical personnel during brutal interrogations of men like Abu Zubaydah, they said, was difficult to reconcile with both the CIA\u2019s internal requirement of \u201cinformed consent\u201d on human experimentation subjects and responsible medical practices.<\/p>\n<p>When Zubaydah, the first detainee known to be waterboarded in CIA custody, \u201cbecame completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth\u201d, he was revived by CIA medical personnel \u2013 known as the Office of Medical Services (OMS) \u2013 <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2014\/dec\/09\/cia-torture-report-worst-findings-waterboard-rectal\" >according to a CIA account in the Senate intelligence committee\u2019s landmark torture report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The OMS doctors were heavily involved in the torture of detainees in CIA custody. They advised interrogators on the physical and psychological administration of what the agency called \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d. After observation, the doctors offered perspectives on calibrating them to specific detainees\u2019 resilience.<\/p>\n<p>OMS staff assigned to the agency\u2019s black sites wrote emails with subject lines like: \u201cRe: acceptable lower ambient temperatures\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The CIA, which does not formally concede that it tortured people, insists that the presence of medical personnel ensured its torture techniques were conducted according to medical rigor. Several instances in the Senate torture report, partially declassified six months ago, record unease among OMS staff with their role in interrogations.<\/p>\n<p>But other physicians and human rights experts who have long criticized the role of medical staff in torture said the extensive notes from CIA doctors on the interrogations \u2013 as they unfolded \u2013 brought OMS into the realm of human experimentation, particularly as they helped blur the lines between providing medical aid to detainees and keeping them capable of enduring further abusive interrogations.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/doctors\" >Doctors<\/a> take oaths to guarantee they inflict no harm on their patients.<\/p>\n<p>Zubaydah \u201cseems very resistant to the water board\u201d, an OMS official emailed in August 2002. \u201cNo useful information so far &#8230; He did vomit a couple of times during the water board with some beans and rice. It\u2019s been 10 hours since he ate so this is surprising and disturbing. We plan to only feed Ensure for a while now. I\u2019m head[ing] back for another water board session.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Doctors and intelligence experts said they could imagine legitimate, non-abusive CIA uses for human experimentation.<\/p>\n<p>Steven Aftergood, a scholar of the intelligence agencies with the Federation of American Scientists, suggested that the agency might need to study polygraph effects on its agents; evaluate their performance under conditions of stress; or study physiological indicators of deception.<\/p>\n<p>But all said that such examples of human experimentation would require something that the CIA never had during the interrogation program: the informed consent of its subjects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a disconnect between the requirement of this regulation and the conduct of the interrogation program,\u201d said Aftergood. \u201cThey do not represent consistent policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>A director\u2019s decision, oversight and an evolving rulebook<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_59723\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa5-tenet-bush.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59723\" class=\"size-full wp-image-59723\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa5-tenet-bush.jpeg\" alt=\" George Tenet at the White House in 2003, after his historic approval of so-called \u2018enhanced interrogation techniques\u2019. Photograph: Eric Draper\/EPA\" width=\"620\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa5-tenet-bush.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/cia-human-experimentation-research-usa-torture-psychologists-apa5-tenet-bush-300x180.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-59723\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Tenet at the White House in 2003, after his historic approval of so-called \u2018enhanced interrogation techniques\u2019. Photograph: Eric Draper\/EPA<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Months after Zubaydah\u2019s interrogation, Tenet issued formal guidance approving brutal interrogation techniques, including waterboarding. Tenet explicitly ordered medical staff to be present \u2013 a decision carrying the effect of having them extensively document and evaluate the torture sessions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[A]ppropriate medical or psychological personnel must be on site during all detainee interrogations employing Enhanced Techniques,\u201d Tenet wrote in January 2003. \u201cIn each case, the medical and psychological staff shall suspend the interrogation if they determine that significant and prolonged physical or mental injury, pain or suffering is likely to result if the interrogation is not suspended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response to the Guardian\u2019s questions about the newly disclosed document and its implications for the CIA\u2019s post-9\/11 torture program, CIA spokesperson Ryan Trapani provided the following statement:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCIA has had internal guidelines interpreting Executive Order 1233 in place continuously from 1987 to present. While some provisions in these guidelines have been amended since September 11, 2001, none of those amendments changed provisions governing human experimentation or were made in response to the detention and interrogation program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, the only part of the CIA\u2019s torture program in which agency officials claimed they were hamstrung by prohibitions on human experimentation is when they were asked by John Helgerson, their internal inspector general, if torture was effective.<\/p>\n<p>Their response was framed as an example of the agency respecting its own prohibition on human experimentation. In more recent days, the CIA has used it as a cudgel against the Senate report\u2019s extensive conclusions that the torture was ultimately worthless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[S]ystematic study over time of the effectiveness of the techniques would have been encumbered by a number of factors,\u201d reads a CIA response given to Helgerson in June 2003, a point the agency <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cia.gov\/news-information\/press-releases-statements\/2014-press-releases-statements\/cia-fact-sheet-ssci-study-on-detention-interrogation-program.html\" >reiterated<\/a> in its formal response to the Senate intelligence committee. Among them: \u201cFederal policy on the protection of human subjects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harvard\u2019s Raymond, using the agency\u2019s acronym for its \u201cenhanced interrogation technique\u201d euphemism, said the CIA must have known its guidelines on human experimentation ruled out its psychologist-designed brutal interrogations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they were abiding by this policy when EIT came up, they wouldn\u2019t have been allowed to do it,\u201d Raymond said. \u201cAnyone in good faith would have known that was human subject research.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>*******************<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/law\/ng-interactive\/2015\/jun\/15\/human-experimentation-cia-document\" >&#8216;Human Experimentation&#8217; and the CIA: Read the Previously Classified Document<\/a><br \/>\n15 Jun 2015 &#8211; <em>This document, updated over the years and still in effect at the Central Intelligence Agency, was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the ACLU and shared with the Guardian, which is publishing it for the first time. The guidelines for \u2018human experimentation\u2019 \u2013 beginning on page 18 \u2013 were still in effect during the lifespan of the agency\u2019s controversial interrogation program<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2014\/dec\/16\/cia-torture-report-physicians-human-rights-report\" >CIA Torture: Health Professionals &#8216;May Have Committed War Crimes&#8217;, Report Says<\/a><br \/>\n16 Dec 2014 &#8211; <em>Physicians for Human Rights called for federal investigation on CIA torture program participation, calling rectal feeding technique \u2018form of sexual assault\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2015\/apr\/30\/psychologists-bush-officials-torture-program\" >Psychologists Met In Secret with Bush Officials to Help Justify Torture \u2013 Report<\/a><br \/>\n30 Apr 2015 &#8211; <em>Newly disclosed emails reveal American Psychological Association coordinated with officials in CIA and White House to help ethically justify detainee program<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>_____________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Spencer Ackerman is national security editor for<\/em> Guardian US. <em>A former senior writer for <\/em>Wired, <em>he won the 2012 National Magazine Award for Digital Reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2015\/jun\/15\/cia-torture-human-experimentation-doctors?CMP=ema_565\" >Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A previously classified CIA document, made public by the Guardian on Monday [15 Jun], empower the agency\u2019s director to \u201capprove, modify, or disapprove all proposals pertaining to human subject research\u201d. The director has never in the agency\u2019s history been a medical doctor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}