Doctors or CIA Agents: Who’s More Deadly?

The Medical Mafia facilitates torture

Despite the ever-evolving façades, not much about American war propaganda has changed over the past century (besides, of course, how it’s transmitted). Rhetorical edits aside, it remains true that U.S. wars, interventions, and covert actions are skillfully packaged and sold while the official history of those conflicts is subject to spin and distortion. 

By presenting all of our [sic] enemies as a never-ending parade of savages auditioning for a starring role as the "next Hitler," wartime spin plays into our worst fears — the bogeyman — while shoving  America’s catalog of criminality down the proverbial memory hole.

Case in point: Dan Mitrione, head of Orwellian-named U.S. Office of Public Safety. He got his start training the Brazilian police force in the 1960s. One of the techniques Mitrione taught involved placing the end of a reed in the anus of a naked man hanging suspended. The other end of the reed is soaked in oil and lit.

“One of the most notorious Brazilian torture devices during Mitrione’s tenure was known as the refrigerator, a small square box barely big enough to hold a hunched-up human being,” writes journalist Brett Wilkins. “The ‘fridge’ was equipped with a heating and cooling unit, speakers, and strobe lights; its use drove many men mad. Under Mitrione, Brazilian police devised a new torture technique they called the ‘Statue of Liberty,’ in which hooded prisoners were forced to stand on a sharp-edged sardine tin and hold heavy objects above their heads until they began collapsing from exhaustion, at which point powerful electric shocks would force them upright.”

Aren’t you just brimming with pride to have your tax dollars spent in the name of democracy by the Home of the Brave™?

In Uruguay, Mitrione was called in to help deal with the Tupamaros, a group once called “perhaps the cleverest, most resourceful, and most sophisticated urban guerrillas the world has ever seen.” Under the guidance of Mitrione, the Uruguayan Senate found that torture had become a “normal, frequent, and habitual occurrence.” 

Techniques included electric shocks to the genitals, electric needles under the fingernails, and the use of a wire so thin that it could be fitted into the mouth between the teeth, and pressing against the gum increases the electrical charge.

Such tactics were honed in Mitrione’s own soundproof basement room. He once had four street beggars “procured” to demonstrate the effects of different voltages on different parts of the body. All four men died — for our sins, I suppose.

According to Wilkins, Mitrione said that the key to successful interrogation was to apply “the precise pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount to achieve the desired effect.” Mitrione went on to explain: 

“A premature death means failure by the technician. You have to act with the efficiency and cleanliness of a surgeon and with the perfection of an artist. When you get what you want, and I always, do, it may be good to prolong the session a little to apply another softening up, not to extract information now, but only as a political measure, to create a healthy fear.”

I repeat: Aren’t you just brimming with pride to have your tax dollars spent in the name of democracy by the Home of the Brave™?

Mitrione was eventually kidnapped and killed by the Tupamaros. At his funeral, then-White House spokesman Ron Ziegler stated: “Mr. Mitrione’s devoted service to the cause of peace in an orderly world will remain as an example for free men everywhere.” Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lewis even staged a benefit concert for his grieving family — Mitrione had nine children — in his hometown of Richmond, Indiana.

Never mind Putin, comrades, this is what we’re up against… but there’s more. There’s always more. 

Dan Mitrione was assisted by U.S. physicians who taught him and agents of our [sic] allies how to inflict maximum pain and suffering without killing the subject. Such doctors were kept on hand to revive “prisoners” who passed out so they could be subjected to even more torture. This was not an isolated situation. 

A November 2013 study found medical personnel — physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists who worked in military branches or for U.S. intelligence agencies — allowed “cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment” of prisoners while acting at the direction of military leaders under both the Bush and Obama administrations.

In December 2014, a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reported (among other things):

• After a doctor X-rayed one prisoner's feet and determined they were badly broken, another physician recommended that he could be made to stand for 52 hours.

• Only when one detainee stopped being able to see out of one of his eyes did a doctor suggest stopping the physical torture affecting that area. 

• A team of doctors decided that prisoners could be waterboarded — which simulates drowning — up to three times per day.

"The torture could not proceed [without] medical supervision," said surgeon Atul Gawande at the time. "The medical profession was deeply embedded in this inhumanity."

While a small team of psychologists designed the program, dozens of other medical professionals oversaw it. The two psychologists who developed the CIA's torture program — Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen — formed a company called Mitchell, Jessen & Associates and got more than $80 million from the government for their services.

Two years later, a series of documents about CIA torture programs revealed doctors from the CIA’s Office of Medical Services (OMS) were taking part in torture, sexual abuse, and practices like “rectal rehydration” (see photo below) at Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp. 

Maybe, just maybe, you didn’t know any of the above before you opted to fully trust your government, corporate science, and media propaganda for the past two years and counting. Meanwhile, I’ve already told you about how dangerous doctors and nurses are on a daily basis. The Medical Mafia can not and should not be trusted.

So, since you’re now aware of all this, I’ve gotta ask: How quickly are you gonna start thinking, feeling, acting, and living differently?

As I’ve discussed before, our literal autonomy and survival depend on it.

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