United States army medics have been accused of being complicit in the abuse of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad.
Writing in the medical journal, The Lancet, Professor Steven Miles says some medics collaborated with abusive guards.
The University of Minnesota academic has called for an inquiry into the role played by medics in the abuse.
“Government documents show that the US military medical system failed to protect detainees’ human rights, sometimes collaborated with interrogators or abusive guards, and failed to properly report injuries or deaths caused by beatings,” he said.
**"In one example, soldiers tied a beaten detainee at the top of his cell door and gagged him.
“The death certificate indicated that he died of ‘natural causes…during his sleep’. After news media coverage, the Pentagon revised the certificate to say that the death was a ‘homicide’.” **
Professor Miles called for this and other incidents to be investigated.
“Although the US Armed Forces’s medical services are mainly staffed by humane and skilled personnel, the described offences do not merely fall short of medical ideals; some constitute grave breaches of international or US law,” he said.
In an accompanying editorial, The Lancet called on US army medics to come clean.
“Guidelines and codes of practice state that doctors, even in military forces, must first and foremost be concerned about their patients and bound by principles of medical ethics,” it said.
“Health care workers should now break their silence. Those who were involved in or witnessed ill-treatment need to give a full and accurate account of events at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.”
The Department of Defense takes strong exception to these allegations and his wholesale indictment of the medical care rendered by US personnel to prisoners and detainees.
“Miles’ article paints an inaccurate picture of how medical personnel performed their duties and upheld their obligations.”
He added: “Although investigations have not been completed, we have no evidence that military medical personnel collaborated with abusive behaviour by interrogators or guards, or condoned any abusive behaviours. There is no evidence that final death certificates were falsified.”
US army medics accused in abuse
The excuses we here from the ameriikkan apologist and excuse makers is that the abuse in iraq and afghanistan are result of few bad apples here and there, well with even the US army Medical services involved with abuse there really is no doubt about it the entire military is contaminated and its not a few bad apples its whole container loads of bad apples!