Where Were The Doctors At Abu Ghraib?

When Dr. Steven Miles first saw the news photos of American guards abusing Iraqi prisoners last year, he couldn't help wondering one thing: Where were the doctors? Via Information Clearinghouse Miles argues that health professionals turned a blind eye, or worse, to the torture and deaths of some of their patients. "These health professionals could have protested," he said. Instead, "the medical system here became one of the professional arms of a torturing society." His allegations -- first published in a medical journal last summer -- have infuriated the Pentagon. "We have no evidence that military medical personnel collaborated with interrogators or guards accused or suspected of detainee abuse, or condoned abusive behavior," said James Turner, a spokesman for the Defense Department in Washington. Miles, though, says the evidence tells another story. Last month, he opened a lecture to hospital employees in St. Paul with a notorious photo: the picture of two U.S. guards, a man and woman, grinning behind a pile of naked men at Abu Ghraib prison. Miles let the image sink in. "The question for today is, how does the image of this picture change when we know that there's a health professional in this room?" he asked. According to witness reports, Miles said, a "nurse medic" was called into the room to examine a prisoner who was having trouble breathing. The medic determined he was having an anxiety attack, and "simply walked off and made no further note of it," Miles said. MORE.....