Sinister CIA Torture May Have Crossed 'Human Experimentation' Threshold

Several US medical experts arguing that the CIA's internal limits on human research may have been violated by the post-September 11, 2001, program of extraordinary renditions, detentions and interrogations, Guardian said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The US Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) so-called enhanced interrogation techniques may be in violation of its self-imposed rules on human experimentation, the Guardian reported in an exclusive story on Monday.

A classified CIA document released under a Freedom of Information Act request gives the agency's Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) the right to "approve, modify, or disapprove all proposals pertaining to human subject research." At the same time, the "Law and Policy Governing the Conduct of Intelligence Agencies" provided to the outlet by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) requires the research subject's "informed consent."

The Guardian cites several medical experts arguing that the CIA's internal limits on human research may have been violated by the post-September 11, 2001, program of extraordinary renditions, detentions and interrogations.

"There is a disconnect between the requirement of this regulation and the conduct of the interrogation program. They do not represent consistent policy," the head of the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy, Steven Aftergood, told the publication.

Nathaniel Raymond, an anti-torture advocate and former Physicians for Human Rights director, joined Aftergood in stating that human subject experiments, as defined in CIA documents that include torture, were used on suspected terrorists without their consent.

"If they were abiding by this policy when EIT [enhanced interrogation techniques] came up, they wouldn’t have been allowed to do it," Raymond told the outlet.

He further argues that "anyone in good faith" could see that the program conducts human subject research.

The CIA's torture practices, widely circulated in the media and detailed in a US Senate Intelligence Committee report, were established by two former military psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. The two contractors received $81 million to develop the techniques, including waterboarding and stress positions, that they used on CIA detainees.

Human subject research is one of many potential violations in the CIA's so-called anti-terror program, which also included intentional harm on detainees and failing to document evidence of torture.