Post by hellboy87 on Oct 4, 2010 16:27:24 GMT -5
The country that talks of safeguarding human rights has a shocking record of illegal human experimentation
By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News Published: 00:00 October 5, 2010
Millions, if not billions of people, around the world believe the United States is a global force for good. That's no surprise when children from Brighton to Beijing are weaned on American culture in the form of movies, music videos, computer games, baseball, fast food and ‘I Love NY' T-shirts almost from the time they utter their first ‘mama'.
US presidents and politicians tout American values and wag their fingers at other countries that don't match up in terms of human rights or civil liberties. To be fair, the US does have a lot to offer its citizens and, as the wealthiest nation on the planet is the largest contributor of aid to some of the poorest countries. It's also easy to warm to the stereotypical big-hearted, outgoing, God-fearing, somewhat naive American who reveres the US Constitution and trusts in the inherent goodness of his government.
But the gleaming smiles of American leaders, who have perfected the art of appearing as benign, dog-loving family men, sometimes hide dark secrets along with a ruthlessness normally associated with brutal third-world dictators.
My own love affair with Uncle Sam ended abruptly when hooded ‘detainees' in leg irons were hauled off to the cages of Guantanamo and Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison were subjected to physical and sexual indignities at the hands of the US military. It's easy to dismiss such evils as post-9/11 aberrations elicited by fear and self-preservation. But when the surface is scratched, America's record is far from pretty.
Recently, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a joint statement apologising for US government experiments on over 600 prisoners, soldiers and mentally ill patients in Guatemala, who were deliberately infected with syphilis during the 1940s.
Revelation
The apology was long overdue and wouldn't have happened at all but for the efforts of Susan Reverby, an author and professor in women's studies, who unearthed the dirt while researching a book on the 1960s Tuskegee study.
The Tuskegee experiment was just as heinous. It was conducted by the US Public Health Service between 1932 and 1972 when 400 impoverished African Americans with syphilis were offered free meals, medical treatment and burial insurance in return for their participation.
Sounds good so far, but they were never told that they were infected and none were prescribed the accepted treatment penicillin which would have provided a cure. Many of the subjects' wives became infected and their children were both with congenital disease. Only 74 of the men survived.
Similar experiments authorised by the US government are too numerous to mention. However, in 1994, Senator John D. Rockefeller reported that the US Department of Defense had involved hundreds of thousands of military personnel in experiments when they were exposed to mustard or nerve gas, radiation, hallucinogens and drugs. Other examples are:
In 1944, US Navy locked human subjects in a gas chamber where they were exposed to mustard gas;
During 1947, the CIA studied LSD's potential intelligence gathering benefits using it upon unwitting civilian and military subjects.
Over 400 prisoners in Chicago were infected with malaria during 1949 so that experimental drugs could be tested.
In 1965, prisoners in Philadelphia were subjected to dioxin, a component of Agent Orange and were later monitored for cancer.
In 1990, more than 1,500 African American and Hispanic babies were administered an experimental, unlicensed measles vaccine.
In 1995, a doctor uncovered proof that biological agents used during the Gulf War had been tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections.
You may be tempted to dismiss the above as abuses belong to a different era. However, according to a report issued earlier this year by Physicians for Human Rights titled Experiments in Torture, American doctors and officials have performed experiments on detainees held within the CIA's secret Enhanced Interrogation Programme to research the threshold of pain an individual can bear.
In response to the report, the Centre for Constitutional Rights has called upon the Attorney General to launch a criminal investigation into such illegal human experimentation that violates the Nuremburg Code and the Hippocratic Oath.
The ‘Land of the Free' does its best to hide its ugly dark side; no easy task in this cyber-age. But now that we are aware, the question is does the good outweigh the bad? I'll leave you to ponder on that one.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com. Some comments may be considered for publication
By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News Published: 00:00 October 5, 2010
Millions, if not billions of people, around the world believe the United States is a global force for good. That's no surprise when children from Brighton to Beijing are weaned on American culture in the form of movies, music videos, computer games, baseball, fast food and ‘I Love NY' T-shirts almost from the time they utter their first ‘mama'.
US presidents and politicians tout American values and wag their fingers at other countries that don't match up in terms of human rights or civil liberties. To be fair, the US does have a lot to offer its citizens and, as the wealthiest nation on the planet is the largest contributor of aid to some of the poorest countries. It's also easy to warm to the stereotypical big-hearted, outgoing, God-fearing, somewhat naive American who reveres the US Constitution and trusts in the inherent goodness of his government.
But the gleaming smiles of American leaders, who have perfected the art of appearing as benign, dog-loving family men, sometimes hide dark secrets along with a ruthlessness normally associated with brutal third-world dictators.
My own love affair with Uncle Sam ended abruptly when hooded ‘detainees' in leg irons were hauled off to the cages of Guantanamo and Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison were subjected to physical and sexual indignities at the hands of the US military. It's easy to dismiss such evils as post-9/11 aberrations elicited by fear and self-preservation. But when the surface is scratched, America's record is far from pretty.
Recently, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a joint statement apologising for US government experiments on over 600 prisoners, soldiers and mentally ill patients in Guatemala, who were deliberately infected with syphilis during the 1940s.
Revelation
The apology was long overdue and wouldn't have happened at all but for the efforts of Susan Reverby, an author and professor in women's studies, who unearthed the dirt while researching a book on the 1960s Tuskegee study.
The Tuskegee experiment was just as heinous. It was conducted by the US Public Health Service between 1932 and 1972 when 400 impoverished African Americans with syphilis were offered free meals, medical treatment and burial insurance in return for their participation.
Sounds good so far, but they were never told that they were infected and none were prescribed the accepted treatment penicillin which would have provided a cure. Many of the subjects' wives became infected and their children were both with congenital disease. Only 74 of the men survived.
Similar experiments authorised by the US government are too numerous to mention. However, in 1994, Senator John D. Rockefeller reported that the US Department of Defense had involved hundreds of thousands of military personnel in experiments when they were exposed to mustard or nerve gas, radiation, hallucinogens and drugs. Other examples are:
In 1944, US Navy locked human subjects in a gas chamber where they were exposed to mustard gas;
During 1947, the CIA studied LSD's potential intelligence gathering benefits using it upon unwitting civilian and military subjects.
Over 400 prisoners in Chicago were infected with malaria during 1949 so that experimental drugs could be tested.
In 1965, prisoners in Philadelphia were subjected to dioxin, a component of Agent Orange and were later monitored for cancer.
In 1990, more than 1,500 African American and Hispanic babies were administered an experimental, unlicensed measles vaccine.
In 1995, a doctor uncovered proof that biological agents used during the Gulf War had been tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections.
You may be tempted to dismiss the above as abuses belong to a different era. However, according to a report issued earlier this year by Physicians for Human Rights titled Experiments in Torture, American doctors and officials have performed experiments on detainees held within the CIA's secret Enhanced Interrogation Programme to research the threshold of pain an individual can bear.
In response to the report, the Centre for Constitutional Rights has called upon the Attorney General to launch a criminal investigation into such illegal human experimentation that violates the Nuremburg Code and the Hippocratic Oath.
The ‘Land of the Free' does its best to hide its ugly dark side; no easy task in this cyber-age. But now that we are aware, the question is does the good outweigh the bad? I'll leave you to ponder on that one.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com. Some comments may be considered for publication