Steven Kelley: Medical mafia helps US government with torture

Press TV has interviewed Steven D. Kelley, a former CIA/NSA contractor in Los Angeles, to discuss recent reports alleging that the American Psychological Association has been involved in CIA’s post 9/11 torture programs.

Following is a rough transcription.

Press TV: Our report says the medical professionals may be charged with partaking in these tortures; now why do we not hear about those ordering the torturing and their chain of command being held accountable for crimes against humanity or war crimes for these illegal practices?

Kelley: I think that we are going to feign shock because we expect the medical professionals of course to be a little more pure and have integrity not be involved in this sort of thing, but I think obviously we are talking about individuals, a lot of individuals, but at the same time historically this sort of organizations, they act like a mafia with law enforcement and the various judicial system and obviously government agencies. So clearly they are part of the system, they are not operating outside of the system. They are certainly part of the system and basically this sort of thing has been going on for a long time and it is really nothing to be shocked about.

Press TV: When the torture report was first released in the Oversight committee and Congress not too long ago it seemed like the Obama administration totally disregarded it to a pretty disturbing degree. Now are these psychologists going to end up being the scapegoats now?

Kelley: That is always a possibility, sure. They could select a few individuals who will fall. Of course we are talking about something that is institution-wide so certainly the institution isn’t going to go away. Obviously if you had to look at the institution as a whole, it would be corrupt naturally, but the point again is that this is just one facet of a large system of oppression and a system of control and certainly this is a great way for the legal system and the government with the collusion of these so-called medical experts to disappear people into its system and administer drugs and it all seems very legitimate, so we are talking about some very corrupt individuals if they decide to eat some of their own to have a little PR help perhaps we’ll see, but I don’t expect anything to change and I think the monster will remain healthy.

Press TV: You did mention that medical professionals are expected to adhere to a certain standard of conduct, now they do have a responsibility to stop human suffering regardless if the person is criminal or not; should they have reported this to the proper authorities?

Kelley: Naturally we would hope that, again as individuals, they would have been raised properly and have this integrity. Again we are talking about an industry that is kind of a profit-based capitalist system where perhaps if the correct amount of money was offered, they would be willing to look the other way.

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