Physician .... Profile Thine Enemy

According to NBC news, The CIA is recruiting physicians to do "medical analysis work". They are recruiting psychiatric as well as medical doctors. Medical profilers are not new to the military and existed in the Cold War era.

An example of some recent medical profiling:

"Two senior U.S. officials who have seen the bin Laden material note that it puts to rest the rumor that the al-Qaida leader needs dialysis for a kidney disorder.

In fact, the officials said, bin Laden suffers only from kidney stones, a painful but not deadly condition which can be treated with drugs.

In addition, the officials said that the CIA has determined that bin Laden has an enlarged heart and chronically low blood pressure. Beyond that, his only known malady is two missing toes from a war wound suffered in Afghanistan fighting the Soviet Union.

At one point, medical analysts thought bin Laden was a “bit of a hypochondriac,” said one former official, noting that the United States had heard of his constant health complaints.

That profile, said one of the officials, was developed with the aid of defectors from al-Qaida as well as foreign intelligence services, bin Laden family members and U.S. technical intelligence."