VOA慢速英語:醫(yī)療監(jiān)視究竟是什么？

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From VOA Learning English, this is As It Is.

I'm Anna Matteo in Washington.

Not all spies target military, political or economic intelligence. Some gathermedical intelligence.

Presidents, prime ministers and other leaders do not always like to talk abouttheir health. Some disappear from public life for a while and then reappear,with or without an explanation.

Spy agencies search for information about physical and mental health. Theidea that a leader might even lose his mind and launch a war or a nuclearattack is not an imaginary threat.

The Central Intelligence Agency has a Medical and Psychological AssessmentCell. It employs or consults with doctors, sociologists, political scientists andcultural anthropologists to examine the conditions of top officials.

Jonathan Clemente is a doctor doing research for a book on medicalintelligence. He says the CIA team tries to predict how a leader will act.

“What they try and do on the psychological side of things in describe aconstellation of psychiatric signs and symptoms, and then to describe for thepolicy makers how someone with that particular set of findings may react tocertain situations.”

This work goes back to the Office of Strategic Services, which came beforethe CIA. The OSS did a psychological profile of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler inGermany.

The CIA was established in 1947. Dr. Clemente says the agency formed asmall office called "Leadership at a Distance."

"In the late fifties and early nineteen sixties, the CIA decided that they hadexpertise to look more carefully and in a more rigorous, analytical way at thehealth of foreign leaders in order to help give policy makers some forewarningof a transition in a government, stability of foreign governments, and alsolooking for potential points of diplomatic leverage.”

Experts say dying leaders can feel the need to act quickly to make sure theirdecisions live longer than they do.

President John F. Kennedy meet with military officers to discuss the U-2 spy plan over Cuba.

Physical and mental health are closely linked. But identifying a mentalcondition without direct examination of a person can be much more difficultthan a physical disorder.

Rose McDermott is a political psychologist at Brown University in Providence,Rhode Island. She points out that an illness like bipolar disease can be well-controlled on medication. But a leader’s behavior can also be affected bymedication taken for a physical condition.

Rose McDermott: "The concern is not just the illness, it's also the medicationthat people take while they are ill and how that can compromise their decision-making ability, cognitively and intellectually. So they don’t make the same kindof decisions, their decisions may not be as predictable. They certainly may not be as, quote unquote, rational.

Professor McDermott has written extensively on medical intelligence.

ROSE McDERMOTT: “It can be decisively important because it can reallychange the stability of governments, particularly in authoritarian or totalitarianregimes, where there’s really a limited number of people who have powerfuldecision-making authority."

And I’m Anna Matteo.

What about the leaders from your country? Any hidden health secrets you'dlike to share? Do it in our comment section where you can also practice yourwritten English!