NYTs Editorial Board:Psychologists Who Greenlighted Torture

[Ichingcarpenter]

The first detailed accounts of the brutal interrogation program the Central Intelligence Agency established after the Sept. 11 attacks noted that psychologists and other medical professionals played key roles in abetting the torture of terrorism suspects. However, much about their role and their degree of responsibility in one of the most macabre and shameful chapters of American history has remained shrouded in secrecy.

A new report by a former federal prosecutor, first disclosed by James Risen in The Times, contains astonishing, disturbing details. It found that top members of the American Psychological Association, the largest professional organization of psychologists, colluded with officials at the Pentagon and the C.I.A. to keep the group’s ethics policies in line with tactics that interrogators working for the agency and the military were employing.

At a time when intelligence and Department of Defense officials were desperate for intelligence that would help them foil new terror plots, they were willing to pay handsomely for experts who could give the torture program a veneer of legitimacy. Prominent psychologists were apparently happy to indulge them. “A.P.A. chose its ethics policy based on its goals of helping D.O.D., managing its P.R., and maximizing the growth of the profession,” the report said.



Psychologists were paid to give the Central Intelligence Agency's torture program a veneer of legitimacy. The 542-page report, which was commissioned by the board of directors of the American Psychological Association, says that some medical personnel at the C.I.A. became concerned about the torture program, which was run by Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, two contractors who were former Air Force psychologists. The critics at the agency expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the interrogation tactics and questioned whether they were in line with the ethics guidelines of the psychologists association.

The association assembled a task force in 2005 to study the concerns. The task force was dominated by “national security insiders,” Mr. Risen reported. They concluded that psychiatrists could resume assisting in brutal interrogations.

On Friday, Physicians for Human Rights justifiably called on the Department of Justice to begin a criminal investigation into the psychologists association’s role in the Bush administration’s torture program.

“As mental health professionals, our first obligation must be to our patients,” said Dr. Kerry Sulkowicz, a psychiatrist and the vice chairwoman of the board of Physicians for Human Rights, in a statement. “The A.P.A.’s collusion with the government’s national security apparatus is one of the greatest scandals in U.S. medical history.”

The Obama administration has so far refused to prosecute the torturers. As more evidence about this program comes to light, that position becomes increasingly indefensible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/opinion/psychologists-who-greenlighted-torture.html

[merrily]

1. Medical and legal professionals betrayed the ethics of their respective professions to put

their imprimaturs on this infamy and they were well-rewarded, right, US Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Bybee?

The story goes: Bybee contacted Gonzo to request a judicial appointment. Gonzo replied that Bybee should come to work for him for a while and we'll see.

While serving in the Bush administration as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, United States Department of Justice, he signed the controversial "Torture Memos" in August 2002. These authorized "enhanced interrogation techniques" that were used in the systematic torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay detention camp beginning in 2002 and at the Abu Ghraib facility following the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Bybee

Yadda yadda

President George W. Bush nominated Bybee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and he was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 13, 2003.[5] He received his commission on March 21, 2003, and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor administered the oath of office at the Supreme Court on March 28, 2003.[6]

id.

Short of the Supreme Court of the United States, this is one of the best judicial nominations for which anyone could hope.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. U.S. Justice Department Must Investigate American Psychological Association’s Role in U.S. Torture P

Physicians for Human Rights






NEW YORK - Physicians for Human Rights today called for a federal criminal probe into the American Psychological Association's (APA) role in the U.S. torture program following the release of a damning new report that confirms the APA colluded with the Bush administration to enable psychologists to design, implement, and defend a program of torture. In light of the 542-page independent report first reported by The New York Times, PHR again called for a full investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“The corruption of a health professional organization at this level is an extraordinary betrayal of both ethics and the law, and demands an investigation and appropriate prosecutions,” said Donna McKay, PHR’s executive director. “Rather than uphold the principle of ‘do no harm,’ APA leadership subverted its own ethics policies and sabotaged all efforts at enforcement.”

The APA commissioned an independent review by David Hoffman, a former federal prosecutor, in November 2014 after detailed allegations of complicity emerged in New York Times reporter James Risen’s book, “Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War.” The book documented secret coordination between APA and U.S. officials to support the spurious legal and ethical justification for the Bush administration’s torture program, which relied on health professional monitoring of abusive interrogations to claim that they were “safe, effective, and legal.”

Hoffman’s report, based on extensive interviews and review of internal emails and documents, found overwhelming evidence of criminal activity by APA staff and officials, including:


Colluding with the U.S. Department of Defense, the CIA, and other elements of the Bush administration to enable psychologists to design, implement, and defend the post-9/11 torture program;

Allowing military and intelligence personnel to write APA ethics policies regulating their own conduct to ensure they were “covered” for their roles in the torture program;


Engaging in a coordinated campaign to cover up the collusion and blocking attempts to oppose these policies within the APA; and

Obstructing and manipulating ethics investigations into psychologists involved in the torture program. -


See more at: http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/press/press-releases/us-justice-department-must-investigate-american-psychological-associations-role-in-us-torture-program.html?referrer=http://www.physiciansforhumanrights.org/?referrer=http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2015/07/10/us-justice-department-must-investigate-american-psychological-associations-role?referrer=http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/opinion/psychologists-who-greenlighted-torture.html#sthash.awAonQvH.dpuf