Psychologists and interrogations — Key articles
Articles and Materials Related to Psychologists’ Participation in Interrogations
Stephen Soldz, Steven Reisner, Brad Olson , et al., Open Letter to the President of the American Psychological Association. [pdf]
Stephen Soldz, Steven Reisner, Brad Olson , et al. A Q&A on Psychologists and Torture: The Pentagon’s IG Report Contradicts What the APA Has Said About the Involvement of Psychologists in Abusive Interrogations. [pdf]
My Audio
My August 27, 2007 interview on WBAI’s Wakeup Call show about the role of psychologists in US torture is available for download here.
I, together with Steven Reisner, was interviewed on August 17, 2007, on Democracy Now! Dissident Members Challenge American Psychological Association on Role in CIA Interrogation, Torture.
I was interviewed on March 23, 2007 on Talk Nation Radio on the issue of psychologists and interrogations: Talk Nation Radio interview with Stephen Soldz on Psychologists Participating in US Military Interrogations. You can listen to the interview or red the transcript there. [Speaking of Talk Nation radio, nor long after my interview, TNR interviewed Mark Benjamin of salon on the same issue. You can listen to the interview here or download it here. I was quoted several times by the interviewer, Dori Smith.]
Here is a partial list of my writings on the issue of psychologists’ involvement in interrogations
Why Mary Pipher Returned her APA Award, Counterpunch, August 25, [Also on, under varied names, ZNet, Common Dreams, Scoop, Never In Our Names, and Atlantic Free Press. Several of these have embedded links for references.]
Defense Department Releases Evidence of Central Role of Psychologists in Guantanamo and Iraq Interrogation Abuse: Inspector General documents role of Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) techniques, May 29, 2007. [Also as Shrinks and the SERE Technique at Guantanamo on CounterPunch.]
Aid and Comfort to Torturers: Psychology and Coercive Interrogations in Historical Perspective, April, 2007 [version with links here.] Translated into Spanish as: Ayuda y confort para los torturadores: Psicología e interrogatorios coercitivos en la perspectiva histórica
A Profession Struggles to Save Its Soul Psychologists, Guantanamo and Torture , august, 2006. Translated into Spanish by Germán Leyens as: Psicólogos, Guantánamo y la tortura: Una profesión pugna por salvar su alma. Here is a shortened and updated version of the above article from Psychoanalytic Activist , Winter 2007.
Protecting the Torturers: Bad Faith and Distortions From the American Psychological Association, September, 2006.
Letter to the CEO of the American Psychiatric Association
Abusive interrogations: A defining difference between psychiatrists and psychologists
Also related:
Michael Gelles condescends to APA critics
Also related:
- Steven Miles responds to Michael Gelles
- Uwe Jacobs responds to Michael Gelles on psychologists in interrogations]
Is prolonged solitary confinement unconstitutional in America and in the Guantanamo gulag?, April 17, 2007
APA Presidential Candidates on Coercive Interrogations
Psychology and the cruelty at Guantánamo
American Psychological Association condemns the Torture Legalization Act of 2006
APA-FBI attacks on therapist confidentiality
New Pentagon–health professions PR offensive over Guantanamo
Military psychologists brag of defusing interrogations issue
Stephen Soldz & Rodrigo Barahona, La Nation (Costa Rica), April 8, 2007: Psicólogos, Guantánamo y tortura: Una grave cuestión moral que nos pertenece a todos
My articles on background and related issues
Air Force psychological operations interested in neurobiology of dread (anticipation of pain). May 14, 2007.
American tortured by Americans in Iraq speaks out.
What the US Reservations to UN Convention on Torture really means?, September 13th, 2006.
Articles by others on this issue [partial list -- will gradually add to it]
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, Ethics Rebellion in Psychology, October 12, 2007. See also: Earlham College: RESOLUTION CONCERNING PARTICIPATION OF PSYCHOLOGISTS IN MILITARY DETENTION CENTERS.
Democracy Now! Douglas Johnson, Steven Miles, & Amy Goodman: More Health Care Professionals Involved In Design, Structuring of Torture Than in Providing Care for Survivors, September 28, 2007.
Democracy Now! The August 20, 2007 show contains four segments related to the 2007 APA Convention: Mark Benjamin: American Psychological Association Rejects Blanket Ban on Participation in Interrogation of U.S. Detainees; APA Interrogation Task Force Member Dr. Jean Maria Arrigo Exposes Group’s Ties to Military; Dissident Voices: Ex-Task Force Member Dr. Michael Wessells Speaks Out on Psychologists and Torture; and APA Members Hold Fiery Town Hall Meeting on Interrogation, Torture.
Democracy Now! compendium of 18 shows on Psychologists and Torture.
Mark Benjamin, Salon, Will psychologists still abet torture? August 21,2007. [Reports on the ambiguous result of the 2007 APA Convention.]
Mark Benjamin, Salon, Psychologists to CIA: We condemn torture, August, 15, 2007. [Written just before 2007 APA Convention.]
Amy Goodman, Jean Maria Arigo, Len Rubenstein, Nina Thomas, Eric Anders, Democrcay Now! June 1, 2007: “The Task Force Report Should Be Annulled” - Member of 2005 APA Task Force on Psychologist Participation in Military Interrogations Speaks Out. [read or listen]
Art Levine, Washington Monthly, January 2007: Collective Unconscionable: How psychologists, the most liberal of professionals, abetted Bush’s torture policy.
[See APA response.]
Mark Benjamin, Salon, July 26, 2006: Psychological warfare.
Angered that their professional organization has adopted a policy condoning psychologists’ participation in “war on terror” interrogations, many psychologists are vowing to stage a battle royal at the APA’s annual meeting.
Mark Benjamin, Salon, August 2006: Psychologists group still rocked by torture debate.
Frank Summers, Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 2007: Psychoanalysis, The American Psychological Association, and the Involvement Of Psychologists at Guantanamo Bay.
Abstract
This paper recounts the author’s experience attempting to change the policy of the American Psychological Association (APA) that allows the participation of its members in Guantanamo Bay and similar detention centers. The efforts of the Division of Psychoanalysis and other divisions of the APA to oppose any such involvement are described as well as the reaction of the APA leadership to these efforts. The author speculates on the reason for the persistence of the APA governance in protecting the employment of psychologists as consultants to coercive interrogations.
Steven J. Reisner, Psychologist-Psychoanalyst, Winter, 2007: Ethical Concerns About Psychologists’ Participation in Interrogation of Detainees.
Brad Olson, Community Psychologist, Fall 2007: Human Rights and the Ethics of Psychologist-Involved Interrogations.
“The debate is at the heart of our field, helping to determine whether the tools of psychology should be used for control or if clear limits should be set so that . . . individual human dignity lies under the securest protections.”
Amy Goodman, Steven Reisner, & Gerald Koocher, Democracy Now!, June 16, 2006: Calls Grow Within American Psychological Association for Ban on Participation in Military Interrogations: A Debate. [read, watch, or listen]
Other Professional associations and Torture
American Medical Association, June 12, 2006: New AMA ethical policy opposes direct physician participation in interrogation.
American Medical Association, June 13, 2006: AMA Takes a Stand: Physicians NOT to be Involved in Interrogation of Prisoners. [More detail on the policy than above brief statement.]
Mark Moran, Psychiatric News, July 7, 2006: AMA Interrogation Policy Similar to APA’s Position. [APA here is the American Psychiatric Association, not the American Psychological Association.]
“Physicians must not conduct, directly participate in, or monitor an interrogation with an intent to intervene, because this undermines the physician’s role as healer. Because it is justifiable for physicians to serve in roles that serve the public interest, the AMA policy permits physicians to develop general interrogation strategies that are not coercive, but are humane and respect the rights of individuals.”/blockquote>
American Psychiatric Association, May, 2006: Psychiatric Participation in Interrogation of Detainees: Position Statement.
American Psychiatric Association, May 22, 2006: APA Passes Position Statement Barring Psychiatric Participation in Interrogation of Detainees. [Press release]
Steven S. Sharfstein, American Journal of Psychiatry, October, 2006: Presidential Address: Advocacy as Leadership. [Dr. Sharfstein was, at the time, the President of the American Psychiatric Association.]
Pedro Ruiz, Psychiatric News, January 19, 2007: Guantanamo Bay Visit Reveals Dedication of MH Personnel. [Dr. Ruiz is President of the American Psychiatric Association.]
James L. Fleming, Psychiatric News, May 18, 2007: Guantanamo Visit Elicits Reaction . [This is a reply to Dr. Ruiz's article above.]
Articles related to the role of psychologists and other health professionals in interrogations and torture
Katherine Eban, Vanity Fair, July 17, 2007: Rorschach and Awe.
Adam Zagorin, Time, June 1, 2007: Detainee Abuse Was Well Planned.
Mark Benjamin, Salon, June 29, 2006: Torture teachers.
An Army document proves that Guantánamo interrogators were taught by instructors from a military school that trains U.S. soldiers how to resist torture.
Jane Mayer, New Yorker, August 13, 2007: The Black Sites.
A rare look inside the CIA’s secret interrogation program.
Jane Mayer, New Yorker, July 11, 2005: The Experiment.
The military trains people to withstand interrogation. Are those methods being misused at Guantánamo?
Jane Mayer, New Yorker, February 27, 2006: The Memo.
How an internal effort to ban the abuse and torture of detainees was thwarted. [Covers the role of psychologist Michael Gelles.]
Steven Miles, The American Journal of Bioethics, January-February, 2007: Medical Ethics and the Interrogation of Guantanamo 063.
Abstract
The controversy over abusive interrogations of prisoners during the war against terrorism spotlights the need for clear ethics norms requiring physicians and other clinicians to prevent the mistreatment of prisoners. Although policies and general descriptions pertaining to clinical oversight of interrogations in United States’ war on terror prisons have come to light, there are few public records detailing the clinical oversight of an interrogation. A complaint by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) led to an Army investigation of an interrogation at the United States prison at Guantanamo Bay. The declassified Army investigation and the corresponding interrogation log show clinical supervision, monitoring and treatment during an interrogation that employed dogs, prolonged sleep deprivation, humiliation, restraint, hypothermia and compulsory intravenous infusions. The interrogation and the involvement of a psychologist, physician and medics violate international and medical norms for the treatment of prisoners.
Steven Miles, Slate, June 27, 2006: All Too Quiet: Where were the doctors and nurses at Abu Ghraib and Bagram?
Steven Miles & Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! June 30, 2006: Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror.
Gregg Bloche & Jonathan Marks, New England Journal of Medicine, June 22, 2005: Doctors and Interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.
Gregg Bloche & Jonathan Marks, Los Angeles Times, January 9, 2005: Doctor’s Orders — Spill Your Guts.
Susan Okie, New England Journal of Medicine, December 15, 2005: Glimpses of Guantanamo–medical ethics and the war on terror [pdf or html].
Leonard Rubenstein, Christian Pross, Frank Davidoff, & Vincent Iacopino, Journal of the American Medical Association, September 28, 2005: Coercive US Interrogation Policies: A Challenge to Medical Ethics.
Physicians for Human Rights, May, 2005: Break Them Down: Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by U.S. Forces.
Trudy Bond, CounterPunch, April 14-15, 2007: Shrinks, Lies and Torture: How Psychologists Became the Pentagon’s Bitches.
Trudy Bond, CounterPunch, August 23, 2006: APA Confab Whitewashes Torture by Shrinks: The American Psychological Association Meets Dr. Mengele..
Revelant Audio-Visual Materials
Blip TV: Psychologists and Torture, Apparently filmed outside the APA Convention on Saturday, August 18th, 2007, the day before the crucial vote not to ban participation in interrogations.
NPR: Psychologists Won’t Ban Aiding Military Interrogators. August 19, 2007
Channel 4 (Britain): Guantanamo Guidbook.
British Channel 4 TV took seven volunteers and subjected them for 48 hours to the tactics authorized for use at Guantanamo. It took only 10 hours for the first volunteer to be removed due to the severe trauma he underwent. Only four of the seven survived 48 hours. Must Watch!
Democracy Now! The August 20, 2007 show contains four segments related to the 2007 APA Convention: Mark Benjamin: American Psychological Association Rejects Blanket Ban on Participation in Interrogation of U.S. Detainees; APA Interrogation Task Force Member Dr. Jean Maria Arrigo Exposes Group’s Ties to Military; Dissident Voices: Ex-Task Force Member Dr. Michael Wessells Speaks Out on Psychologists and Torture; and APA Members Hold Fiery Town Hall Meeting on Interrogation, Torture.
Democracy Now! compendium of shows on Psychologists and Torture.
Amy Goodman, Jean Maria Arigo, Len Rubenstein, Nina Thomas, Eric Anders, Democrcay Now! June 1, 2007: “The Task Force Report Should Be Annulled” - Member of 2005 APA Task Force on Psychologist Participation in Military Interrogations Speaks Out. [read or listen]
Amy Goodman, Steven Reisner, & Gerald Koocher, Democracy Now!, June 16, 2006: Calls Grow Within American Psychological Association for Ban on Participation in Military Interrogations: A Debate. [read, watch, or listen]
Stanley Milgram: Obedience.
Relevant Documents
Office of the Inspector General, Department of Defense, Review of DoD-Directed Investigations of Detainee Abuse, August, 2006, declassified May, 2007. [Documents the "reverse-engineering of he military's Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) program into the abusive interrogation techniques utilized in United States detention facilities.]
American Psychological Association Resolution against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, August, 2006.
American Psychological Association Substitute Motion 3, passed August 19, 2007: Reaffirmation of the American Psychological Association Position Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and Its Application to Individuals Defined in the United States Code as “Enemy Combatants.
Archives
APA PENS Collection at Project on Ethics and Art in Testimony (PEAT), including the Unofficial Records of the APA Presidential PENS Task Force Jean Maria Arrigo and Records of the APA PENS Debate
[Access restricted until January 1, 2010.]
Guantanamo Testimonials Project, from the Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas “gather[s] testimonies of prisoner abuse in Guantánamo, organize them by the source of the testimonies given and by the type of the abuse alleged.”
Editorials/Op Eds
Robyn Blumner, St. Petersburg Times, Psychologists, torture and the rules. October 14, 2007.
Houston Chronicle, Human Wrongs: Psychologists have no place assisting interrogations at places such as Guantanamo Bay. August 22, 2007.
Blogs Postings [Very partial list. I can't keep up.]
Scott Horton, Harpers, August 28, 2007: Psychologists and the Torture Question.
Valtin, Daily Kos, Backlash Grows on Psychologist Torture Resolution.
Valtin, Daily Kos, Postmortem: APA Torture Resolution Puzzle.
Valtin, Daily Kos, June 5, 2007: Sec. Gates: Stop SERE-type Torture! Drop Appendix M from Army Field Manual.
Valtin, Daily Kos, May 20, 2007: Did Gonzales Skip Out on SERE/Torture Training?
Valtin, Daily Kos, May 13, 2007: A Letter to Dr. Sharon Stephens Brehm, APA President.
Valtin, Daily Kos, May 9, 2007: Heart of Darkness: Sensory Deprivation & U.S. Torture — Where From Here?
Valtin, Daily Kos, May 6, 2007: Thanks to All Supporting Campaign to Pressure APA on Interrogations.
Valtin, Daily Kos, April 30, 2007: (Round 2) Stop Torture Campaign — Netroots Can Play Special Role.
Valtin, Daily Kos, April 29, 2007: Action Diary! Your help needed RIGHT NOW to stop torture.
Valtin, Daily Kos, April 25, 2007: Historian Alfred McCoy Speaks on U.S. Torture Program (video).
Stephen Soldz, Psyche, Science, and Society, April 23, 2007: Alfred McCoy lectures on psychological torture.
Valtin, Daily Kos, April 18, 2007: Major call for Congress to investigate CIA/Pentagon Torture.
CTLiberal , Daily Kos, April 15, 2007: Shrinks, Lies and Torture - How the APA Carries Pentagon’s Torture Policies
Valtin, Daily Kos, April 8, 2007: Deconstructing Gelles: A Documentary Record of a Torture Apologist
Valtin, Daily Kos, March 25, 2007: Just in: Military Psychologists Oppose Torture Moratorium
Joseph A. Palermo, Huffington Post, March 20, 2007: Bush’s Shame: From “Biscuit Teams” to PTSD
Art Levine, Huffington Post, February 13, 2007: Psychologists, Torture, and the Fight to Close Gitmo
Valtin, Daily Kos, February 9, 2007: NEW Documents Show U.S. Torture Was Planned Long Ago
Valtin, Daily Kos, January 8, 2007: Washington Monthly Article Slams APA on Torture
Valtin, Daily Kos, January 7, 2007: FBI & American Psych. Association Attack Patient Confidentiality
Valtin, Daily Kos, November 19, 2006: Torture 101: CIA text on teaching “coercive interrogation”
World Prout Assembly, November 7, 2005: Can the CIA Legally Kill a Prisoner - Part Two. [Discusses SERE]
2 comments February 5th, 2007