Writer Mischa Gaus, in In These Times, has a new piece on America’s inhuman interrogations [Interrogations Behind Barbed Wire: Who’s to blame for America’s new torture techniques?]
It raises the question as to whether the detainees are being drugged, in addition to everything else being done to “break them down”. We should distribute it to remind people that we’re not just talking about “ethics codes” and principles, but of horrors most of us can only imagine. And the BSCT psychologists are part of apparatus of terror. If APA had an ounce of ethics in them they would rush to demand a Congressional investigation of just what is being done to these people in our name. If it is benign, let’s find out. But if, as I believe, it is not benign, wouldn’t moral people, and a moral organization want to do everything possible to find out? At least in my concept of morality, that’s a no-brainer. Of course, in five years, the APA has done NOTHING to find out what’s really going on there. In my view “Something’s rotten in Denmark!”
February 14th, 2007
Received from the American Psychoanalytic Association:
February 14, 2007
Dear Fellow APsaA Members,
I am proud to inform you that the Association’s Board of Directors approved the following position statement on torture at the Executive Council meeting in New York on January 18, 2007. The statement was approved unanimously. A press release issued that day was picked up by a variety of news sources scattered around the country.* News about the issuing of the position statement was also immediately posted on our website.
American Psychoanalytic Association Position Statement on Torture
January 18, 2007
The American Psychoanalytic Association joins with other mental health and medical professional organizations in strongly condemning the use of torture. As an organization of psychoanalysts who have devoted their lives to helping people undo the effects of trauma in their lives, we strongly protest any governmentally administered and governmentally approved torture of people who are detained. Torture degrades those tortured and those torturing. The effects of that physical and moral degradation, we know, are transmitted to the families and offspring of both victims and perpetrators.
We also strongly condemn the participation or oversight by any mental health or medical personnel in any and all aspects of torture. Such actions are contrary to the basic ethical principles fundamental to the helping professions.
******
[end of statement]
We believe this to be a clean straightforward statement, valuable in its simplicity and lack of ambiguity and exceptions. I’d like to personally thank all who made the approval of this statement possible in a relatively short period of time, especially Dr. Bennett Simon, who contributed a great deal to its drafting.
I hope you will all find occasions to use or refer to the statement in your work with other organizations, community groups, and the media.
Best regards,
Prudy Gourguechon,
President Elect
* A sampling of some of the “placements” of the press release:
dallasnews.com
PR Newswire
Yahoo!
MedicalDevices.Org
Yahoo!UK and Ireland
Dallas Morning News
NBC6.com
While this statement is nice to have, American Psychological Association people will point out that it ignores so-called “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,” which was condemned by the 2006 APA Resolution. Of course, both ignore any statement of whether, and where, torture is occurring and whether mental health professionals are aiding it. As usual, the devil is in the details.
February 14th, 2007
Josh Marshall provides a detailed unpacking of what the President and others are saying, versus what they are hinting, about Iranian weapons in Iraq.
President Bush says “with certainty” that Qods forces are giving these weapons to fighters for use against American troops. The only question, he says, is whether the leaders of the Iranian government at the highest level directly told them to do so. CNN’s Barbara Starr says that this is the same thing that Gen. Pace is saying.
But they’re actually not saying the same thing. And President Bush’s remarks are intentionally framed to duck the key issue of who the Iranians are really arming and why.
February 14th, 2007
DemFromCT at Daily Kos discusses the threat avian flu may pose to the internet. Kids at home and YouTube may bring it down.
February 14th, 2007
Some Senate Democrats have moved to undo the worst abuses of last year’s Military Commissions Act
group of Senate Democrats introduced legislation yesterday that would restore habeas corpus rights to all detainees in U.S. custody and would narrowly define what it means to be an “enemy combatant” against the United States, a measure designed to challenge laws ushered in by the Republican-controlled Congress last year.
The bill, titled the “Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007,” strikes at the core of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 by giving detainees access to U.S. courts. It was introduced by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.), a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The bill would also prevent the executive branch from making blanket determinations about who is an enemy combatant and would restrict the president’s authority to interpret when certain human rights standards apply to detainees. The legislation would limit the label “enemy combatant” to a person “who directly participates in hostilities in a zone of active combat against the United States” or who took part in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Should such language become law, it could change the status of numerous detainees who were picked up in U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
The bill would also restore to the detainees numerous rights they lost under the Military Commissions Act, including the right, under a habeas corpus petition, to challenge their detention in federal court.
It’ll be hard as they may face both a filibuster and a Presidential veto. After all, many Republicans will do anything to protect their torture regime.
February 14th, 2007
Gareth Porter deconstructs the anonymous American military claims that Iran is supplying armor-piercing weapons for use against American forces by Shia militias in Iraq: US Briefing on Iran Discredits the Official Line:
Taking into account the false notes struck by the anonymous officials, the damaging admissions they made and the absence of information they needed to make a case, the briefing appears to have been a serious setback to the administration’s propaganda campaign. It will certainly haunt administration officials trying to convince Congress to support its increased aggressiveness toward Iran.
February 14th, 2007
Promoted from the Comments section:
August 2006
To whom it may concern:
The members of the Monterey Bay Psychological Association feel compelled to speak out, unequivocally and without further delay, against the unethical, immoral, and illegal practices taking place in military prisons around the world. As psychologists, we would like to stand with all those who have protested the use of psychologists as consultants to torture, degradation, cruelty and/or inhumane treatment of military prisoners.
In its structured examination of the ethics of this practice, the APA Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS) Task Force took a small step in the right direction. However, we do not believe that their Report goes far enough in identifying and denouncing the misuse of psychological theory and practice in military interrogations and on rendition teams.
Both the APA and the CPA have asked for member psychologists’ input. We find that the PENS Task Force Report, as currently written, does not represent us as psychologists, and is in fact detrimental to our profession. Within the context of ongoing media reports of cruel, inhumane, and degrading practices used in military interrogations and on rendition teams, the APA’s focus on responsibilities to society rings hollow. To participate in unethical practices under the guise of protecting the general social welfare is simply wrong. As an organization, the Monterey Bay Psychological Association believes that the APA Ethics Code is clear in its prohibition of the use of torture, and clear that psychologists should have no part in this aspect of military operations. Further, we recognize the dilemma of military psychologists forced to choose between their role as psychologists and their role as military officers.
We fervently believe that if we do not speak out against practices that violate human rights and dignity, we are complicit in those practices. We would hope that the PENS Task Force and APA administration understand the fundamental admonition in the APA Ethics Code to Do No Harm, and continue to question their current interpretation.
Respectfully,
Jon Girvetz, Ph.D.
President, Monterey Bay Psychological Association
Jennifer Kaupp, Ph.D.
President-Elect, Monterey Bay Psychological Association
Co-Chairs, Contemporary Issues in Psychology Forum
February 14th, 2007