Psyche, Science, and Society

NYC lawyers protest exclusion of lawyers from Guantanamo

April 28th, 2007

The New York City Bar Asociation protests, in strong terms, the new restrictions that essentially deny access to lawyers for the prisoners at Guantanamo. Read their letter here [pdf]. These restrictions are part of the Bush administrations’ attempt to assert absolute power over human beings. They assert the right to imprison and torture, forever, anyoneone the President wants. Impeachment is much too kind for those responsible.

Meanwhile, the American Psychological Association continues to find no problem with psychologists participating in so-called “interrogations” in these concentration camps and torture centers. Any shred of human decency appears to have disappeared from “organized psychology.” The APA claims that these psychologist-torturers are “safety officers.” Of course, if you really want to have “safety officers,” flood the gulag with independent lawyers, and give them cameras and recorders to record what goes on. As the Bush administration moves to remove all restraints ion their absolute power, the position of the APA ceases to be farce and becomes something considerably more sinister.
The question now is whether the APA continues to speak for the profession, or whether the members forcefully repudiate those who abet torture.

[ht/t Scott Horton.]

Entry Filed under: APA, Bush administration, Civil Liberties, Constitutional Law, Guantanamo, Human Rights, Interrogation, Law, Psychology, Rights and Liberties, Torture, War Crimes