Psyche, Science, and Society

U.S. psychologists accused of participating in torture: A Swedish view

February 19th, 2008

Here is an article on the APA-interrogations issue from the Swedish Journal of Psychology. Along with this the Journal also published responses to questions posed to the APA and to myself. I have posted the three pieces. The original of all three pieces, in Swedish and English is available as a pdf here; all three can also be accessed in html from here.

U.S. psychologists accused of participating in torture: A Swedish view

by Eva Brita Järnefors

U.S. psychologists have developed brutal interrogation methods that have been used at the U.S. military base at Guantánamo, in prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in secret prisons run by the CIA. The fact that psychologists have also taught these techniques and participated in interrogations of detainees has created deep divisions among the members of the American Psychological Association, APA.

We have all seen the brutal photographs from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, which were widely publicized in April, 2004. Among other things, the pictures showed blindfolded, naked prisoners forced to form human pyramids, while laughing prison guards used dogs to scare them.

Since then, more information has leaked in the U.S. press concerning abuse and torture in U.S. prisons for suspected terrorists. This information shows that the methods used at Abu Ghraib formed part of a policy that had been sanctioned at the highest political level. U.S. president George W. Bush has declared these prisoners to be “unlawful combatants,” as opposed to “lawful combatants,” and maintains that they therefore cannot be counted as prisoners of war and thus are not covered by the rules of international law. On December 2, 2002, former U.S. secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld signed a document allowing the use of a number of violent methods in connection with interrogations at the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay.

Information regarding the involvement of U.S. psychologists in these torture practices has also leaked to the media and subsequently been officially confirmed. On May 18, 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense declassified a comprehensive investigation into brutal prisoner abuse, the so-called OIG Review. (1) The report was produced in August, 2006, but was not made public until a year later. This report shows that psychologists have played a leading role in the development and introduction of the brutal interrogation methods – methods that have been used at Guantánamo, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in secret CIA prisons, so-called “black sites,” located in a number of different countries.

The brutal treatment of suspected terrorists has affected a number of professional groups in the United States, and their respective professional organizations have decided that their members are not allowed to participate in interrogations of suspected terrorists. Decisions to that effect have been made by the professional organizations of medical doctors, nurses, anthropologists, and translators. The American Psychological Association, APA, is the only major professional organization of health workers that has not completely distanced itself from these interrogations.

A movement of opposition has emerged within APA against the continued participation of psychologists in these interrogations. Steven Reisner, PhD, a psychologist and psychoanalyst, explained on the television/radio program Democracy Now! why psychologists should not take part in interrogations: “I think, without any question, it is clear that if a psychologist participates in the interrogations or supervises the interrogations or supervises the conditions in an arena where there are no human rights and no due process, that that psychologist is contributing to the violation of human rights. And so, there should be an absolute prohibition.” (2)

Some members of APA have left the organization in protest. One of them is psychologist and writer Mary Pipher, PhD. At the same time as she resigned her membership, she also returned the award she had been given by APA for her books. Three of her books, among them Reviving Ophelia, have been New York Times bestsellers. In her letter to then APA president Sharon Brehm, she writes that: “I do not want an award from an organization that sanctions its members’ participation in the enhanced interrogations at CIA Black Sites and at Guantánamo,” and continues: “The behavior of psychologists on these enhanced interrogation teams violates our own Code of Ethics (2002) in which we pledge to respect the dignity and worth of all people, with special responsibility towards the most vulnerable. I consider prisoners in secret CIA-run facilities with no right of habeas corpus or access to attorneys, family or media to be highly vulnerable. I also believe that when any of us are degraded, all of human life is degraded.” (3)

The investigation carried out by the Department of Defense corroborates earlier reports in the press concerning the use of the SERE program (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) against suspected terrorists. The official purpose behind this program is to train U.S. military personnel in methods of avoiding capture and, in case they do get captured, of avoiding breakdown following torture in the form of, e.g., waterboarding and protracted isolation. Since 2002, the reverse purpose has been to train U.S. military personnel in the use of these torture methods so as to enable them to practice them themselves. The authority responsible for the SERE program is the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, which is part of the Department of Defense.

The work of developing brutal interrogation methods began in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The objective was to elicit information from captured suspected terrorists regarding the planning that had preceded the attacks. The torture methods have been used both to break down prisoners mentally, and to deter others from engaging in terrorism, but also as a political demonstration of power.

Two psychologists, James Elmer Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, have been identified by the U.S. press as the primary authors behind the reverse SERE program of brutal interrogation methods. They were originally involved in work with SERE at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where U.S. Special Forces are trained. Following September 11, 2001, they also did contract work for the CIA and in due course set up their own consulting firm, Mitchell, Jessen, and Associates, in Spokane, Washington, employing some 120 personnel. Together they developed the interrogation techniques, trained military personnel in SERE courses, and took part in interrogations at various prison sites under the supervision of the CIA. The official responsible for their CIA-related activities during the years 2001-2003 was psychologist R Scott Shumat, chief psychologist at the CIA Counter Terrorism Center at Fort Bragg. (4, 5)

The interrogation techniques applied involve both physical and psychological abuse. Methods that have been described include protracted isolation and extreme sensory deprivation, long periods of forced insomnia, constant loud sounds and/or strong light, use of hoods, forced nudity, stressful body positions, use of dogs to intimidate and threaten, exploitation of phobias, sexual and cultural humiliation, physical abuse, extreme heat (hyperthermia) which may result in alterations of consciousness and brain damage, or extreme cold (hypothermia) which may result in states of confusion and loss of consciousness, threats to hurt or kill, and waterboarding, a method that exposes the prisoner to simulated drowning. (1, 4)

These interrogation methods are not allowed by the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit both physical and psychological torture and abuse. Personnel that have gone through the SERE training program have testified that prisoners who were subjected to the above-mentioned treatments were later found to suffer from depression, psychosis, and suicidal ideation. At Guantánamo, several detainees have made suicide attempts and some have succeeded in taking their lives. (7, 8 )

The SERE tactics came to Guantánamo in 2002. The authors of the DoD review write that a SERE psychologist conference was held at Fort Bragg on September 16 of that year. The participants consisted of interrogation personnel and the Army Behavioral Science Consultation Team from Guantánamo. The latter team includes psychologists and health professionals. One of the hosts of the conference was psychologist Colonel Morgan Banks. He was the second psychologist in command of training and supervision of all SERE psychologists in the U.S. Army.

The review states further: “The JTF-170 [i.e., Guantánamo] personnel understood that they were to become familiar with SERE training and be capable of determining which SERE information and techniques might be useful in interrogations at Guantánamo. Guantánamo Behavioral Science Consultation Team personnel understood that they were to review documentation and standard operating procedures for SERE training in developing the standard operating procedure for the JTF-170… .”

The OIG investigators add: “Counterresistance techniques were introduced because personnel believed that interrogation methods used were no longer effective in obtaining useful information from some detainees.”

These brutal interrogation methods were then put to use in Iraq and Afghanistan as well.

The OIG investigators hold the SERE psychologists responsible for the use of physical and psychological coercive methods and recommend that the use of these methods be discontinued.

In 2005, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that brutal interrogations were being held at Guantánamo and that psychologists were involved in these. APA responded by setting up a committee of psychologists that was assigned the task of reviewing the organization’s ethical guidelines concerning torture. The group was given the name of Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security, PENS. This group proposed clarifications of the ethical guidelines, but it did not question the continued participation of psychologists in the interrogations.

A barrage of criticism was directed against this Task Force by members of APA. Psychologist Jean Maria Arrigo, who had been a member of PENS, later distanced herself from it. She told Vanity Fair about the work carried out by the group. Among other things, critics deplored the fact that six out of nine of the group’s members with voting rights came from military organizations or from the CIA, and that most had some form of connection to Guantánamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. (4, 5)

Three psychologist members of the APA Task Force held leading positions within SERE when the organization shifted to the reverse purpose of training military personnel in interrogation techniques. One the three was SERE psychologist Colonel Morgan Banks, mentioned above. The Task Force also included Colonel Larry James who, in January, 2003, was engaged as chief psychologist for the Joint Intelligence Group at Guantánamo. The third SERE psychologist on the Task Force was Captain Bryce Lefever. In 2002, he trained interrogation personnel in Afghanistan. Yet another psychologist member of PENS was R. Scott Shumate, who as mentioned earlier was responsible for the activities of SERE psychologists Mitchell and Jessen. The Peace Psychology Division of the APA writes that he has “interviewed many renowned individuals associated with various terrorist networks.” (6, 8 )

Two months prior to the annual APA convention on August 18, 2007, in San Francisco, the Department of Defense published the OIG report. A number of psychological associations and renowned psychologists then signed an open letter to APA president Sharon Brehm. In the letter, they called upon her to support a resolution demanding an immediate end to psychologists’ participation in military interrogations. The initiators of the open letter were psychologists and psychoanalysts Stephen Soldz and Steven Reisner. Members of APA demonstrated and argued for a comprehensive ban on psychologists’ participation in interrogations, but their resolution was rejected. (9)

The Board of the APA put forward its own resolution, in which the organization takes a stand against torture and other inhumane and humiliating treatments or punishments of detainees. In the resolution, nineteen different methods are defined as unethical interrogation techniques. The text refers to the APA Resolution Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was passed in 2006. (10) Similarly worded paragraphs are to be found in the U.S. Constitution and in the United Nations Torture Convention. APA adds that torture and other forms of cruel treatment are likely to produce unreliable and/or false information.

On its web site, APA has published a number of “frequently asked questions” concerning the organization’s stance in regard to the role of psychologists and the use of torture and violence during interrogations. Here, it says that members of APA have a professional and moral responsibility to try to stop abuse and to report incidents of violence to the appropriate authorities. The APA Ethics Committee “will investigate, under well-established procedures, any allegation that a member has violated APA’s strict prohibition against engaging in torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or reporting relevant information.”

As to why APA has not gone so far as to prohibit psychologists from taking part in military interrogations, the organization states: “APA has affirmed that psychology has a vital role to play in promoting the use of ethical interrogations to safeguard the welfare of detainees and facilitate communications with them.” (11)

The cooperation between U.S. psychologists and the U.S. military and intelligence services began as early as the 1940s. Psychologists were involved in developing interrogation techniques in Vietnam and other countries during the 1960s, and also in a number of countries in Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s. The ties between APA and the U.S. military are traditionally strong. APA, which is the biggest psychologist organization in the world, counts 148,000 members. The members join different APA societies that are organized according to professional fields. The 19th such subdivision, the Society for Military Psychology, was formed in 1945.

The issue of torture has recently gained prominence at the highest political level. Democrats in the U.S. Senate have requested a public inquiry after it surfaced that the CIA had destroyed videotapes from two interrogations of members of al Qaeda. Democratic senators had previously requested to see these recordings. U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has been forced to order an investigation into the matter. The CIA is suspected of concealing and withholding evidence showing, among other things, that waterboarding has been used during the interrogations. The tapes were recorded in 2002 and destroyed in 2005. One of the al Qaeda prisoners is said to be Aby Zubaydah. (12)

The day after the news about the videotapes broke, Stephen Soldz wrote a commentary in which he called attention to the probable fact that Abu Zubaydah, according to journalist Katherine Eban in Vanity Fair, was tortured by psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. (13)

The discussions within APA regarding whether or not psychologists should take part in military interrogations, will continue. At the end of 2007, several psychology departments at U.S. colleges and universities had adopted resolutions criticizing APA’s stance on the matter.

Eva Brita Järnefors
Translated by Tor Wennerberg

References:

1) Review of DoD-Directed Investigations of Detainee Abuse (18 maj, 2007) Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Department of Defense
2) Goodman, A (August 17, 2007) Dissident Members Challenge American Psychological Association on Role in CIA Interrogation, Torture, Democracy Now!
3) Pipher, M: Letter to APA: www.ethicalapa.com
4) Benjamin, M (June 21, 2007) “The CIA’s torture teachers,” www.salon.com
5) Eban, K (July17, 2007) Rorschach and Awe, Vanity Fair
6) Soldz, S, Reisner, S, Olson, B (June 7, 2007) “A Q &A on Psychologists and Torture,” Counter Punch.
7) (January 25, 2005) “23 Detainees Attempted Suicide in Protest at Base, Military Says,” New York Times.
8 ) Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence, Peace Psychology Division 48 of the APA, www.apa.org/about/division
9) Soldz, S, m fl (2007) “Open letter to the President of the American Psychological Association,” ZNet, www.ipetitions.com/petition/Brehm
10) www.apa.org/governance/resolutions
11) www.apa.org/releases
12) Shane, S, Mazzetti, M (December 30, 2007) “Tapes by CIA Lived and Died to Save Image,” New York Times.
13) Soldz, S (December 7, 2007) “Did destroyed CIA tapes show psychologists torturing? Did APA dodge a bullet?” OpEdNews.

Eva Brita Järnefors is a journalist and the chief editor of the Swedish Journal of Psychology. She has worked at the journal for 19 years. The journal belong to the Swedish Psychological Association.

Entry Filed under: APA, Guantanamo, Interrogation, Psychology, Torture