How The American Psychological Association Supportes And Provides Cover For The C.I.A. World Torture Program

By Michael Krieger: In a story that sounds like it could’ve come straight from the archives of Zio-Nazi Israel, a new report has just been released claiming that the American Psychological Association (APA) collaborated with the George W. Bush administration to justify the C.I.A. torture program.

It’s even worse than it sounds though. In 2004, following the publication of the grotesque photos depicting abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, the U.S. government’s torture program was coming under increased scrutiny and criticism from all sides. In fact, it became so questionable, even C.I.A. director George Tenet began to have concerns. So much so that he “signed a secret order suspending the agency’s use of the enhanced techniques, while asking for a policy review to make sure the program still had the Bush administration’s backing.” 
This is where the American Psychological Association came to the aid of torture supporters everywhere. A private meeting was quickly held, which ended up justifying the role of psychologists in torture sessions. The following year, the APA issued guidelines that reaffirmed that it was acceptable for its members to be involved in the interrogation program.

But don’t take my word for it. The New York Times reports: 
WASHINGTON — The American Psychological Association secretly collaborated with the administration of President George W. Bush

 to bolster a legal and ethical justification for the torture of prisoners swept up in the post-Sept. 11 war on terror, according to a new report by a group of dissident health professionals and human rights activists.

“The A.P.A. secretly coordinated with officials from the C.I.A., White House and the Department of Defense to create an A.P.A. ethics policy on national security interrogations which comported with then-classified legal guidance authorizing the C.I.A. torture program,” the report’s authors conclude.

The involvement of health professionals in the Bush-era interrogation program was significant because it enabled the Justice Department to argue in secret opinions that the program was legal and did not constitute torture, since the interrogations were being monitored by health professionals to make sure they were safe.

Rhea Farberman, a spokeswoman for the American Psychological Association, denied that the group had coordinated its actions with the government. There “has never been any coordination between A.P.A. and the Bush administration on how A.P.A. responded to the controversies about the role of psychologists in the interrogations program,” she said.

That’s what she says, but read on and make up your own mind.

The Bush administration relied more heavily on psychologists than psychiatrists or other health professionals to monitor many interrogations, at least in part because the psychological association was supportive of the involvement of psychologists in interrogations, a senior Pentagon official explained publicly in 2006.

On June 4, 2004, the C.I.A. director, George J. Tenet, signed a secret order suspending the agency’s use of the enhanced techniques, while asking for a policy review to make sure the program still had the Bush administration’s backing.

“I strongly believe that the administration needs to now review its previous legal and policy positions with respect to detainees to assure that we all speak in a united and unambiguous voice about the continued wisdom and efficacy of those positions in light of the current controversy,” Mr. Tenet wrote in a memo that has since been declassified.

At that critical moment, the American Psychological Association took action that its critics now say helped the troubled interrogation program.

In early June 2004, a senior official with the association, the nation’s largest professional organization for psychologists, issued an invitation to a carefully selected group of psychologists and behavioral scientists inside the government to a private meeting to discuss the crisis and the role of psychologists in the interrogation program.

Psychologists from the C.I.A. and other agencies met with association officials in July, and by the next year the association issued guidelines that reaffirmed that it was acceptable for its members to be involved in the interrogation program.

“In 2004 and 2005 the C.I.A. torture program was threatened from within and outside the Bush administration,” Mr. Soldz said by email. “Like clockwork, the A.P.A. directly addressed legal threats at every critical juncture facing the senior intelligence officials at the heart of the program. In some cases the A.P.A. even allowed these same Bush officials to actually help write the association’s policies.”

The critics frequently criticized the 2005 findings of an association committee, the Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security, or PENS, which concluded that it was appropriate for psychologists to remain involved with interrogations, to make sure they remained safe, legal, ethical and effective. The PENS report eventually drew so much criticism from within the psychological profession that the association was forced to retract its permissive guidelines.

The quote at the top is from F.A. Hayek’s brilliant work, The Road to Serfdom. I reviewed the book, and highlighted that quote (amongst many others) in a piece from 2010 titled: The Road to Serfdom. I strongly suggest taking a read.


In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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