Psychologists met in secret with Bush officials to help justify torture: report

[DonViejo]

Source: The Guardian

The leading American professional group for psychologists secretly worked with the Bush administration to help justify the post-9/11 US detainee torture program, according to a watchdog analysis released on Thursday .

The report, written by six leading health professionals and human rights activists, is the first to examine the alleged complicity of the American Psychological Association (APA) in the “enhanced interrogation” program.

Based on an analysis of more than 600 newly disclosed emails, the report found that the APA coordinated with Bush-era government officials – namely in the CIA, White House and Department of Defense – to help ethically justify the interrogation policy in 2004 and 2005, when the program came under increased scrutiny for prisoner abuse by US military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

A series of clandestine meetings with US officials led to the creation of “an APA ethics policy in national security interrogations which comported with then-classified legal guidance authorizing the CIA torture program,” the report’s authors found.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/psychologists-met-in-secret-with-bush-officials-to-help-justify-torture-report/

[SoapBox]

1. Really...Bush and Creeps have to be one of the worst administrations

EVER.

And yet the POS's walk freely and appear on the impotent media.

Depressing.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Arrest them all.

[Trillo]

3. I wonder how much constructs such as 'cooperation with authority,'

a starkly 'hierarchical society', zero tolerance, and 'command structure' led to such cooperation?

The lack of objection must be damning if the APA denies any cooperation whatsoever.

[on point]

4. More people to be tried and sent to jail for crimes against humanity.

[turbinetree]

5. I think its

about time for some letters need to be written to the justice department on this issue---this is outrageous.

No sanctions against the perpetuators within the community or the DOJ---none.

This is the same firm that will let there members be experts in criminal cases, while some of there members are breaking the law and the Geneva conventions rules and regulations, on there treatment of a human beings.
How do these individuals sleep at night, what kind of an individual would do this ------except for greed------and an agenda of hypocrisy, of now placing citizens and the military in harms way to be treated then same ---amazing

The Hague should now get involved and the countries that are trying to get Bush and his right wing crew and file writs.
Lets see how many travel overseas now-------Bush and crew don't go to far--unless its Canada

[Octafish]

6. Fish rot from the head down.

Seems just about every institution around is corrupt.

[Kelvin Mace]

7. We used to hang people for this type of thing

back at Nuremberg.

[cbayer]

8. Wow, the analysis has some pretty impressive names attached to it.

While the American Psychiatric Association took a firm stand against psychiatrists being involved in any kind of torture, the American Psychological Association never did. There were ongoing concerns about there involvement.

[Eugene]

9. Interrogations advisor urges Bush-era torture probe

Source: Reuters

US | Thu Apr 30, 2015 6:49pm EDT

Interrogations advisor urges Bush-era torture probe

WASHINGTON | BY ALISTAIR BELL

(Reuters) - The head of a body that advises U.S. terrorism interrogators on ethics on Thursday called for a special prosecutor to probe how the abuse of captured militants during the Bush administration's "war on terror" was allowed to happen.

The call came from Mark Fallon, head of a committee that advises the interagency High Value Interrogation Group, and followed the release of a report on Thursday that accused America's top organization of psychologists of secretly collaborating with the CIA, White House and Pentagon to help justify torture.

Fallon said the accusation of collusion of the American Psychological Association in the torture of detainees after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks highlights the need for a wider investigation.

"We need an independent counsel to take a look, with subpoena power and with the ability to have people testify under oath," Fallon told Reuters.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/30/us-usa-torture-idUSKBN0NL2T720150430

[Peace Patriot]

10. It's never gonna happen, with this ES&S/Diebold (s)elected Congress.

It is the JOB of this 15% approval rating Congress to PREVENT any consequences for the very rich and the very powerful for any of their many horrendous crimes. They represent the 0.01% and its "military-industrial complex" which thrives on war and horror. They absolutely do NOT represent the American people.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/180113/2014-approval-congress-remains-near-time-low.aspx

It is an open question, to me, whether or not it is also Obama's job to prevent any consequences. (I do think he was elected--likely by a bigger majority than we know--but he was also permitted to be elected, and that is the problem.) I suspect that he made a deal about no consequences. The public result was his statement that "we need to look forward not backward" with regard to impeachment or prosecution of Bush Junta principles (or their shills such as the psychologists), or even with regard to mere investigation. That is a ridiculous statement. It makes a mockery of the law which ALWAYS looks at PAST actions in order to APPLY the law to ANYONE--any law in any situation. If you are accused, you are judged on what you DID. What you did is NOT FORGOTTEN, if it was a crime.

We need to look forward not backward, my ass! It smelled of a deal. Also, there has never been a war in the modern era--by this country anyway, and probably not by any country with a government that is more or less accountable to the people--without a postwar investigation. It's standard procedure. We have lost the right to know anything about why the war was fought and how it was conducted, and whether the rules of war were followed or not.

Why and how our young people were put in harm's way. Why and how our money--billions and billions of our tax dollars these days--was spent. They say a billion dollars went missing in Iraq. Remember that? I've also heard tales from private investigators and whistleblowers about the horrendous corruption of USAID and other U.S. 'contractors' in Afghanistan. There was also, for sure, great corruption in the U.S. war on Colombians (um, on 'drugs'). Not the least breath of investigation of any of these wars. We have to rely on private citizens, human rights groups and others, to dig out some facts, against the obstruction of our government which would keep everything of importance a secret.

We need to look forward not backward.

This is a very, very bad precedent. Now our government just bombs people in Yemen, or Libya, or Iraq, or Syria, at will, with no accountability AT ALL. You might say that drone strikes are "better" than invasion. It's still war. Undeclared. Unaccountable. It's no surprise that the Pentagon calls many of its hundreds of military bases around the world "forward operating locations." The Pentagon and all of its private 'contractors' are most certainly looking forward--to the next war and the next. They don't look back. Nor does our president. Nor does our (s)elected Congress. Nor does our political establishment.

So, there will be no punishment--nor even any investigation--of the psychologists who supported torture. And they know it. They've banked their checks and gone to Tahiti. The corrupt SOBs. They're looking forward, too, to the next opportunity to be of service to their, um, country.