After Senate Report, Psychologists Who Tortured Must Be Held to Account

[BlueJessamine]

After Senate Report, Psychologists Who Tortured Must Be Held to Account

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)

http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/news-2009-04-21.html

In the wake of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s (SASC) report on detainee abuse, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is calling for the psychologists who justified, designed, and implemented torture for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Department of Defense (DoD), to lose their professional licenses and to face criminal prosecution.

“Long before Justice Department lawyers were tasked to justify torture, US psychologists were busy actually perpetrating it,” said Steven Reisner, PhD, Advisor on Psychological Ethics at PHR. “These individuals must not only face prosecution for breaking the law, they must lose their licenses for shaming their profession’s ethics.”

The SASC report is the latest and most comprehensive account of the Bush Administration’s regime of torture and the central role health professionals played. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), Chair of SASC, is calling for the Department of Justice to review the report and pursue any evidence of criminal wrongdoing, a move that PHR supports.

“The Senate Armed Services Committee confirms what we have long known—health professionals were the agents that spread the virus of torture,” said Nathaniel Raymond, Director of PHR’s Campaign Against Torture which brings together thousands of health professionals who oppose torture in all circumstances. “Now is the time for those who violated our laws and our values to be held to account.”

snip:

PHR urges human rights supporters to sign its online petition calling for the establishment of a commission to investigate US torture and hold health professionals accountable.


http://actnow-phr.org/campaign/investigate_torture

[ensho]

1. agree!

nt

[tekisui]

2. Yes. Amy Goodman has spent a ood bit of time on the doctors involved.

They are as guilty as the lawyers who 'legalized' it.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Agreed. That is a horrific form of professional misconduct.

[MasonJar]

4. Signed

[BlueJessamine]

5. Thankyou!

:fistbump:

[Gator_Matt]

6. When one domino falls...

Hopefully this will begin a cascade of prosecutions. I'm glad to see someone with the guts to press this issue.

[ShortnFiery]

7. As a lowly masters level - Psychology - Addiction Certified Counselor, I'm ashamed of my peers ...

who may have played a role in TORTURE. As an undergrad, I studied torture techniques of the North Vietnamese as an undergraduate thesis. We know, through our studies, too many ways to push other peoples' emotional buttons.

Psychologists should take an oath not unlike Physicians to FIRST, do no harm. :(

[katty]

8. absolutely