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Today's
Stories
June 7,
2007
Marjorie Cohn
The
Prison is the War Crime
June 6,
2007
Alain Gresh
Countdown
to War on Iran
Gary Leupp
Poddy's Crazy Prayer: Bomb Iran, For Israel and America!
Steven Sherman
The Perils of Humanitarian Intervention
Bruce Dixon
Is Bill Gates Trying to Hijack Africa's Food Supply?
Corporate Crime Reporter
The Professor and the Nukes
Brian M. Downing
The Iraq War and Presidential Politics
Ron Jacobs
Luv n' Hate: a Different Take on the Summer of Love
George Bisharat
The Mirage of the Two State Solution
Nicole Colson
Over to You, Dante: Falwell's Ministry of Hate
Bruce K. Gagnon
From Italy to Guam: A Global Peace Movement is Taking Shape
Website of the Day
How the Democrats Should Treat Bush
June 5,
2007
Michael Neumann
Canada
in Afghanistan
Jonathan Cook
The Shin Bet and the Persecution of Azmi Bishara
David Vest
The Democrats' War
Robert Fantina
America's Cuba Policy
Hoffman, Parsneau and Chowdhury
CounterTerrorism as International Healthcare
John V. Walsh
Shaming the Official Antiwar Movement
Richard Cretan
Yellow Dog: The Strange Love of Martin Amis and Tony Blair
Adam Engel
Days of Dread: an American Tale
William S. Lind
The News from Anbar: Has Al Qaeda Over-Reached?
Myles Hoenig
Free the Oaks! Cut Down Those Yellow Ribbons!
Jim Minick
Lead-Foot Nation
Website of
the Day
Punk Rock Soap Opera
June 4, 2007
Nizar Latif
An
Interview with Moqtada al-Sadr
Diana Johnstone
Sarko
and the Ghosts of May, 1968
Gregory Wilpert
RCTV and Freedom of Speech in Venezuela
Paul Watson
The Anchorage Whale Killing Bureaucrats Summit
Susan Rosenthal,
MD
How Cindy Sheehan Unmasked the Democrats
Richard Ward
The Right of Return to New Orleans
Eva Liddell
Don't Support the Troops
Zahi Khouri
Four Decades of Occupation
Evelyn Pringle
The FDA, GlaxoSmithKline and the Avandia Disaster
China Hand
About Those North Korean Benjamin Franklins ...
Karyn Strickler
George W. Bush: a "Ficeist" Leader
Website of the Day
The Guantanamo Files
June 2 /
3, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
The
Last of the Texas Outsiders
Marc Levy
Iraq
Dead Ahead: a Brief Military History and Civilian Guide to Arlington
National Cemetery
Martin Smith
Camilo Mejía's War: From Foot Soldier for Empire to Rebel
for Peace
Diana Johnstone
Great Power Meddling in Kosovo
John Ross
The Oaxaca Volcano Stews
Uri Avnery
On Generals and Admirals
Sunsara Taylor
This is Not a Story About Cindy Sheehan
Richard Neville
Were the Hippies Right?
P. Sainath
The Farm Crisis and 100,000 Indian Widows
Missy Comley
Beattie
Let's Roar
Nisrine Abiad
and Victor Kattan
The Hariri Tribunal: a Fait Accompli?
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon, Bush and the Three Stooges
Margot Pepper
Deconstructing "Return to Sender"
Eric Stewart
Censorship and Cop Brutality in the New Bison Wars
Ralph Nader
The Halberstam Camp
Dan Bacher
A Victory for the Fish
Shaun Harkin
and Sandy Boyer
Irish War Protesters on Trial
Richard Rhames
Selling Five Acres in Crawford
Frederick Hudson
The Rediscovery of Ella Fitzgerald
Poets' Basement
Lindorff, Landau and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Gimme Shelter
June 1, 2007
Dave Marsh
The
FBI and the Godfather (of Soul): James Brown's FBI Files
Saul Landau
Return
to Cuba: 47 Years Later in Havana
David Phinney
How the Baghdad Embassy Was Built: Forced Labor and Worker Abuse
Robert Jensen
The Bigot and the Boycott
Stanley Heller
Arrest Robert McNamara
Yifat Susskind
Indigenous Women Fight Back
Robert Weissman
Corporate Power Since 1980
Paul Buchheit
Africa and Its Discontents
William S.
Lind
The Folly of Maximalist Objectives
Sherwood Ross
78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed by Coalition Airstrikes
Stephen Lendman
Terrorism Defined
Website of the Day
Desert Autonomous Zone
May 31, 2007
Robert Bryce
The
Language Barrier
Patrick Cockburn
Killing with Impunity: Iraq's Militias Under the Surge
Gary Leupp
Appropriate Disillusionment: the Despair of Cindy Sheehan and
Andrew Bacevich
Kathy Kelly
Being Hope
Marjorie Cohn
The Unitary King George
Chris Kutalik
and Tiffany Ten Eyck
Fallout from the Sale of Chrysler: Jobs, Health Care, Pensions,
All in Jeopardy
Corporate Crime Reporter
Zheng Xiaoyu Meet Lester Crawford
Dave Lindorff
Our Monica: a Hero of the Constitution
Website of the Day
Know Your Rights!
May 30,
2007
James Ridgeway
The
Bi-Partisan Con on Synthetic Fuels
Franklin Lamb
Lebanon and the Planned US Airbase at Kaleiaat
Terrence E. Paupp
Withdrawal Symptoms
Uri Avnery
To the Shores of Tripoli
Alan Maass
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Green Masquerade: Corporate America's Latest Counter-Attack
Rock and Rap
Confidential
Watching the Detectives: the Political Censorship of Hip Hop
Ralph Nader
Taming the Giant Corporation
Nirmal Ghosh
China, CITES and the Fate of the Tiger
Jean Daniels
Dealing Democrats: Folding to Mr. 28%
Tom Barry
Meet Robert Zoellick: Bush's Pick to Head World Bank
Website of the Day
Petuuche Gilbert on the Rights of Indigenous People
May 29, 2007
Stephen Soldz
Shrinks
and the SERE Technique at Guantanamo
Eliza Ernshire
Refugees
Forever: Inside Bedawi Camp
Ron Jacobs
The Exit of Cindy Sheehan
Dave Lindorff
Whatever Happened to Signing Statements?
Evelyn Pringle
What Qualifies Bush to Lead Iraq War
Mike Whitney
Bush's New Middle East
David Swanson
How We Got Here: The Democrats and the Antiwar Movement
John Holt
Gating Montana, Part Two: the Feedback Loop
Cynthia McKinney
Dreaming of a True Memorial Day
Martha Rosenberg
Mad Cows, Mad Pigs and the Horse Slaughter Lobby
Website of the Day
The Ruminant
May 28, 2007
Bill Quigley
Katrina
Activists: "Less Meeting, More Fighting"
Col. Dan Smith
The Paranoid and the Dead
Cindy Sheehan
Why I Am Leaving the Democratic Party
Dr. Susan Block
Dr. Laura's Little Monster
Jeeni Criscenzo
What I Learned About Being a Dickhead
Douglas Valentine
Memorial Day: a Poem
Website of the Day
Peace TV
May 26 /
27, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greenhousers Strike Back and Out
Michael Donnelly
Green
Sabotage as "Terrorism"
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr's Dramatic Reappearance
Franklin Lamb
Inside Nahr el-Bared: "Another Waco in the Making"
Jean Bricmont
The Moral Collapse of the Moral Left
Gary Leupp
Cheney, Israel and Iran
James Petras
Imperial Rot: The Beginning of the End of the American Empire?
William Peace
Ashley Unlawfully Sterilized
Judith and John Sharpe
The Saga of Our Son, Lt. Commander John Sharpe: Under Investigation
for Antiwar Sentiments
Saul Landau
Four Dead in Ohio: From Kent State to Tiannamen Square
Paul Craig Roberts Democracy
in Iraq, Tyranny at Home?
Jonathan M.
Feldman
Congress and the Iraq War Vote
Dave Lindorff
Democratic Blood Money
Missy Beattie
Congress Plays Dead
Mike Whitney
Swan Song of the Democrats
Badruddin Khan
AIPAC Intervenes on Iran and Congress Folds, Again
Ron Jacobs
The Crime of Silence
Zoe Blunt
The Antidote to Despair
Arjun Chowdhury,
Mark Hoffman
and Kevin Parsneau
The Can-Do Troops and the New Anti-Politics
Heather Gray
The 1969 Riots Against the Chinese in Malaysia: a New Explanation
N. D. Jayaprakash
Disarmament Negotiations: A History and Prospectus
Joe Allen
and Paul D'Amato
Cartoons with Class
Poets' Basement
Gowani, Ford, Anderson and Simon
Website of
the Weekend
Addicted to War
May 25, 2007
Robert Jensen
What
the Finkelstein Tenure Fight Tells Us About the State of Academia
David Vest
So
You Thought They'd End the War
John Stauber
Democratic Spin Won't End the War in Iraq
Evelyn Pringle
Congress Gives War Profiteers Another $100 Billion
Corporate Crime Reporter
Why Corporate Social Responsibility Programs are a Fraud
Susan Rosenthal,
MD
What's Missing from the Health Care Debate
Roberto Rodriguez
Us vs. Them in the Immigration Debate
Steve Fournier
Goodie, Goodie Goodling
Patrick McElwee
Venezuela and RCTV: Is Free Speech Really at Stake?
Robert Weissman
Resisting the Commercialization of Public Schools
Website of the Day
New DNC
Motto: "We Suck"
May 24, 2007
Franklin Lamb
Who's
Behind the Fighting in North Lebanon
Corporate Crime
Reporter
House Democrats Buckle to Big Oil: Strip Down Price Gouging Bill
Robert Fantina
Giuliani: Righteous, Indignant and Wrong
Norman Solomon
Deadly Illusions, Rest in Peace
Dave Lindorff
Kerrycrats All!: Now It's a Democratic War
Sen. Russell
Feingold
We are Moving Backwards on Iraq
Fred Gardner
Doctor of Last Resort
Mike Whitney
Paulson in China
Kevin Parsneau, Arjun Chowdhury
and Mark Hoffman
Becoming Imperialist: a Warning to Iraq War Critics
Caroline Paul
My Brother the "Terrorist": Animal Liberation and Prosecutorial
Overkill
Eva Liddell
In Defense of Lying on Job Applications
Website of
the Day
Johnny's
Jumped the Shark
May 23, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Opium:
Iraq's Newest Export
Rev. William
Alberts
Faith-Based Imperialism
Joe DeRaymond
Colombia's Civil War and the US
Sudhanva Deshpande
and Vijay Prashad
The Political Economy of a Crisis
Paul Craig Roberts
Republicans in Self-Destruct Mode
Glen Ford
A
Less "White" USA
Rannie Amiri
The Great Bank Heist of Tripoli
China Hand
China's Great Wall of Cash?
Zoe Blunt
Tales from the Tree Tops: Veteran Tree Sitter Tells All
Nivien Saleh
Who's to Blame for Iraq?
Website of the Day
Debating the Israel Lobby
May 22, 2007
Robert Fisk
A
Front Row Seat for the Bloodbath in Lebanon
Joshua Frank
Hillary Clinton's Achilles Heel?
Harvey Wasserman
Drop Dead, New Yorkers: Giuliani and the Toxic Fallout from 9/11
David Mos Masumoto
An Orchard Without Workers
Sonja Karkar
Israeli Forest Named After Australian Prime Minister
Conn Hallinan
The Afghan Quagmire
Dave Lindorff
A Widening Chasm on Impeachment
Jeffrey Kolakowski
Meet Us in Detroit: an Open Letter to John Konyers
Evelyn Pringle
A Misleading Suicide Warning
Jim Baumer
Politics Gary, Indiana-Style
Website of the Day
Should the Democrats Fear Mike Gravel?
May 21, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Secret US Plot to Kill Sadr
Nicole Colson
Much Ado About the Fort Dix Pizza Plot
John Ross
Shooting for the Top: Mexico's Drug Gangs Take Aim at Calderon
Stephen Fleischman
Werewolf of Washington: Wolfowitz Comes Full Circle
M. Shahid Alam
Chosenness and Israeli Exceptionalism
Ron Jacobs
Green Mountain Days: Return to Vermont
Peter Rost, MD
Pfizer CFO Resigns
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades Save Florida?
Paul Buchheit
The Dark Side of Democracy Promotion
Website of
the Day
Code Monkey: Live!
May 19 /
20, 2007
Andrew Cockburn
Why
America Lost the War in Iraq
Uri Avnery
The Next War
Peter Gelderloos
My Arrest in Spain: The Easy Road from Tourism to Terrorism
Saul Landau
Bush's Accomplishments
Robert Fantina
Iraq's History: Lessons for the Present and the Future
Fred Gardner
Hemp vs. Pot, a False Dichotomy
Ralph Nader
Timid Democrats and the Antiwar Movement
Jean Daniels
Waiting for Obama
Reza Fiyouzat
Vietnam Syndrome: Dead or Alive?
Missy Beattie
Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani and Osama's Fatwah
Robert Alvarez
Magical Thinking About Nuclear Waste
Sonja Karkar
The Palestinians of Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Mumia Case on Hold
Jeff Sher
Keep Workers Healthy and Reduce Health Care Cost: Eliminate Co-Pays
Julian C. Holmes
Torture, Maine Style
Clancy Sigal
Red Mutiny: 11 Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin
Prairie Miller
The Murder of Fred Hampton
James Murren
The Dog Ate Karl Rove's Homework: When Turd Blossom Met the Teachers
of the Year
Poets' Basement
Davies, Valentine and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Yellowstone's Shame: Harassing Newborn Bison
May 18,
2007
Adam Jones
When
Does Genocide Purify? Ask the Pope
Sharon Smith
The Death of Triangulation Politics?
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney's Middle East Adventure
Peter Rost,
MD
Bribes and Spies in the Drug Industry
Denise Maloney Pictou
The Murder of Our Mother, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash: After 31 Years,
It is Time for Justice
David Swanson
Of Snoops and Dupes
Ali Khan
The Lawyers' Mutiny in Pakistan
Susan Rosenthal,
M.D.
Cho Seung-Hui Delivers His Message
Samer Assad
Israel and the Refugees: Fifty-Nine Years of Dispossession
CP News Service
Bidding for Extinction: Ivory Trade on eBay Threatens Survival
of Elephants
Website of the Day
Another War Criminal Goes to Harvard
May 17,
2007
Tariq Ali
The
General vs. the Judge
Yifat Susskind
Honor
Killings in the New Iraq: The Murder of Du'a Aswad
Dave Zirin
Being Ali or Being Owned: an Open Letter to LeBron James
Brian J. Foley
Hell, No, Harry Won't Go!
W. John Green
The Godfather of Colombia: Uribe and the Para Scandal
Eric Johnson-DeBaufre
Challenges for the New Sanctuary Movement
Badruddin Khan
Rebirthing the Neocons: Bernard Lewis' Latest Call to Arms
Martha Rosenberg
From Cockfighting to Foie Gras: On the Menu and on the Docket
China Hand
Pope Rat in Brazil: "The Amazon Tribes Longed for Christianity!"
Dan Vojir
Falwell's Tinky Winky Legacy: Who Will Battle the Telebubby Threat
Now?
Website of the Day
Welcome to the Terrordome
May 16, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Chalabi
Speaks
Ashley Dawson
Who's Afraid of Wolfowitz?
Joshua Frank
Obama's Cash Flow: Maverick or Kidder?
Corporate Crime
Reporter
Corporate Drug Pushers
Ray McGovern
A Four-Letter Word for Tenet
Glen Ford
Black Labor and the Big Mission
Joe Bageant
The Ghosts of Timothy Leary and Hunter S. Thompson
Sonja Karkar
The 59-Year Catastrophe
Mickey S. Huff
Preaching Hate: Farewell, Falwell
John Chuckman
Falwell's Lone Act of Kindness
Kaz Dziamka
What Ever Happened to Rogerian Argument?
Website of
the Day
We're All Going to Hell
May 15,
2007
Michael Neumann
Two
States, One State and Snake Oil
Patrick Cockburn
An American Nightmare
Ashley Smith
How the US Set Iraq on Fire
Marc Gardner
Parole and the Long-Distance Trucker
Dave Lindorff
and Linn Washington, Jr
Mumia Case Reaches Its Climax
Ben Terrall
Benchmark as Theft: Iraq Oil Workers Strike to Stop Privatization
Ron Jacobs
Cheney Threatens More War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Seabrook
Marcus Mabry
Shopping During Katrina
Dr. Susan Block
Cheney and the DC Madam's Cookie Jar
Website of the Day
Save Jean Klock Park from the Mega-Developers!
May 14,
2007
Jennifer Roesch
Giuliani
Time: the Mussolini of Manhattan
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Humans,
CO2 and Climate Change
George Bisharat
For Palestinians, Memory Matters
Diane Wachtell
The Real Imus Lesson
Ramzy Baroud
From Palestine to Rotterdam
Rosemary and
Walter Brasch
When the National Guard Goes Missing: An Ill Wind and American
Policy
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Blair's Exit
Roberto Rodriguez
The Elusive Bars of Justice
Jonathan Culp
Cutting Out Collage: Copyright and Art in Canada
Website of
the Day
Uranium Rock
May 12 /
13, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Who
are the Merchants of Fear?
Patrick Cockburn
State of Surge
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Line Fever: a Trip Across the Dark Side of Montana
Diane Farsetta
Untold Stories from the Pat Tillman / Jessica Lynch Hearings
Ralph Nader
Strip Mining the Newsroom: Mr. Zell and the Tribune Company
Jean Bricmont
The Great Illusion: Sarkozy and the "Decline" of France
Marcus Breen
Cheering Sarkozy: the US Media and the Rightwing Takeover of
France
Joe Bageant
Rising Above Politics
Conn Hallinan
European Missiles and the Camel's Nose
Fred Gardner
The Unreported I-880 Fire
Juan Santos
and Leslie Radford
Public Terror: Escalating the War on Migrants
Eve Bachrach
Inside Colombia's Flower Industry
Missy Comley
Beattie
Shame
Ron Jacobs
The Bitterness of Regis Debray
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Sepoy Mutiny After 150 Years
Susie Day
Jesus Christ Weds Pat Robertson
Poets' Basement
Newberry, Engel, Landau, Katz and Davies
Website of the Weekend
The Shipyard: Recycling as Art
May 11,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Blair's
Depature: the View from Baghdad
Kathleen Christison
Playing at Peace
Mike Ferner
Collateral Genocide
John Holt
Gating Montana: A Ghastly Disneyland with High Rise Outhouses
Laurie Hasbrook
This Minute and Then the Next: a Plea from an Antiwar Mother
Christopher
Brauchli
The Children of Limbo: Will the Pope Finally Set Them Free?
Margaret Kimberley
GOP Openly Embraces Gipper Values: Racism, Violence and Control
Dave Lindorff
Use It or Lose It: The Democrats and the Impeachment Clause
Nicole Colson
Anger Erupts at Conditions in For-Profit Indiana Prison
John V. Walsh
Beware the Do-Gooders in Body Armor
Website of the Day
Take the Terrorist Quiz!
May 10,
2007
Tariq Ali
Adieu,
Blair, Adieu
Patrick Cockburn
Killing of Teachers Turns Iraqi Sunnis Against al--Qa'ida
Neve Gordon
and Yigal Bronner
In Israel Not All Blood is the Same: The Death of Samir Dari
Marjorie Cohn
Fighting Terror Selectively: Washington and Posada Carriles
David Rosen
The New Disappeared: Sex Offenders, Civil Confinement and the
Resurrection of "Evil"
Alan Farago
Why the Everglades Have Dried Up: Developers and the South Florida
Drought
John Hellman
France: From Pétain to Sarkozy
Kathy Rentenbach
A 100 Days of Rafael Correa
BANCO
The Stage is Set for Sentencing Another Innocent Black Man
Richard Rhames
Is Paris Burning?
Website of the Day
Tame the Corporation
May 9, 2007
Jeff Leys
Iraq
and Afghanistan Supplemental Spending, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign Minister on Iran and Iraq
Glen Ford
No Black Plan for America's Cities
Paula Rothenberg
Feminism Then and Now
Kathryn Weber
A Conversation with Norman Finkelstein
John Chuckman
The Likely Historical Significance of the War in Iraq
Jordan Flaherty
Looking for Justice in Jena, Louisiana
Dave Lindorff
Pelosi's Toothless Threat to Sue Bush
Stephen Lendman
Criminalizing Speech: the War on Free Expression in a Post-9/11
World
Website of
the Day
"Fifth and Market": a Short Film About the Iraq War
May 8, 2007
Dave Lindorff
The
Great Oil Robbery
Patrick Cockburn
The Horrific Stoning Death of a Yazidi Girl Sparks Waves of Revenge
Killings
Corporate Crime Reporter
Snuff Politics: Democrats Escalate Attack on Single Payer
Ralph Nader
The People's Crusade of Mike Gravel
Malini Johar Schueller
Decoding Harlan Ullman: Shock and Awe as Sexual Fantasy
Juan Santos
The Hate Equation: Targeting Migrant Children in LA
Dave Zirin
Jason Whitlock, the Clarence Thomas of Sportswriters?
Joshua Frank
The Price of Fire in Latin America
Evelyn Pringle
Serotonin Syndrome
Eamonn McCann
Irish Peace Dividend for Discredited Premiers
Website of the Day
The Pagan Science Monitor
May 7, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Great Wall of Baghdad Rises
Monica Benderman
Land of Opportunity
Greg Moses
Hutto Prison Rebuffs UN Rapporteur
Rannie Amiri
The Sham at Sheikh: Iraq Regional Conference a Flop
Fitrakis / Wasserman
Media Silence on Kent State Revelations
Fred Wilhelms
Another Royalty Forfeiture From SoundExchange: And This Time
It's Secret!
Ramzy Baroud
The Hourglass of Blood: Darfur Revisited
Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats Don't Own the Antiwar Movement
T. W. Croft
Home Movies from a Weekend in Paris--And Related Dreamscapes
Sonja Karkar
Prizes for Supporting Israel?
Website of the Day
Posada Carriles: the Declassified Record
May 5 / 6, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Trying
to Catch Up with the Voters
William Blum
How America Has Changed Iraq
Uri Avnery
Exercise in Escapism
Franklin Lamb
Harvard's Twisted Report on Israel's Invasion of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Elective Surgeries Kill
Lawrence R.
Velvel
The American Moral Meltdown Accelerates
Missy Beattie
Lying and Dying: The Moral Sensibility
of Military Recruiters
Robert Fantina
Bush's Veto: Hypocritical Words and Actions
Carla Blank
American Massacres and the Media
Linn Washington,
Jr.
The Long Ordeal of Harold Wilson
Stephen F. Jackson
Taking It to Drummond: Paramilitaries and Mining Companies in
Colombia
P. Sainath
The Jailing of Indian Farmers
Anthony Papa
Time to End New York's War on Itself
James T. Phillips
Blather Cancer
John Ross
Last Days of the Willie Loman of the EZLN
Stephen Lendman
Chavez's Oil Policy Sparks Panic at Wall Street Journal
Ben Terrall
Iggy Pop at 60
CounterPunch
Newswire
Advice from a Geezer Assassin
Poets' Basement
Valentine, Engel and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Mountain Justice Summer
May 4, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
How
the Surge is Failing
Col. Dan Smith
From Watergate to Gonzogate
Norman Solomon
FOX on Wall Street
Azmi Bishara
Why is Israel After Me?
Ron Jacobs
Sitting in on Senator Kohl and the War
Dave Lindorff
Clinton and Byrd are Calling for Revocation of the Wrong AUMF
Kevin Zeese
The Democrats Cave to Bush
Bob Fitrakis
Why Four Died in Ohio: Kent State, Gov. Rhodes and the FBI
Janet Kauffman
"Stop the Mudness!" Bare Earth is Scorched Earth
Website of
the Day
Let Us Gather in Missouri!
May 3, 2007
Jeff Halper
The
Livni-Rice Plan for the Middle East: a Just Peace or Apartheid?
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's
Best and Brightest: From Dr. Keroack to Bernard Kerik
Dave Zirin
Talking Sports from Death Row: an Interview with Kevin Cooper
Corporate Crime
Reporter
Big Pharma Gets Its Hooks into Seton Hall Law School
Robert Fisk
Olmert Comes Undone
Mike Ferner
Bush Veto, Right for the Wrong Reasons?
Mike Whitney
A Stock Market Post-Mortem
Pham Binh
The Democrats and War Funding
Dave Lindorff
Kucinich's Impeachment Train: Look Who Just Stepped Aboard
Michael A.
Johnson
Tenet on 60 Minutes
Website of the Day
Olivia Wilde: the Interview
May 2, 2007
Saul Landau
Would
Jesus Wear a Rolex on His TV Show?
Dr. Susan Block
Hookergate II: Madame Julia's Big Black Book of Cheesy Republican
Sex Acts
Carla Blank
Historical Amnesia: Worst U.S. Massacre?
Margaret Kimberly
The Candor of Mike Gravel: "These People Frighten Me"
Kevin Zeese
Durbin Gives Edwards More to Apologize For
Carlos Villareal
How "Law and Order" Covers for Bigotry in the Immigration
Debate
Michael Dickinson
Trouble in Turkey: Criminalizing Political Art
Tim Shorrock
A Raw Deal Between Washington and Seoul: Corporate Interventionism
as Trade Policy
Alevtina Rea
The Myth-Makers of Estonia
William S.
Lind
General Incompetence: Col. Yingling and the Military Brass
Website of the Day
Good News: Rost's "ZubeGate Exposé Prompts Congressional
Inquiry
May 1, 2007
Andrew Cockburn
How
Rumsfeld Micromanaged Torture
Fred Gardner
Affirmative Abstinence: Adios, Randall Tobias, the Man Who Turned
His Wife's Suicide into a Sales Pitch for Prozac
Chase Madar
Are Working Class Jobs Bad for Your Health?
Ralph Nader
Cheney and the BYU 25: Faith, Accountability and Protest in Utah
John V. Walsh
Edgy Dems Snarl at Their Antiwar Base
Joshua Frank
Obama, Incorporated
Leslie Radford
The Migrant Trap and the Migrant's Way Out
Shaun Harkin
An Interview with Nativo López on Immigration Bills and
Protests
Dave Lindorff
Murtha Talks Impeachment
Peter Rost,
MD
Inspector General Requests Meeting with Pfizer Whistleblower
Peter Linebaugh
May Day and Magna Carta
Website of
the Day
Impeachment? Why Bother?
|
June
7, 2007
The
Pentagon's IG Report Contradicts What the APA Has Said About
the Involvement of Psychologists in Abusive Interrogations
A
Q&A on Psychologists and Torture
By STEPHEN SOLDZ, STEVE
REISNER
and BRAD OLSON
What is the OIG Report and
Why is it Important?
On May 18, the Department of
Defense (DoD) declassified an August 2006 report by the departments'
Office of the Inspector General (OIG) entitled Review of
DoD-Directed Investigations of Detainee Abuse. In this
report is conclusive evidence from the oversight division of
the DoD confirming that psychologists played a central role
in the development of the regime of psychological torture used
at the US detention facilities at Guantánamo and in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
The OIG report further substantiates
numerous press reports published over the last several years
that the military's Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape
(SERE) program had been "reverse-engineered" to develop
the harsh interrogation techniques used in our country's detention
facilities housing terrorist suspects.
Since 2004, as these reports
emerged, the leadership of the American Psychological Association
(APA) ignored or disparaged them; in each case reiterating the
APA policy statement, that "psychologists have a critical
role in keeping interrogations safe, legal, ethical and
effective."
This briefing paper documents
and explains the content of the OIG report and its refutation
of the claims of APA leadership, including those made by Dr.
Stephen Behnke, Director of APA Ethics Directorate, and Past
Presidents Gerald Koocher and Ronald Levant. At the end of the
document is a list of urgent action steps the APA must take to
immediately reform its flawed ethics policy and restore the reputation
of our profession as a force that defends human rights, promotes
core principles of health professional ethics, and acts to protect
the well-being of the individual, regardless of political, ethnic,
or religious distinctions.
What is SERE?
SERE is the military's Survival,
Evasion, Resistance, and Escape program that trains US Special
Operations forces, aviators and others at high risk of capture
on the battlefield to evade capture and to resist 'breaking'
under torture, particularly through giving false confessions
or collaborating with their captors. During SERE training, trainees
are subjected to harsh and abusive treatment modeled upon the
cold war-era psychological torture techniques used by the Chinese,
the North Koreans, and the former Soviet Union. SERE-type techniques,
when used by other countries, have been described as torture
by the United States government in State Department human rights
reports for decades.
Reports of the treatment of
detainees in US custody as part of the global war on terror have
paralleled techniques known to have been used as part of SERE
training: prolonged isolation, prolonged sleep deprivation, sensory
deprivation, extremely painful "stress positions,"
sensory bombardment (such as prolonged loud noise and/or bright
lights), forced nudity, sexual humiliation, cultural humiliation
(such as disrespect to holy books), being subjected to extreme
cold that induces hypothermia, the exploitation of phobias, and
simulation of the experience of drowning (waterboarding). Experience
with torture survivors and the medical and psychological literature
document that these techniques can have profound long-term negative
effects upon individuals, including psychosis, depression, suicidal
ideation and/or post-traumatic stress disorder. Many SERE program
graduates have complained of these symptoms.
Do SERE Techniques Violate
the Geneva Conventions? YES.
"SERE training incorporates
physical and psychological pressures, which act as counterresistance
techniques, to replicate harsh conditions that the Service member
might encounter if they are held by forces that do not abide
by the Geneva Conventions" (OIG Report, p. 23)
"The Commander, Joint
Personnel Recovery Agency, explained that he understood that
the detainees held by TF-20 [in Iraq] were determined to be Designated
Unlawful Combatants (DUCs), not Enemy Prisoners of War (EPW)
protected by the Geneva Convention and that the interrogation
techniques were authorized and that the JPRA team members were
not to exceed the standards used in SERE training on our own
Service members." (OIG Report, p. 28)
The OIG Report cites the description
in the Army Field Manual 34-52, which makes clear that SERE-type
interrogation techniques constitute "physical or mental
torture and coercion under the Geneva conventions":
"Physical or mental torture
and coercion revolves around eliminating the source's free will
and are expressly prohibited by GWS [Geneva Convention for the
Amelioration of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field],
Article 13; GPW [Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment
of Prisoners of War], Articles 13 and 17; and GC [Geneva Convention
Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War],
Articles 31 and 32. Torture is defined as the infliction of intense
pain to body or mind to extract a confession or information,
or for sadistic pleasure. Examples of physical torture include--
electric shock, forcing an individual to stand, sit, or kneel
in abnormal positions for prolonged periods of time, food deprivation,
and any form of beating. Examples of mental torture include-mock
executions, abnormal sleep deprivation, and chemically induced
psychosis. Coercion is defined as actions designed to unlawfully
induce another to compel an act against one's will. Examples
of coercion include-threatening or implying physical or mental
torture to the subject, his family or others to whom he owes
loyalty." (OIG Report, pp. 3-4)
Are SERE Techniques Regarded
as Torture by SERE Psychologists? YES.
PENS Task Force member Captain
Bryce Lefever, a former SERE psychologist for the Navy SEALs,
describes his SERE duties in his PENS biography as including
the supervision of "personnel undergoing intensive exposure
to enemy interrogation, torture, and exploitation techniques."
Were SERE Techniques Taught
and Utilized at Guantánamo? YES.
The OIG report documents in
detail that Ft. Bragg SERE psychologists provided training to
interrogators at Guantánamo for the purpose of using SERE
techniques to break down detainees:
"Counterresistance techniques
taught by the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency [the agency responsible
for SERE training] contributed to the development of interrogation
policy at the U.S. Southern Command [i.e., Guanatanamo]."
OIG Report, p. 24)
"[These] Counterresistance
techniques were introduced because personnel believed that interrogation
methods used were no longer effective in obtaining useful information
from some detainees." (OIG Report, p. 24)
"JTF-170 [the command
overseeing interrogations at Guantánamo] requested that
Joint Personnel Recovery Agency instructors be sent to Guantánamo
to instruct interrogators in SERE counterresistance interrogation
techniques. SERE instructors from Fort Bragg responded to Guantánamo
requests for instructors trained in the use of SERE interrogation
resistance techniques" (OIG Report, p. 26).
Were Psychologists Involved
in the Transformation of SERE Training Techniques into Interrogation
methods? YES.
"On September 16, 2002,
the Army Special Operations Command and the Joint Personnel Recovery
Agency co-hosted a SERE psychologist conference at Fort
Bragg for JTF-170 interrogation personnel. The Army's Behavioral
Science Consultation Team [BSCT] from Guantánamo Bay
also attended the conference. Joint Personnel Recovery Agency
personnel briefed JTF-170 representatives on the exploitation
techniques and methods used in resistance (to interrogation)
training at SERE schools. The JTF-170 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, if the command approved those practices.
The Army Special Operations Command was examining the role of
interrogation support as a 'SERE Psychologist competency area.'"
(OIG Report, p. 25, emphasis added.)
How did SERE Techniques
Become Transformed into Abusive Interrogation Techniques?
On October 11, the Commander
of JTF-170 forwarded a memorandum requesting approval of harsh,
SERE-based technique. From the memorandum:
"...the following techniques
and other aversive techniques, such as those used in U.S. military
interrogation resistance training or by other U.S. government
agencies, may be utilized in a carefully coordinated manner to
help interrogate exceptionally resistant detainees." (OIG
Report, p. 26)
"[T]he U.S. Southern Command's
request led to the issuance of Secretary of Defense, December
2, 2002, memorandum [authorizing the use of many harsh, abusive
techniques]. In response to Service-level concerns, a Working
Group was formed to examine counterresistance techniques, leading
to the Secretary of Defense, April 16, 2003, memorandum that
approved counterresistance techniques for U.S. Southern Command."
(OIG Report, p. 26)
Did the Interrogation Methods
Considered by the Pentagon's "Working Group" and Authorized
by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld Originate With SERE Psychologists?
YES.
"[T]he U.S. Southern Command's
request led to the issuance of Secretary of Defense, December
2, 2002, memorandum." (OIG Report, p. 26)
"I stand for 8-10 hours
a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?" (Rumsfeld Memorandum
Dec. 2, 2002)
"In response to Service-level
concerns, a Working Group was formed to examine counterresistance
techniques, leading to the Secretary of Defense, April 16, 2003,
memorandum that approved counterresistance techniques for U.S.
Southern Command." (OIG Report, p. 26)
"Application of these
interrogation techniques is subject to the following general
safeguards: (i) limited to use only at strategic interrogation
facilities; (ii) there is a good basis to believe that detainee
possesses critical intelligence; (iii) the detainee is medically
and operationally evaluated as suitable (considering all techniques
to be used in combination); (iv) interrogators are specifically
trained for the techniques; (v) a specific interrogation plan
(including reasonable safeguards. limits on duration, intervals
between applications, termination criteria and the presence or
availability of qualified medical personnel) has been developed;
(vi) there is appropriate supervision; and, (vii) there is appropriate,
specified senior approval for use with any specific detainee(after
considering the foregoing and receiving legal advice)."
(Rumsfeld's "Memorandum
for the Commander, US Southern Command. Subject: Counter-Resistance
Techniques in the War on Terrorism (S). April 16, 2003, p. 5.)
Were the SERE Techniques
Used in Iraq and Did Psychologists Play a Role in Bringing Them
There? YES.
"The Joint Personnel Recovery
Agency [responsible for SERE] was also responsible for the migration
of counterresistance interrogation techniques into the U.S. Central
Command's area of responsibility [Iraq and Afghanistan]. In September
2003, at the request of the Commander, TF-20 [the special forces
group hunting Saddam Hussein and other former Baath and top insurgency
leaders], the Commander, Joint Personnel Recovery Agency sent
an interrogation assessment team to Iraq to provide advice and
assistance to the task force interrogation mission. The TF-20
was the special mission unit that operated in the CJTF-7 area
of operations" (OIG Report, p. 28).
Did SERE Techniques Migrate
to Afghanistan? YES.
"The Afghanistan SOP was
influenced by the counterresistance memorandum that the Secretary
of Defense approved on December, 2, 2002 (see Appendix U), and
incorporated techniques designed for detainees who were identified
as 'unlawful combatants.' Subsequent battlefield interrogation
SOPs included techniques such as yelling, loud music, light control,
environmental manipulation, sleep deprivation/adjustment, stress
positions, 20 hour interrogations, and controlled fear (muzzled
dogs)" (OIG Report, pp. 15-16).
Did the OIG Find the Use
of SERE Techniques to be Inappropriate? YES.
"We are not suggesting
that SERE training is inappropriate for those subject to capture;
however, it is not appropriate to use in training interrogators
how to conduct interrogation operations" (OIG Report, p.
29).
"We recommend that the Commander, U.S. Joint Forces
Command, Office of Primary Responsibility for Personnel Recovery
and Executive Agent for all Survival, Evasion, Resistance and
Escape training implement formal policies and procedures that
preclude the introduction and use of physical and psychological
coercion techniques outside the training environment." (OIG
Report, p. 30, emphasis removed)
Were Psychologists Central
to the Development and Promulgation of Abusive Interrogation
Techniques? YES.
As the OIG report documents,
SERE psychologists instructed military intelligence, Special
Operations forces, psychologists serving as part of the Behavioral
Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs), and other interrogation personnel
on how to use SERE techniques during interrogations. Additionally,
BSCT psychologists understood that they were to utilize SERE
methods in "developing the standard operating procedure
for the JTF-170 [GTMO interrogators]," pending command approval
(OIG Report, p. 29). BSCT psychologists also were directly involved
in implementing the SERE tactics during interrogations, according
to multiple reports. One well-known example is the involvement
of military psychologist Major John Leso in the interrogation
of Muhammed Al-Qatani.
Did Leading SERE Psychologists
and Other Psychologists Engaged in Interrogations Co-author the
PENS Task Force Report and Recommendations? YES.
In response to reports of psychologists'
and other health professionals' involvement in abusive interrogations,
the APA convened a Presidential Task Force on Psychological
Ethics and National Security (PENS) in 2005. Six of
the nine voting members were from the DoD and the US intelligence
community, most with direct involvement in national security
interrogations at Guantánamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Perhaps most problematic, it is clear from the OIG Report that
three of the PENS members were directly in the chain of command
translating SERE techniques into harsh interrogation tactics.
Although we cannot know exactly what each of these individuals
did, their presence in the chain of command is deeply troubling.
Colonel Morgan Banks "is the senior Army Survival,
Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Psychologist, responsible
for the training and oversight of all Army SERE Psychologists.
He provides technical support and consultation to all Army psychologists
providing interrogation support, and his office currently provides
the only Army training for psychologists in repatriation planning
and execution, interrogation support, and behavioral profiling"
(PENS Task Force member biographies). Since 2005, several reporters
have implicated Colonel Banks in the "reverse engineering"
of SERE techniques for interrogation purposes.
Colonel Larry James "was the Chief Psychologist for
the Joint Intelligence Group at GTMO, Cuba" (PENS Task Force
member biographies) starting in January 2003, immediately after
Secretary Rumsfeld authorized the use of the most brutal SERE-based
techniques as Guantánamo. He was in command of psychologists
at GTMO at the time these abusive policies and practices were
in effect with the direct involvement of military psychologists.
Captain Bryce Lefever had been a SERE psychologist (from
1991-1993) where he supervised "personnel undergoing intensive
exposure to enemy interrogation, torture, and exploitation techniques."
He "was deployed as the Joint Special Forces Task Force
psychologist to Afghanistan in 2002, where he lectured to interrogators
and was consulted on various interrogation techniques" (PENS
Task Force member biographies). That is, he had the requisite
SERE background and it appears that he was involved in interrogations
in Afghanistan at the time, as the OIG report makes clear, that
the abusive SERE-based techniques were being utilized by Special
Operations forces and others.
While we do not know exactly
what each of these PENS Task Force members did in their settings
and how their roles influenced the SERE/BSCT migration process,
the OIG report makes it clear that the commands that these psychologists
held or served under played a lead role establishing and implementing
the policies that adapted SERE tactics use in interrogations
during the time the events described in the OIG report occurred.
This conflict of interest was already raised in the press at
the time of the PENS process by the release of the ICRC report;
it is confirmed by the OIG report. This conflict raises the strong
possibility that the selfsame psychologists who wrote the APA
policy permitting participation in US national security interrogations
were part of the process generating the policies and procedures
that made the abusive SERE techniques standard operating procedure
throughout all three primary theaters of US combat and human
intelligence operations as part of the War on Terror.
In addition to the PENS Task
Force members apparently involved in DoD interrogations, one
member, R. Scott Shumate, was the chief operational psychologist
in the CIA Counter Terrorism Center and later for DoD counterintelligence
operations. The CIA's so-called "enhanced interrogation
methods," as described in several media reports, are strikingly
similar to the SERE tactics:
R. Scott Shumate's PENS Task Force biographical statement
reads: "He has worked for the federal government in highly
classified positions that have required him to travel extensively
and live overseas. He has performed many of his duties under
highly stressful and difficult circumstances. In May of 2003,
Dr. Shumate accepted a senior position in the Department of Defense
as the Director of Behavioral Science for the Counterintelligence
Field Activity ["CIFA"]. Currently, he has 20 psychologists
and a multimillion dollar budget as he provides operational psychological
support to several Defense Agencies though CIFA."The biographical
statement goes on: "He was the chief operational psychologist
for the Counter-Terrorism Center from 2000 to 2003 and has interviewed
many renowned individuals associated with various terrorist networks."
A more recent biographical
statement posted on a website for a conference where Shumate
was scheduled to speak states that, "Dr. Shumate worked
as an undercover officer for the Central Intelligence Agency
where he worked against a wide array of targets including the
Middle Eastern, Russian, and Chinese. From April 2001 until May
of 2003 he was the chief operational psychologist for the CIA's
Counter Terrorism Center (CTC). He has been with several of
the key apprehended terrorists."
Shumate, it appears, was "with
several of the key apprehended terrorists," in his capacity
as chief operational psychologist for the CIA's Counter Terrorism
center or while CIFA Behavioral Science staff were offering guidance
for the questioning of Guantánamo detainees. The legality
of the interrogation practices used by these units will be the
subject of imminent hearings by the Senate Armed Services Committee
and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
What has the APA Said About
Psychologists Participation in National Security Interrogations [emphases added unless otherwise noted]?
The APA leadership has
repeatedly said that psychologists' participation in interrogations
helps keep them "safe,
legal, ethical and effective." This language, it turns out, is nearly identical
to that used by Department of Defense officials, including former
Army Surgeon General Lt. General Kevin Kiley, involved in protecting
what we now know were abusive interrogation techniques that violate
the Geneva Conventions. The following quotes demonstrate how
the statements of APA leadership directly contradict the findings
of the OIG report:
"APA derives its position
from Principle A, "Do No Harm," in the Ethical Principles
of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2002), and from Principle
B, which addresses psychologists' responsibilities to society.
By virtue of Principle A, psychologists do no harm; by virtue
of Principle B, psychologists use their expertise in, and understanding
of, human behavior to aid in the prevention of harm. A corollary
to this first rule is that psychologists may not participate
in interrogations that rely on coercion." (APA Director
of APA's Ethics Office, APA Monitor on Psychology, July/August,
2006)
"It is consistent with
the APA Code of Ethics for psychologists to serve in consultative
roles to interrogation- or information-gathering processes for
national security-related purposes. While engaging in such consultative
and advisory roles entails a delicate balance of ethical considerations,
doing so puts psychologists in a unique position to assist in
ensuring that such processes are safe and ethical
for all participants." (PENS Report)
"The task force concluded
psychologists have a critical role in keeping interrogations
safe, legal, ethical
and effective." (Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter,
Chair of the PENS Task Force, emphasis in original)
"I wish I had the assurance
that Jane Mayer and that Dr. Reisner apparently have that there
are APA members doing bad things at Guantánamo or elsewhere,
because any time I have asked these journalists or other people
who are making these assertions for names so that APA could investigate
its members who might be allegedly involved in them, no names
have ever been forthcoming." (2006 APA President Gerald
Koocher on Democracy Now! radio June 16, 2006)
"APA has a strong interest
in the role that psychologists are playing in national security
investigations as part of the Joint Task Force and wishes to
continue to help advise our members and DoD to ensure that
such work by psychologists is safe, legal,
ethical, and effective." (2005 APA President
Ronald Levant in Military Psychology, 2007)
"Survival, Evasion, Resistance,
and Escape (SERE) training for BSCTs was discussed. SERE training
has been provided to BSCTs so that they can learn the perspective
of persons in captivity. General Hood stated that the
purpose was not so that they would learn how to use SERE techniques
in interrogation." (2005 APA President Ronald Levant
in Military Psychology, 2007)
"The Association's position
is rooted in our belief that having psychologists consult
with interrogation teams makes an important contribution toward
keeping interrogations safe and ethical."
(2007 APA President Sharon Brehm, Letter to the Editor, Washington
Monthly, January 9, 2007).
"A number of opportunistic
commentators masquerading as scholars have continued to report
on alleged abuses by mental health professionals." (2006
APA President Gerald Koocher, APA Monitor on Psychology,
February, 2006)
"colleagues have expressed
concerns that behavioral scientists have helped interrogators
create aversive interrogation techniques as noted in press accounts
(e.g., sleep deprivation, social isolation, extreme temperature
changes or degrading and embarrassing interventions). Such concern
ignores the fact that the use of such strategies hardly constitutes
a recent development, and did not originate as the ideas of psychologists."
(2006 APA President Gerald Koocher, APA Monitor on Psychology,
July/August, 2006)
"In the purest sense,
the mission of the BSCT is to provide forensic psychological
expertise and consultation in order to assist the command
in conducting safe, legal, ethical,
and effective interrogation and detainee operations."
(Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, Surgeon General of the Army "Final
Report: Assessment of Medical Operations for OEF, GTMO, and OIF
"Section 18-21, p. 13.)
"Students [military intelligence]
are trained about the roles of the BSCT staff, which include:
checking the medical history of detainees with a focus on depression,
delusional behaviors, manifestations of stress, and 'what are
their buttons.' Students are alaso trained that BSCT staff will
greatly assist them with: obtaining more accurate intelligence
information, knowing how to gain better rapport with detainees,
and also knowing when to push or not to push harder in the pursuit
of intelligence information." (Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley,
Surgeon General of the Army "Final Report: Assessment
of Medical Operations for OEF, GTMO, and OIF" Section
19-14, p. 19-7.)
What Should the APA Do Now?
With the release of the OIG
report, the APA's argument for psychologist participation, that
it keeps these interrogations "safe, legal,
ethical, and effective,"
has been definitively proven false. The APA should immediately
take several steps to correct its flawed policy:
1. APA should immediately
rescind the PENS Task Force Report because it was based upon
a flawed process and was written by senior DoD and intelligence
personnel involved in the chain of command that oversaw the very
ethical abuses it was constituted to investigate.
2. Prior to the upcoming August
Council Meeting, the APA Board of Directors and the Ethics Committee
should endorse the resolution entitled, "A moratorium
on psychologist involvement in interrogations at US detention
centers for foreign detainees," introduced by Neil
Altman and scheduled for a vote at the August Council of Representatives.
The Council of Representatives should pass this resolution.
Passing the Moratorium will immediately establish that psychologists
no longer belong in the interrogation rooms where, as the OIG
report documents, they helped to create the procedures for, and
supervise the methods of, abusive SERE interrogations. Such a
step would do much to bring the APA in line with the positions
adopted some time ago by the American Psychiatric Association,
the American Medical Association, and the American Nurses Association.
4. APA should modify Ethics
Code Standard 1.02, which allows psychologists to disregard the
APA Ethics Code when following a law or military regulation,
thus removing what amounts to the "Nuremberg Defense"
from the APA Ethics Code.
5. The APA Board of Directors
should commence a neutral third-party investigation of any conflicts
of interest between the APA and the Executive Branch of the US
Government that influenced the PENS process and the APA's position
on this important issue.
It is necessary to uncover
why and how the APA has steadfastly continued its commitment
to its current policy despite the continually emerging evidence
that psychology and psychologists have been involved in detainee
abuse. An independent investigation conducted by a panel
of experts in international, military and US law, health professional
ethics, human rights, and other related fields would shed
much-needed light on the APA's formulation of policy in this
area. as well as structural, cultural, and other issues that
contributed to the APA's policy development process.
Among the issues this investigation
must examine are:
a) the numerous procedural
irregularities alleged to have occurred during the PENS process;
b) the role of the military
and intelligence agencies in the formulation and functioning
of the PENS Task Force;
c) the reasons why the APA
and its leadership have systematically ignored the accumulating
evidence that psychologists participating in interrogations are
contributing to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment,
rather than helping to prevent it; and
d) the overall nexus of close
ties between the APA staff/leadership and the military and intelligence
agencies, and whether that nexus contributed to the APA policy
on interrogations, and further, to the failure of the APA to
substantively investigate allegations of mass ethical abuses
by psychologists in the military and intelligence services.
Contact Information:
Stephen Soldz, Director, Center for Research, Evaluation,
and Program Development & Professor, Boston Graduate School
of Psychoanalysis; University of Massachusetts, Boston. He can
be reached at: ssoldz@bgsp.edu
Steven Reisner is Senior Faculty and Supervisor, International
Trauma Studies Program, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia
University; Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry,
New York University Medical School: SReisner@psychoanalysis.net
Brad Olson is an Assistant Research Professor,
at Northwestern University:
b-olson@northwestern.edu
Click
here to read an Open Letter from Psychologists to the President
of the American Psychology Association on Torture.
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