Stephen Behnke, JD, PhD April 2, 2014
Lindsay Childress-Beatty, JD, PhD
Ethics Office
American Psychological Association
Dear Drs. Behnke and Childress-Beatty:
On behalf of the Executive Committee of Division 48, the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence, I write to express our deep concern and disappointment at the recent decision of the APA Ethics Office in the case of Dr. John Leso. Extensive evidence from authoritative sources documents his planning, presence, and active involvement in the brutal detention and interrogation – and ultimately torture – of Mohammed al-Qahtani at Guantanamo. Nearly seven years after the ethics complaint was filed against Dr. Leso, the Ethics Office closed the case without sanctions and without taking the case to the full Ethics Committee for review and resolution. As peace psychologists, we are unable to perceive a legitimate basis for either this procedure or outcome.
Division 48 is committed to restoring the moral integrity of American psychology and to ensuring that our professional organization provides exemplary leadership in all areas of peace and human rights. APA is responsible for fully and objectively investigating and adjudicating all formal ethics charges where there is compelling evidence of psychologist involvement in torture. The antithesis of healing, therapy, and the benevolent use of psychological knowledge and research, torture is the deliberate application of physical or psychological pain, and a cruel, inhuman, and degrading form of violence.
The Ethics Office’s decision to take this action and to deny the full Ethics Committee the opportunity to carefully and thoroughly review the evidence only increases the likelihood of future torture by psychologists. In cases like that of Dr. Leso, full Ethics Committee reviews are necessary to maintain a meaningful standard of professional ethics, to demonstrate and encourage compassion for the direct victims of brutality, and to provide unambiguous guidance and support to psychologists who will, quite possibly, face pressures to facilitate and legitimize torture in the future. Moreover, impunity for torture increases the probability that psychologists will be the indirect cause of other forms of interpersonal and intergroup violence in the world.
The Division 48 Executive Committee also shares the view expressed by Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) that the Leso decision is disturbing, on many counts, and potentially far-reaching in its adverse consequences on the ethics of our profession and on the stature of organized psychology in the United States. Any psychologist readily understands the need to maintain some level of confidentiality around the most sensitive information, but there appears to be no reasonable justification for diverting the Leso case from a full Ethics Committee review. We request much greater transparency regarding the basis by which APA staff, consultants, and the Ethics Committee Chair chose to close the case without a review by the full committee.
Sincerely,
Brad Olson, PhD
President, APA Division 48
cc: APA Board of Directors
PHR Calls for Federal Probe into American Psychological Association¹s
ReplyDeleteRole in CIA Torture Program
James Risen¹s New Book Gives Evidence of Collusion Between Health
Professionals and CIA
New York, NY - 10/16/2014
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is calling for a Department of Justice
investigation into the American Psychological Association¹s (APA) role in
supporting the CIA¹s torture program. Damaging new evidence of this
relationship has emerged in ³Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless
War,² the new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James Risen of The
New York Times.
In a chapter titled ³War on Decency,² Risen details evidence that the APA
worked directly and secretly with U.S. government officials, including
from the CIA and the White House, on its ethics policy. According to
Risen, this collusion appeared to be aimed at ethically justifying
psychologist involvement in interrogations and ensuring psychologist
assistance in implementing and legitimizing the Bush-era torture program.
³Risen presents credible evidence that the American Psychological
Association colluded with the Bush administration so that health
professionals¹ skills and knowledge could be used to justify the torture
and ill-treatment of detainees,² said Donna McKay, PHR¹s executive
director. ³The Department of Justice must immediately initiate an
investigation into whether the APA and CIA engaged in any unlawful
conduct related to this brutal torture program.²
The APA, according to Risen, was crucial to safeguarding the Bush
administration¹s legal rationale for the CIA program, which depended on
health professionals¹ involvement and monitoring of so-called ³enhanced²
interrogation methods. Risen reports that the APA was the only health
organization willing to provide the government with legal cover: ³If the
American Psychological Association and its member psychologists had not
gone along with the Bush administration, it is unclear that any other
health professionals would have taken their place.² (Page 195).
³For nearly a decade, PHR has been demanding accountability for
psychologists and other health professionals who designed and implemented
the United States¹ torture program,² said Steven
Reisner, advisor on psychology and ethics for PHR. ³Now that Risen has
provided evidence that the American Psychological Association secretly
colluded with the CIA to change APA policy to keep psychologists at the
center of these operations, it is time for a full federal investigation.²
Since 2005, PHR has documented the systematic use of psychological and
physical torture on national security detainees in U.S. custody in its
groundbreaking reports, including Break Them
Down (2005), Leave No
Marks (2007), Broken Laws, Broken
Lives (2008), Aiding
Torture (2009), Experiments in
Torture (2010), and Buried
Alive (2013). The
organization has repeatedly called for an end to the use of the Survival,
Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE) tactics by U.S. personnel, the
dismantling of the Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCT), and a
full Congressional investigation into the role of health professionals in
the U.S. program, among other recommendations. Additionally, PHR has
worked to mobilize the health professional community, particularly the
professional associations, to adopt strong ethical prohibitions against
direct participation in interrogations.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy
organization that uses science and medicine to stop mass atrocities and
severe human rights violations.
[PHR Shared the 1997 Nobel Peace
Prize]
- See more at:
http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/press/press-releases/phr-calls-for-fed
eral-probe-into-american-psychological-associations-role-in-cia-torture-pr
ogram.html#sthash.rQmClxct.dpuf