Experts Allege the American Psychological Association Secretly Collaborated With Bush on Torture
A group of dissident psychologists say the professional academic organization provided legal and ethical cover to George W. Bush’s torture regime in the post-Sept. 11 war on terror.
Demonstrators wore mock detainee get-up in protest against George W. Bush as the president visited London in early 2008. (Val Kerry / CC BY 2.0)
A group of dissident psychologists claim the American Psychological Association provided legal and ethical cover to George W. Bush’s torture regime in the post-Sept. 11 war on terror.
The New York Times reports:
The report is the first to examine the association’s role in the interrogation program. It contends, using newly disclosed emails, that the group’s actions to keep psychologists involved in the interrogation program coincided closely with efforts by senior Bush administration officials to salvage the program after the public disclosure in 2004 of graphic photos of prisoner abuse by American military personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
“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.
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