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Psychologists Shielded U.S. Torture Program, Report Finds

205 pointsby mcgwizalmost 10 years ago

10 comments

littletimmyalmost 10 years ago
It is enlightening to see that the Joseph Mengeles and Shiro Ishiis of our times are not subject to any sanction.<p>Remember folks, this is only the torture that we know. There are dozens of CIA black-sites around the world about which we know next to nothing. It is not too hard to imagine a regime that can torture people via waterboarding can also torture people by, say, forced heroin withdrawal and then just kill them.<p>Just goes to show, the only morality is that of the victor.
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c_promptalmost 10 years ago
A few related articles of interest:<p>Why I Am Not a Member of the American Psychological Association - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chalquist.com&#x2F;apa.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chalquist.com&#x2F;apa.html</a><p>EMAILS REVEAL CLOSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGY GROUP AND CIA - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;firstlook.org&#x2F;theintercept&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;30&#x2F;emails-show-close-relationship-psychology-group-cia&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;firstlook.org&#x2F;theintercept&#x2F;2015&#x2F;04&#x2F;30&#x2F;emails-show-cl...</a>
nickbaumanalmost 10 years ago
Before anyone gets into the morality of torture. Can anyone even point to <i>open, independently verifiable evidence</i> that shows that torture yields good human intelligence?
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jimrandomhalmost 10 years ago
Go straight to page 12 of the report, the section titled &quot;key players&quot;. Every person named in that section should be brought before a court of law, to determine the truth or falsehood of the accusations in this report. The US criminal justice system has taken a lot of blows to its credibility recently; this is a chance to demonstrate that it still does what it&#x27;s supposed to... or that it doesn&#x27;t.<p>&gt; The APA official who led this behind-the-scenes coordination with the DoD officials was the Ethics Director, Stephen Behnke, and the key DoD official he partnered with was Morgan Banks, the chief of psychological operations for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and the head of the Army SERE Training program at Ft. Bragg. During the task force’s premeeting communications, during its three-day meetings, and in preparing the task force report, Behnke and Banks closely collaborated to emphasize points that followed then-existing DoD guidance (which used high-level concepts and did not prohibit techniques such as stress positions and sleep deprivation), to suppress contrary points, and to keep the task force’s ethical statements at a very general level in order to avoid creating additional constraints on DoD. They were aided in that regard by the other DoD members of the task force (who, for the most part, also did not want ethical guidance that was more restrictive than existing DoD guidance), and by high-level APA officials who participated in the meeting.<p>&gt; Other leading APA officials intimately involved in the coordinated effort to align APA actions with DoD preferences at the time of PENS were then-APA President Ron Levant, then APA President-Elect Gerald Koocher, and then-APA Practice Directorate chief Russ Newman. Then-APA Board member Barry Anton participated in the selection of the task force members along with Levant, Koocher, and Behnke and in the task force meeting, but was involved substantially less than the others. Other members of the APA executive management group—namely, CEO Norman Anderson, Deputy CEO Michael Honaker, General Counsel Nathalie Gilfoyle, and communications director Rhea Farberman were involved in relevant communications, as described below.<p>&gt; The other DoD official who was significantly involved in the confidential coordination effort was Debra Dunivin, the lead psychologist supporting interrogation operations at Guantanamo Bay at the time who worked closely with Banks on the issue of psychologist involvement in interrogations. At times, they were coordinating their activities with the Army Surgeon General’s Office. There is evidence that Banks was consulting with other military leaders, likely in the Army Special Operations Command and the Joint Task Force – Guantanamo, although this was not the focus of our investigation, in part because of our limited ability to access DoD documents and personnel. Another important DoD official involved in some coordination with Behnke was PENS task force member Scott Shumate, a former CIA official who was head of behavioral sciences for a newly-created counter intelligence unit (CIFA) within DoD, which reported to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.<p>&gt; For Banks, Dunivin, and others at DoD, the attention on the abusive treatment of detainees as a result of the media disclosures of Abu Ghraib, the torture memos, the DoD working group report, and other related events created uncertainty and worry about whether the involvement of psychologists in interrogations would be deemed unethical. Some in DoD, such as civilians Shumate and Kirk Kennedy at CIFA, were pushing APA to move forward with action that would show support for national security psychologists and help end the uncertainty by declaring that psychologists’ participation in interrogations (with some then-undefined limits) was ethical. Others, like military officers Banks and Dunivin, reacted to APA’s movement toward the creation of the task force with concern that APA could head in a negative direction if the task force was not properly set up and controlled, and with awareness that this was an opportunity for DoD.<p>Stephen Behnke. Morgan Banks. Ron Levant. Gerald Koocher. Russ Newman. Barry Anton. Norman Anderson. Michael Honaker. Nathalie Gilfoyle. Rhea Farberman. Debra Dunivin. Scott Shumate. Kirk Kennedy.
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chrisbennetalmost 10 years ago
What ever happened to &quot;do no harm&quot;?
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coldcodealmost 10 years ago
When people in charge of ethics have no ethics where does that leave us?
louithethridalmost 10 years ago
Im wondering, if this could be prevented by providing acountability across generations. If we where to store the names of torturing individuals - and generate a civilian resistance- by refusing to employ, buy and sell to those who engage in torture and everyone decending from them, pressure could be applied.<p>&quot;Im not going to the prom with you, cause your father&#x2F;grandfather was a torturer&quot; - sounds like something that could hit home. And goverment seems to have escaped all (self)controll otherwise.
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shadowmosesalmost 10 years ago
American style corruption.
itistoday2almost 10 years ago
I would like to take this moment to point out that John Kiriakou is doing an Indiegogo campaign:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.indiegogo.com&#x2F;projects&#x2F;the-whistleblower-who-won-t-be-silenced#&#x2F;story" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.indiegogo.com&#x2F;projects&#x2F;the-whistleblower-who-won...</a><p>It&#x27;s because of people like him that we know about this at all.<p>He put his life on the line for us. Only he was imprisoned. The torturers [1,2] are still free.<p>Until there are consequences to torture it will continue to happen, and Kiriakou&#x27;s sacrifice will be in vain.<p>Think about what the pizza delivery man has done for you, and compare that to what Kiriakou did for us all.<p>Consider sending him a monetary thank you for his service to you, to our country, and to humanity. I did.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ibtimes.com&#x2F;who-cia-torture-report-george-tenet-hassan-ghul-6-other-names-know-senates-1745209" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ibtimes.com&#x2F;who-cia-torture-report-george-tenet-h...</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.publicintegrity.org&#x2F;2014&#x2F;12&#x2F;12&#x2F;15221&#x2F;whos-responsible-cias-torture-policy" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.publicintegrity.org&#x2F;2014&#x2F;12&#x2F;12&#x2F;15221&#x2F;whos-respons...</a>
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fredgrottalmost 10 years ago
Now for a little more background..you may not like to hear this...<p>The reason for all this is the NSA and CIA and DCI, etc can only brute force break 5% of the Elliptical keys used to encrypt messages.<p>No I will not explain the math behind this as it is very long and long-winded, suffice it to say that instead of the RSA style prime key being the one-way function some characteristics of the curve also become the the one-way function which is why its harder to brute force Elliptical keys than RSA keys..<p>That being said when dealing with real hard bad guys and gals its often the ugly parts of military that are used to meet the treat.<p>This &#x27;torture&#x27; processes were approved under Reagan, including using black sites some what 40 years ago just after a brief rise in terrorism in the 1970s.