Recognizing that the world has been shocked by the specter of abusive interrogations and the torture of national security prisoners by agents of the United States government since 9\/11, over a dozen human rights groups and hundreds of advocates \u2013 health professionals, social scientists, social justice and human rights scholars and activists, and concerned military and intelligence professionals \u2013 have initiated a call for the annulment of the American Psychological Association\u2019s (APA\u2019s) 2005 \u201cPENS Report.\u201d<\/p>\n
This Report by the APA\u2019s Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS) is of critical importance because it is the defining document endorsing psychologists\u2019 engagement in national security detainee interrogations. Despite evidence that psychologists were involved in abusive interrogations, the PENS Task Force nevertheless concluded that psychologists play a critical role in keeping interrogations \u201csafe, legal, ethical and effective.\u201d With this stance, the APA \u2013 the largest association of psychologists worldwide \u2013became the sole major professional healthcare organization to support practices contrary to the international human rights standards that ought to be the benchmark against which professional codes of ethics are judged.<\/p>\n
This annulment call reflects the reality that the PENS Report remains an influential and authoritative guiding operational document today within psychology and the national security establishment. The Department of Defense (DoD) continues to disseminate the PENS Report in its instructions to psychologists involved in intelligence operations. The Report also has been adopted, at least informally, as the foundational ethics document for \u201coperational psychology\u201d as an area of specialization involving psychologists in counterintelligence and counterterrorism operations. And the PENS Report is repeatedly cited as a resource for ethical decision-making in the APA Ethics Committee\u2019s new National Security Commentary, a \u201ccasebook\u201d for which the APA is currently soliciting feedback.<\/p>\n
The PENS Report was the <\/em>result of institutional processes that were illegitimate and inconsistent with APA\u2019s own standards. Merely updating or correcting deficiencies in the <\/em>Report therefore would be an inadequate response in light of the inherent bias in the Task Force membership (e.g., six of the nine voting members were on the payroll of the U.S. military and\/or intelligence agencies); significant conflicts of interest (e.g., unacknowledged participants included high-level APA staff involved in lobbying military\/intelligence agencies for psychology funding); irregularities in the report approval process (e.g., the Board\u2019s preemption of standard review mechanisms); and unwarranted secrecy associated with the Report (e.g., unusual prohibitions on Task Force members\u2019 freedom to discuss the Report).<\/p>\n Individuals interested in reading the annulment statement and signing the petition can do so at www.ethicalpsychology.org\/pens<\/a><\/strong>, where more information about the call for annulment, including a list of organizational and individual signers to date, is also available. <\/strong><\/p>\n Contact: Roy Eidelson (coalition@ethicalpsychology.org<\/a>).<\/strong><\/p>\n ___________________<\/strong><\/p>\n Roy J. Eidelson, Ph.D.:<\/em><\/p>\n Member, TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.<\/em><\/p>\n Past President, Psychologists for Social Responsibility www.psysr.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Member, Coalition for an Ethical Psychology www.ethicalpsychology.org<\/a>.
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