{"id":51234,"date":"2014-12-15T12:37:23","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T12:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=51234"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:27:10","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:27:10","slug":"dear-dr-kaslow-i-too-am-outraged-saddened-and-pained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/12\/dear-dr-kaslow-i-too-am-outraged-saddened-and-pained\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Dr. Kaslow: I Too Am \u201cOutraged, Saddened and Pained\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times does not accept letters-to-the-editor about other letters-to-the-editor. But this is one I would have submitted if I could.<\/em><\/p>\n

To the Editor:<\/p>\n

In a recent\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0American Psychological Association (APA) President Nadine Kaslow responded to the release of the executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture. Dr. Kaslow wrote that she was \u201coutraged, saddened and pained that two psychologists allegedly devised and engaged in brutal interrogation methods.\u201d I share these emotions, but for me they are not solely a response to the abhorrent actions of James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen.<\/p>\n

I am also\u00a0outraged<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0that in 2004, while torture was taking place at CIA black sites, APA Ethics Office Director Stephen Behnke\u00a0arranged<\/a>\u00a0a private meeting with senior CIA and Pentagon officials to\u00a0\u201csort out appropriate from inappropriate uses of psychology.\u201d\u00a0Dr. Behnke assured the invitees that\u00a0APA\u00a0\u201cwill not advertise the meeting other than this letter to the individual invitees, that we will not publish or otherwise make public the names of attendees or the substance of our discussions, and that in the meeting we will neither assess nor investigate the behavior of any specific individual or group.\u201d\u00a0One of the attendees was CIA behavioral science chief Kirk Hubbard, who has been a fierce\u00a0defender<\/a>\u00a0of the agency\u2019s \u201cenhanced interrogation\u201d program. Dr. Hubbard\u00a0first\u00a0introduced<\/a>\u00a0Drs. Mitchell and Jessen to the CIA as \u201cpotential assets\u201d and,\u00a0after later leaving the CIA, he went to\u00a0work<\/a>\u00a0for Mitchell Jessen & Associates.<\/p>\n

And I am also\u00a0saddened<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0that in 2005, months\u00a0after<\/em>\u00a0reliable reports of torture and abuse by psychologists at Guantanamo Bay had surfaced in the national\u00a0press<\/a>, Dr. Behnke and other APA leaders created the PENS task force and filled it predominantly with\u00a0representatives<\/a>\u00a0of the national security establishment (several of whom worked in chains of command where alleged abuses had taken place).\u00a0According to an email from Geoff Mumford, APA\u2019s Director of Science Policy, these individuals were\u00a0\u201cvery carefully selected\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with CIA interests in mind.\u00a0In short order, this APA task force\u00a0concluded<\/a>\u00a0that it was ethical for psychologists to be involved in detainee interrogations and related roles, and that these psychologists served to keep these operations safe, legal, ethical, and effective. The APA thereby\u00a0became the sole major 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

And I am also\u00a0pained<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>that in 2013, more than six years after an APA member filed an\u00a0ethics complaint<\/a>\u00a0against Guantanamo psychologist John Leso, the APA Ethics Office\u00a0decided<\/a>\u00a0there was \u201cno cause for action\u201d and did not bring the case to the full ethics committee for investigation, review, and resolution. This decision was made despite compelling evidence that Dr. Leso had co-authored a detailed\u00a0memo<\/a>\u00a0proposing sleep deprivation (described as \u201cespecially effective\u201d) and other brutal detention and interrogation techniques.\u00a0Furthermore, according to a\u00a0leaked log<\/a>, Dr. Leso was present for and participated in some of the interrogation sessions of detainee Mohammed al Qahtani. Mr. al Qahtani was\u00a0subjected<\/a>\u00a0to almost daily 20-hour interrogations; was held in isolation without contact with other detainees; was forcibly injected with excessive fluids until his limbs swelled; was frequently hooded; was stripped and forced to stand naked with female interrogators present; was forced to wear a woman\u2019s bra and had a thong placed on his head; and was led around by a leash and forced to perform dog tricks.\u00a0The\u00a0Bush administration-appointed\u00a0<\/strong>convening authority on military commissions at Guantanamo\u00a0refused<\/a>\u00a0to refer the case of Mr. al Qahtani to trial because she concluded his interrogation met the legal definition of torture.<\/p>\n

These are only three examples. There are\u00a0more<\/a>. Yet Dr. Kaslow\u2019s letter offers no hint of doubt, concern, or regret in regard to any actions or inaction on the part of the APA and its leadership. That said, I do find myself in full agreement with her on one key point. As she wrote, \u201cThere is no place in the field of psychology for people who are not respectful of human dignity and committed to human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

________________________________<\/p>\n

Roy Eidelson is a member of the TRANSCEND Network and was a member of the American Psychological Association for over 25 years, prior to his resignation. He is a clinical psychologist and the president of Eidelson Consulting<\/a>, where he studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility<\/a>, associate director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College, and a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/a>. Roy can be reached at reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times does not accept letters-to-the-editor about other letters-to-the-editor. But this is one I would have submitted if I could. Dr. Kaslow\u2019s letter offers no hint of doubt, concern, or regret in regard to any actions or inaction on the part of the American Psychological Association and its leadership. I am also outraged that in 2004, while torture was taking place at CIA black sites, APA Ethics Office Director Stephen Behnke arranged a private meeting with senior CIA and Pentagon officials to \u201csort out appropriate from inappropriate uses of psychology.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}