Psychologists tell Holder to reject report and hold torture lawyers accountable or be complicit

  A group of responsible professionals in the mental health field has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder stating, in no uncertain terms, that they expect him to hold full investigations on torture lawyers, psychologists, and others involved in the United States torture program, and to ask Congress to subpoena every individual who refused to cooperate with the original investigation. The group stated to Holder that if he refuses to do so, they will consider him complicit in the crime of torture, a felony under U.S. law.

Psychologists for an Ethical APA, Psychologists for Social Responsibility Psychology and Human Rights Program plus 52 doctors, human rights defenders and mental health professionals were signatories on the letter (below) to Holder. They also also want him to ensure a separate investigation of psycholgists involved with torture legal defenses.

These psychologists are so dedicated to their profession and their oath to "First, do no harm," they have refused to pay dues to the APA until they are certain that the related human rights issues within the profession have been restored.

Holder holding lifesaver

For the past four and a half years, members of Psychologists for an Ethical APA have been gathering information and advocating for the end to unethical and illegal actions of psychologists involved in military "coercive" interrogations.

Members of Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR) have also remained vigilant against torture, through researching, writing and public actions. PsySR members regularly participate in anti-torture campaigns, such as the present one that Media Matters launched to tell the Washington Post to stop promoting torture.

Psycholgists for an Ethical APA recently stated that it is time to launch full investigations of health professionals thought to be complicit in U.S. torture:

In their Feb. 28 New York Times Op-Ed "Doctors Without Morals," Leonard Rubenstein and Stephen Xenakis suggest that the release of the DOJ's long-awaited "OPR Report" offers a suitable occasion for launching investigations of health professionals thought to be complicit in U.S. torture."

Nothing is more important than "full investigations" to the 60,000 individuals that have been through the U.S. sponsored kidnap, detain, torture and monitor "system," including those on the U.S.'s 32 'ghost ships,' according to Reprieve's Director, Clive Stafford-Smith.

Nothing is more important than "full investigations" to the untold number of individuals being tortured daily in prisons on U.S. soil and to tens of thousands of targeted individuals in communities throughout the world who claim to be tortured within the military "counterintelligence"/"counter-terrorism" system that uses uses sophisticated as new surveillance technology and lethal electronic warfare weaponry.

Full investigations would reveal the myth that the U.S. torture program is good for national security.  U.S. Air Force reservist Col. Bradley highlighted almost a year ago that "torture has nothing to do with national security." (Read: "More than 'embarrassing scandal" Torture a war crime requiring accountability," Examiner, June 23, 2009) The fear-torture-security formula was sold to and bought by the unwitting American public to justify torture. 

Full investigations would, of course, reveal the rest of the proverbial monumental iceberg, colliding with and  crushing American values and its rule of law. Thus far, "only a tip" of that iceberg has been exposed, much less debated, according to insiders such as Col. Bradley.

How widespread is American torture? The one that sank the Titanic was approximated at 50 to 100 feet high and 200 to 400 feet long according to newspaper reports at the time. The issue of today's U.S. so-called military "enhanced interrogation" torture program is at least that size.

If "full" investigations are held, excluding prisoners, over 600 survivors in the United States want to testify about their torture experiences that are similar to the military-CIA's "interrogation" (torture) of overseas detainees, with psychologists' and pscyhiatrists' complicity. Some of these survivors have burns and other scars from injuries.

Add the tortured people in America's lock-down prisons where the "interrogation" treatment, (torture) is rampant according to ACLU.  (Read Dupré, "ACLU to U.N. Human Rights Officials: Stop Teen’s Torture in Montana Prison Examiner, February 23, 2010)

Add the aspect of non-consensual human experimentation being conducted on the tortured victims in each of the above-named groups, the same type of torture and monitoring doctors and scientists did in Nazi concentration camps.

"Full" investigations' findings would undoubtedly shock the nation more than it was upon learning that the FBI's "counterintelligence" agents were torturing and assassinating Americans on U.S. soil, as the Church investigation exposed in the 1970's. Hopefully, unlike results of the Church Committee work, investigations today would result in accountability and legislation.

Brutality that the U.S. government exercises in its "war on terror" is condemned not only by the responsible psycologists. It is also condemned by the court of international public opinion and by international law that governs human rights.

The good psychologists pressuring Holder to facilitate such full and separate investigations leave him with one of the most important decisions to make in U.S. history. He can agree to act with integrity and facilitate genuine torture investigations, knowing that would mean confronting one of the most powerful elements in the world - the CIA, and looking into the complicity of the Health Department and 17 "security" agencies, plus private contractors. Alternatively, he can refuse, thereby proving his own complicity in the ongoing war crime of torture.

Any act complicit in torture is a felony under U.S. law.

Either Holder agrees to conduct full investigations of the U.S. torture program, or, like the Titanic, the nation is sure to sink.

Psychologists of integrity letter to Holder

The following is today's letter to Holder from "PsySR Psychology and Human rights Program sign on, Stephen Soldz, Director, Center for Research, Evaluation and Program Development."

Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Attorney General Holder,

We are psychologists who are working together to ensure that members of our profession never again engage in torture. We are disturbed by the conclusions of the report recently released by the Office of Professional Responsibility regarding the authors of the torture memoranda and by the report’s failure to hold the authors of U.S.’ torture policy accountable. We fear the consequences this failure will have for our profession and our country. One does not need to be a lawyer to see that the authors of the torture memos, Yoo, Bybee, Rizzo, Bradbury and unknown others, were neither providing policy makers with objective advice nor offering interrogators guidance. Rather, these lawyers were attempting to legitimize the practice of torture. We are appalled that the enabling of a crime so serious that it shares status with slavery and genocide as a Jus Cogens norm, is being treated as an error in judgment.

While all Americans have reason to fear this lack of accountability -- since any future administration can similarly redefine torture when it feels the need to do so -- our profession has more to fear than most. These lawyers redefined torture so that nearly any act could have been justified if a psychologist designed the interrogation technique, approved its use, supervised the act, or was on the site where the act took place. According to the torture memos, the use of psychologists as previously described exonerated the perpetrators of torture. Similarly, if a psychologist assured authorities that a technique did not (or would not) have a negative impact upon the mental health of the victim that was taken as proof that the act was not torture. Such actions are in direct contradiction to the purpose of our profession.

The record clearly shows that psychologists enabled waterboarding as well as combinations of stripping, sleep deprivation, chaining and diapering and that Bradbury continued to rely upon psychologists in his defense of these acts; Yoo and Bybee were not the only ones who facilitated torture. This report cannot stand.

We call on you to take the following actions:

1. Reject the conclusion of this report and file a finding of misconduct with Yoo’s, Bybee’s, Rizzo’s and Bradbury’s local bar associations.
2. Launch a new investigation into the authoring of the torture memos. This investigation should seek input from psychologists who are qualified to evaluate the mental health of detainees treated by CIA staff psychologists and CIA contractors.
3. Ask Congress to subpoena every individual who refused to cooperate with the original investigation
4. Name a special prosecutor to examine the actions of every lawyer who contributed to the U.S.’ defense of torture.
5. Launch a separate investigation into the actions of psychologists to examine what role they played in crafting these legal defenses.

If you simply accept this report and take no further action, you will be letting torture facilitators off with a reprimand and will step into line with so many others who wrung their hands, gritted their teeth, and have then been complicit in our government's use of torture. You have the power to step out of this line and the power to ensure that this never happens again. If you do not use your power to ensure that crimes such as torture never recur – what is the point of holding such a significant position?

Sincerely,

Psychologists for an Ethical APA
Psychologists for Social Responsibility Psychology and Human Rights Program
Dan Aalbers
Ruth Fallenbaum
Brad Olson
Trudy Bond
Jeffrey Kaye
Ellen G. Levine
Alice Shaw
Tamerra P. Moeller
Laura Doty
Art Eccleston
Mary Pelton-Cooper
Nancy C. Arvold
John Neafsey
Elaine M. Heiby
John M. Stewart
Sharon Gadberry
Jean Maria Arrigo
Ghislaine Boulanger
Brenda LeFrancois
Mary Wollitz-Dooley
J. Lamar Freed
Gunnar Örn Ingólfsson
Andrew Phelps
Michael R. Jackson
Frank Summers
Stephen Soldz
Susan Reese
Kristi Schermerhorn
Frank Kashner
Roy Eidelson
Robert Keisner
M. Brinton Lykes
Mark S. Kane
Brigitte Ladisch
Jacqueline A Schwarz
Jay B. Pozner
Richard V. Wagner
Bernice Lott
David Moshman
Shelley Mackaman
Michael O'Loughliln
Maureen Sinnott
Martha Davis
Jancis Long
Deborah Dupré
Carol Blum
Deborah Freed
Micki Levin
Thomas Teo
Armond Aserinsky
Diane Ehrensaft
Ryan Hunt

Deborah Dupré holds a B.S, M.S. and post-graduate diploma from U.S. and Australian universities, She has been a human and civil rights advocate for over 25 years in the U.S., Vanuatu and Australia. Support her work and book in progress about targeted individuals at www.DeborahDupre.com; by subscribing to Dupré's reports; and by posting the link to this site (rather than entire article) unless republishing permission is granted. (Email info@DeborahDupre.com.) Dupré's recent book,  Operation H1N1: Vaccine Liberty or Death, is available at DeborahDupre.com.